Today the delivery is scheduled for the newest drone to the BCC lineup, a DJI Mavic Mini.  At least, I really hope that it comes today as I already have a mission planned for tomorrow.  The main goal of this new drone is to have a small but versatile piece of equipment that can not only be used for STEM demonstrations for students, but also accomplish some real tasks.  I think that this new drone will fill that gap for many, especially considering how affordable it is.  In fact, it has pretty much all the same abilities and features of the Phantom 3 Standard that BCC already has, just updated in a smaller and easier to manage form.  

I wasn’t originally planning on flying tomorrow, however a student suggested it when we were working on another project I am leading that is tasked with making a Green Team commercial/orientation video.  One of the shots on the shot list is to capture presentable video of the vegetative green roofs on Hoffman or Melville.  The student asked, “why don’t you just use a drone to get that shot?” and he is right.  The weather tomorrow looks good for flying, I need to test this thing anyway, and it is the best way to get this shot.  Having surveyed the area I noticed that because of the time of year it isn’t as “green” as I would like, although I cannot deny a good opportunity to accomplish a few things all at the same time.  I also haven’t flown a mission in about a month and it’s always good to prevent your skills from getting rusty.  Drone piloting is one of those skills I’ve found that you really need to “use it or loose it.”

And now it’s taken me so long to write this that I have the Mavic Mini in hand.  Time to get to work.