Wednesday morning greetings to one and all!
The big news that I’m sharing today is that a week ago Monday I passed my FAA Part 107 test to become a certified drone pilot! For a person that would like to fly a drone commercially, you have to pass this test in order to be certified by the FAA, so it’s a big deal to be legal when you are flying for commercial work. For a hobbyist that would like to have a small drone and fly around in the park, you don’t need this certification, but you do have to follow some rules that the FAA has put forth. To fly legally for commercial purposes, you’ve got to study and pass the test. Mind you it’s been about 40 years since I’ve had to study for a test, so my brain wasn’t wired for all the things that you have to know to pass the test. I probably spent about 12 hours watching some videos and also going over study guides with information from reading weather reports to knowing how to read aeronautical sectional charts for the US. I took the test over in Bloomington, Il. and it took about an hour and half to complete. The good thing is that they give you the results right away and I passed with an 83% score and needless to say I was super happy about that! The certification is good for two years, so I’ll have to take it again down the road but at least I know what to study and how the testing process goes!
We’ve hit the time of the year in the Midwest when the weather is really nice and you’ve got to get out and enjoy it before winter hits! Having the cooler temperatures and lower humidities is so wonderful and it’s great to get out and drive around in farm country. Jan and I took a little trip up to Bishop Hill, Illinois and took a few photos along the way! The fun thing that we did on this day trip was to not use any of our camera gear and just use our iPhones. These phones have gotten so good that you can take some really good photos with your phone. For us it’s fun to see what you can create with just a camera phone!
Here’s a couple of our snaps from an afternoon spent at Bishop Hill.
Thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work and we hope that you’re going to have a great week to come!
Kev and Jan
Click on the the images to see a larger version
