[Goldwingnut]

After spending a day, or at least most of a night, recording the movement of the Water Lily bridge over the Turnpike, the video feed has been compiled and I've put together a high speed version that takes about 10 minutes instead of 2 to 4 hours to watch.

Water Lily Bridge move in 10 minutes or less - YouTube

[Freehiker]

Another awesome video; thanks Goldwing!

[MSchad]

Thanks Don, excellent as always. Glad you added the shots of the bridge the next day in daylight.

[ureout]

great job...thx.

[Lottoguy]

Great job on the video. Editing for YT videos takes time and you do it well.

[Ecuadog]

Thanks, Don. Great stuff, as always.

[villagetinker]

Wow, great video, thanks!

[EdFNJ]

Great video but the best part was missing. It was watching them run to a 24hr Home Depot to buy sheets of plywood to jack up the trucks hauling the 800,000 lbs of bridge an extra 6". Ooooops, someone there is going to get spanked in bridgeland.

[woolman44]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ

Great video but the best part was missing. It was watching them run to a 24hr Home Depot to buy sheets of plywood to jack up the trucks hauling the 800,000 lbs of bridge an extra 6". Ooooops, someone there is going to get spanked in bridgeland.

The simpler fix was to use thicker I-beams under bridge for the extra height needed for trolly lifter......but of course you would have needed to measure first. Measure twice, cut once?
Let’s not assume the road crown was not considered!

[manaboutown]

Thanks again for all your time and effort, Goldwingnut. It is an excellent video.

[Nucky]

The skill that it takes to fly a drone that far and that steadily is remarkable. I tried flying one that could land in your hand and kept failing.

Thank You Don for the countless hours you spend for us with your drones and for the accurate information you provide to us about the inner workings of The Villages.

[davem4616]

thanks for the 'Cliff Notes' version...very interesting to watch

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Nucky

The skill that it takes to fly a drone that far and that steadily is remarkable. I tried flying one that could land in your hand and kept failing.

Thank You Don for the countless hours you spend for us with your drones and for the accurate information you provide to us about the inner workings of The Villages.

Thanks, I'm pretty good at flying the drone but I'm a much better programmer than pilot. The $50 drones many people buy are actually much more difficult to fly that the more expensive ones like I and the other members of the Drone Flyers Club fly. They lack a lost of the advanced features that ours include, like GPS, GLONASS (Russian GPS system), smart batteries, and lots more.

The flights in this video were all programmed and automated to takeoff and get to the final filming location. Once on station at 225 ft the aircraft altitude was manually lowered to 200 ft to make room for its replacement. Once the feed was switched to the new drone even the flight home and landing was full automated. The GPS systems and the advanced gimbal assemblies on these aircraft do all the work to make me look good. As I said, I'm a better programmer than pilot.

If you can become comfortable flying the little inexpensive drones, then doing what I do is very easy with the more advanced drones.

[Laker14]

Nicely done video. Thanks for putting it together. Pretty cool job on the bridge as well.

[chrisinva]

Great video & the accompanying music was perfect for the event.