Eyes in the skies

On a crisp, cloudy day a few weeks ago, Jerry Smith and his wife, Caroline Ballard, showed off a couple of their newest drones, identical white Inspire 1 models that resemble robotic hummingbirds zipping to and fro over the frozen Oxbow Park in Morrisville.

Four swift-spinning propellers keep the aircraft afloat and, eerily, all corner rotors keep the others at the same level. “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” describes a fleet of alien ships hanging in the air “in exactly the same way that bricks don’t.” It applies here.

“It’s more a camera that happens to be flying than a drone that happens to have a camera on it,” Smith said. “You basically want a tripod in the sky.”

These particular models the Smiths have named Spectre and Golden Eye, after a pair of James Bond films. They had a third they named Skyfall, which proved to be an unfortunate moniker.

Smith and Ballard operate Over and Above Photography out of Morristown. He usually pilots the drones and she controls the camera; she has eyes in the sky, looking through the camera via a screen attached to the controller. Other pilots use special goggles that give them a distraction-free view that lets them keep their eyes off the control sticks and in the air.

The couple and their unmanned craft were braving the subzero temperatures last weekend at the Lake Elmore Polar Splash, and their drones have buzzed over events such as the Stowe Derby, the Stowe Annual Antique Car Show, Independence Day parades and the annual cancer walk in Morristown.

Others are flying drones, too. Mike Hitelman, a Stowe freelance photographer whose shots frequent Stowe Mountain Resort’s marketing materials and ski magazines, uses them to complement his feet-on-the-ground action photography.

Steve Mermelstein of Vermont Drone flies drones for sport as well as taking pictures. With his feet planted securely on the ground, his eyes are seeing the world through the drone’s point of view, and his hands are moving it through the air.

“It’s a ton of fun. It’s like you’re flying like Superman, like an eagle,” he said.

High-flying high-tech

Drone photography is big in the real estate field because the aerial view of a house adds glamour for a prospective seller, even if it’s an angle no buyer is going to see.

Farmers, foresters and surveyors find the technology handy for capturing property lines, identifying good land for pasture, and inventorying a plot of woods.

Drones can be used for journalistic purposes, too. Hitelman took video of the damage wrought on the slopes of Mount Mansfield during a 2014 microburst (video on mikehitelman.com).

Most hobbyist drone operators attach relatively simple GoPro digital cameras to their drones, but, as with most things tech, the quality of cameras has advanced rapidly. They are limited to wide-angle lenses, but the early days of everything being captured with a fish-eye look are in the past. Mermelstein has been able to capture images of Stowe with as much clarity and composition as anything on tripod. It helps that there’s a lot of scenery around here.

“You can’t go anywhere in Stowe and find anything ugly; it’s just so beautiful,” he said.

How strict to be?

The federal government is aware of the increased popularity of drone-flying, and not just as a means for U.S. surveillance and modern warfare. In December, the Federal Aviation Administration began requiring all new drone users to register their unmanned aerial vehicles, and starting this week, Feb. 19, all current drones need to be registered with the FAA.

Smith and Mermelstein generally favor the registration requirements, although Mermelstein reports some concern about how the FAA plans to use the information it collects on drones and their pilots.

He’s part of the Northern New England Drone Users Group, which gets together every month over beers and describes itself as “an association of community organizations that promote the use of civilian drone technology for the benefit of humanity.” He says the FAA is “finally coming to its senses and having some common-sense rules with some teeth in them.”

Mermelstein and Smith thought earlier FAA rules proposals were onerous and not rooted in reality. For instance, a segment of the population equates drones with spying and paparazzi. That may be true with U.S. military drones, which “are the size of buses,” Mermelstein said. Hobbyist drones are still limited to a couple of hundred feet of elevation, wide-angle lenses, and short battery life.

Smith is happy the government is tightening regulations, and thinks a course should be available for drone newbies.

“They wanted to be able to figure out who’s doing what,” Smith said. “Accountability is fine with me.”

Pilots or not?

Drones have plenty of built-in features that help ensure a safe flight out and back again. Hitelman’s drone can lay down a GPS track as it flies out, like a virtual contrail, and can follow that track back if the camera goes on the fritz.

The Inspire model that Smith zips around the Oxbow field has a safety mechanism that makes it come back to the pilot if the battery gets low.

Mermelstein said the FAA’s biggest worry is drones sharing airspace with manned aircraft. Drones have a “geo-fence” built in, limiting their flight elevation to 400 feet above the controller, and airplanes are supposed to be no lower than 500 feet, although helicopters sometimes will drop below that.

Smith said the FAA had earlier warned hobbyist and amateur drone operators that they might have to get a pilot’s license if they planned to use their drones for commercial use, including taking photos that could be sold.

“We have no interest in going up in the air. We’d much rather keep our feet on the ground,” Smith said. “Flying a Cessna has nothing to do with flying a drone.”

The new NASCAR?

Photographers might see drones as an extension of their cameras, but some people just want to fly the things as fast as they can. And drone racing is a sport that is literally taking off all over the country.

Drone racers navigate their zippy robots through a course that tests the pilots’ reflexes and the sturdiness of their crafts. Mermelstein and others in the drone users group participated in a local race a couple of months ago at the Champlain Mini Maker Faire, an event that brings together tech and rec.

Another go-round is scheduled for the next maker faire in September.

Drone racing is just like any other hobby; the sky is the limit on how much you can invest in the sport. To get started, Mermelstein suggested getting a simple drone for under $100 to see if you like it.

He sees a bright future in drone racing, and he’s not alone. The upstart Drone Racing League created buzz with its first race last year in an old factory in New York City. A second race is this weekend at Sunlife Stadium in Florida, home of the Miami Dolphins. Later this year, the league will take over an abandoned mall in Los Angeles.

Said Mermelstein, “This has the potential to pass NASCAR as the next big thing.”