Home is where you live

Posted on by Tim Olohan

Several years ago while at work one day, I looked up and noticed this beautiful lady looking at me. I’d worked with her for years, but all of a sudden I saw her in a completely new light. We’d just installed LED’s and got rid of the fluorescents, but that’s neither here nor there. We fell in love and got married. Life was grand then and still is to this day.

As a bonus to having my love returned to me with interest, I also got to know and love her 4 beautiful youngsters. And her siblings and parents. Wonderful people, all of them, not a single dud in the bunch. I sold my condo in Langley, BC and moved in with her and (on and off and on and off) one or two or three young adults. Not having children of my own, I’ll admit that there was a learning curve. Being childless allowed me to be somewhat ( or extremely ) self-indulgent. We rolled up our collective sleeves and did the hard work. Me on unclenching and trying to remember being a youngster myself and them in graciously giving trust to this old weirdo that woo’d their precious Mother.

Please flash forward a few years and find me living my best life with my 5 best friends, in Provinceton, a lovely little neighbourhood in North Cloverdale, Surrey, BC. The house is 4 walls and (now) 2 residents, the home is 6 loving souls. This is my community.

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A Trip To The Beach

Posted on by Tim Olohan

In an effort to keep Dear Reader updated in my current events, I’ve failed. Which is to say that I’m still behind. However, I am putting in the effort and hope to be current soon.

Todays post finds me at White Rock beach. A lovely area that I used to call home many years ago. There’s something about the beach and the ocean. It calms, it soothes, and it draws all sorts. I’ll definitely be back soon.

Hey ! thanks for stopping in and indulging my ego. If you care to subscribe, please feel free. I won’t bombard you with ads or ask you for money. Peace.

Flying at the Ferry

Posted on by Tim Olohan

Dear reader,

The fault is mine. It was nothing that you did, I promise. I’ve just been caught up in my own little world, so please allow me to extend my most sincere apologies for my most recent absence.

What have I been doing that’s been so important ? Working mostly, but of note I spent a lovely two week vaca with my Beloved in the Caribbean. Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered where we went. Aruba or Agassiz, I got to spend 336 hours alone with my favourite ever person. Back at home, I’ve been flying quite a bit. At work for the most part, as we have some major construction projects on the go and I’ve been logging the progress for head office in Toronto. It’s utility flying, but I’m getting hours on the sticks and working on my editing. Nobody in Toronto cares. I’ll show them some day.

As Spring springs, I find myself at the Tsawwassen Ferry terminal in Delta, BC. While flying from the terminal itself is a no-no, the causeway is public. In the air is my DJI Mini 3 Pro. I’ve started shooting in 4K then exporting the final movie in 1080. I notice a definite difference in the output quality. You, may or may not, the choice is yours. File sizes are significantly larger and taxes both my tired old MacBook processor and storage. Perhaps I’ll make a dollar with this drone thing someday and buy myself a workstation and software. Until then….

Hey ! thanks for stopping in and indulging my ego. If you care to subscribe, please feel free. I won’t bombard you with ads or ask you for money. Peace.

…and yet here we are…

Posted on by Tim Olohan

Well, dear reader, it’s March in beautiful British Columbia. By this time of year we’re all fed up with flat grey skies, chilling winds, and that bloody rain !! And somehow, just as we get to think that we just can’t deal anymore, we often get a weeks reprieve from the gloom. The sun comes out, the ground dries up, and we can finally take a look around to discover a few buds on the local flora. I feel like I can relate to the caterpillar waiting to burst forth from the safety of its cocoon into this huge new world. Life lays all opportunity at our feet.

Look, even though Spring is officially just a few days away, Winter isn’t done with us yet. History tells us that we have at least a couple on months of rain to come yet. We know this, but for a couple of more days, let’s just pretend that this t-shirt weather is here to stay. Deal ? Alrighty then.

Hey ! thanks for stopping in and indulging my ego. If you care to subscribe, please feel free. I won’t bombard you with ads or ask you for money. Peace.

Good things come… yadda yadda yadda

Posted on by Tim Olohan

An update

So, my brand new (broken) Mini 3 Pro got dropped off to UPS on Saturday to be returned for a replacement. I logged into the DJI repair portal yesterday (Wednesday) hoping to find that the replacement had been sent from Mississauga and was enroute back to me. No….. that’s not what I found. DJI hasn’t even received it yet.

I started to panic that it had gone missing on me so I logged onto UPS to find that the label that DJI so conveniently had me print off, had my precious cargo being shipped on the back of a three legged turtle and they wouldn’t even get the package until 9 days after I shipped it.

Now, I’m not going to lose my mind over it. A paying job has come up that I’d love to do right away, but it’ll have to wait. I AM going to state my disappointment so far. I was excited to get my new drone, the weather didn’t cooperate, I couldn’t fly for a few days, that was disappointing. Then the screw up, also disappointing, but these things happen from time to time. However, if I was DJI and a customer had an issue literally right out of the box, never even had the motors come up to full speed, I’d be sending the replacement as soon as I had confirmation that the original was in shipping back to the factory. Like, overnight. I know there a lot of people who would take advantage or outright scam a company. I get it. But as I sit here thinking that it’s going to take 3 weeks for a replacement to come, the disappointment is starting to taste a bit bitter. I even put out extra for DJI Care, insurance in case of a crash. I thought that would buy me an “express pass”. Nope.

I’ll just wait. Right over here.

Hey ! thanks for stopping in and indulging my ego. If you care to subscribe, please feel free. I won’t bombard you with ads or ask you for money. Peace.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait…..

Posted on by Tim Olohan

Saturday was a sad day for me. I had to put TWO brand new drones back into the mail. One back to Amazon, one to DJI. I’d been watching for a sale on A Mini 3 Pro. The sale showed up on Amazon, so I coiled myself up like a spring and launched into action. Halfway to my shopping cart, I remembered that a buddy got a great deal on an “open box” drone so clicked over and found the Mini 3 with the Fly More package (extra props and batteries) for nearly half off ! I couldn’t “buy it now” fast enough !!😃 30 minutes later, wallowing in my buyer remorse, I though to myself “self, that deal was too good to be true” So, I logged back on and of course I’d purchased the wrong drone. I’d clicked on Mini 3, not Mini 3 Pro. KHAAAAAAAN !!! And, of course, after only half an hour, my purchase had already been pulled and was too late to cancel the order. So, in my panic, I did what any red blooded man would do, I ordered another drone 🙄 Prime had the 3 Pro at my doorstep the next day, the 3 would take a few days to make the trek.

Saturday finally rolls around, it’s a bright sunny day and I’m ready to fly ! I had a few domestic duties to attend to including putting the Mini 3 in the mail back to Amazon. I rushed home pulled the Pro out, ran my checklist, started the motors AND …… only 3 of them turn on. Guh !!!! Yep, motor seized. I logged on to DJI customer service, but there was nothing to be done. Alas, it went back into the mail. I went from two new drones to none in amazingly short order.

My work drone, Mavic Air 2, still travels with me and after a fresh snow fall, I was still able to get a fly in today. No telling when the replacement 3 Pro will come, but this will be DJI’s customer service test.

Boundary Bay on a cloudy day….

Posted on by Tim Olohan

Today was my first fly as an Advanced Pilot. Strangely, though it didn’t feel any different, it’s nice to have that extra certificate in the binder though. I’m fortunate in that I was able to sweet talk my boss into paying for my course. So now that I’ve passed, I get my tuition reimbursed and I’m pretty sure I remember my sweet, supportive, beautiful wife saying that I could spend DOUBLE my tuition on a new drone. Right ? Yeah, I’m sure of it…..

This Sunday morning finds me on the dike near the Delta Heritage Air Park. It was a bit of a trek east on the dike to get outside of the control zone, but I didn’t feel like a walk was going to hurt me. Probably. I stepped off of the bike path, got unpacked, set up the controller and removed the gimble guard. Butterfingers Tim dropped the guard into the weeds. As I reach down to grab it, I see a hornets nest the size of a football embedded in the rocks. Ever the coward, I quietly packed up and stepped back onto the path, out of a potentially deadly situation. Not that I’m allergic , I was worried that running down the dike waving my arms and screaming like a little girl would give me a heart attack !!

In the end, I launched, I flew, I landed (caught by hand for the first time).

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I need waaaaaaay more batteries !

Posted on by Tim Olohan

Most days, I’m up long before the sun is. Which is to say, I’m up every morning before the sun is. Most days I feel that it’s a curse. Sitting around literally for HOURS before I can go to work. This is NOT to say that I’m bright eyed and or bushy tailed. It’s coffee #3 that finally gets my rump in gear. On the weekends, not a lot different. I wait for my Love to awaken and send her sweet “Good Morning, My Love” text so I know that it’s safe to deliver her coffee bedside.

Of late, however, my weekend mornings find me out and about, coffee #3 in a travel cup, in search of safe and legal launch and recover areas. I’m getting to know the side streets and industrial areas pretty well, I must say. Saturday morning found me at the foot of the Port Mann Bridge in Coquitlam, BC. It was a stellar morning for flying. Here’s how 48 minutes of battery turns into 3:58 of video. And Babe, you’re still number 1 in my heart, and I won’t be tardy with coffee again. Most likely……..

Up Up and Away !

Posted on by Tim Olohan

I’ve started this page as a means not only to drive interest in my business ( upcoming ), but also to proclaim my love of flying. As a boy I tore through world war two paperbacks of the brave men and women defending the British coastline in Mosquitos, or advancing waves of Hurricanes and Spitfires clearing the path for the Lancaster bombers to find their mark. I built models too. Plastic Revell models, balsa wood and tissue paper rubber band fliers, up to large scale styrofoam Cessnas. I never thought that I had it in me to ever achieve a pilots licence, and only just barely passed my basic drone pilot certification, but I’ve held on to the dream. So here we are, dear reader, at the christening of my business, my hobby, my job. Even as i hunt and peck on this keyboard, I have no idea what’s coming next. Not the next post, not even the next line. But join me, if you will, and we’ll find out together.