Engineer Builds Drone From Scratch, Destroys It on First Day | Expedition Raw

2m read

·Nov 11, 2024

This was my first major expedition, so this is the dream, right? It's a bit hairy to actually get on. My main job is to get aerial shots for conservation research. This expedition happened in 2012, and even though it doesn't seem like that long ago, drone technology was a lot different than it is today. You couldn't just buy these really nice, flyable, off-the-shelf drones. I built this thing from scratch, and at one point, I was even pretty much just sleeping in the office to make sure that I could get this thing done.

"Uh, is there anything special that you want, Mike?" It's very, very windy. The seabirds, you can see, they're kind of just like hovering there in this immense amount of wind. So I decided, all right, I'm going to kind of do this cool banking turn. Maybe there'll be some seabirds in the frame— all artistic and everything. But the drone is turning as I'm making this maneuver, so it's turning, but then the wind catches it.

"Okay, I'm really trying not to let anybody know, but I'm really freaking out inside. What is happening with this drone?" I cut the engines and let it fall to the ground. "It'll be fine, it'll be fine," I'm telling myself. So I go to the tree line, and on the other side is this big rocky beach.

"Lasted how long? 30 seconds?" Pretty much the drone fell into the ocean and then got smashed to bits on the rocks. It's gone. Lesson learned. Like my boss says, just don't crash it.

"It's really windy, windy. Hi, I'm with Alex Honnold, and we are attempting to climb 45 of the most iconic towers in the desert."

The Black Swan Theory

Where in the World is Jessica Nabongo? | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic

View All

Laura Ling on Imprisonment in North Korea | Inside North Korea

In March of 2009, I was working on a documentary about North Korean defectors, people who are fleeing the very desperate conditions in North Korea. During that time, we were filming along the Tumen River. This is the river that separates China and North K…

Safari Live - Day 288 | National Geographic

Fricken Safari and may include animal kills and caucuses. Viewer discretion is advised. Look at the beautiful kudus! At the moment, they are all just trying to investigate what is happening in the surrounding. What a lovely afternoon! Most of all, welcome…

Writing arithmetic series in sigma notation

What I want to do in this video is get some practice writing Series in Sigma notation, and I have a series in front of us right over here. We have seven plus nine plus eleven, and we keep on adding all the way up to four hundred five. So first, let’s jus…

An Accidental Case of the Blues | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic

So this is my first time back getting office in March, April, May, June, July, August—six months. Six months—like a lot of other places in the U.S. in the summer of 2020, our office was closed to help slow the spread of coronavirus. But in August, my prod…

Porcelain in the Wreckage | Drain the Oceans

I grew up here in Portland. As a child, we all loved Indiana Jones. But it was actually really in high school when I was able to take an anthropology class, and it really piqued my interest. And then in community college, I started taking archeology class…

Has work ethic deteriorated in recent years?

Work ethic of people have really deteriorated significantly since COVID. These people who want to work from home four days a week, three days a week—you know, everybody’s complaining. Today, interest rates are going up, gas prices are so high, I can’t aff…

Engineer Builds Drone From Scratch, Destroys It on First Day | Expedition Raw

More Articles