Drone vs Osmo Pocket 3

Tool comparison

Peter: When you want low-level footage a small drone is unbeatable. You just float it where no hand-held camera could reach.
Fiona: But with the Osmo, I can get right up close to faces and details. No rotor wash blowing grass flat or scaring animals or bird strikes.
Peter: Low passes over water are a breeze. Zero wobble from walking or breathing.
Fiona: And when I want a “glide along the footpath” feeling, the Pocket’s gimbal gives me near-dolly smoothness, without worrying about GPS dropout or trees.
Peter: But the aerial perspective adds drama. Even one metre up makes a scene feel bigger.
Fiona: And one metre down creates intimacy. I can kneel down and tuck the camera into corners, a drone would crash.
Peter: OK, indoors drones struggle. Obstacle avoidance. Curtains.
Fiona: Indoors is where the Osmo shines. Stairwells, corridors, kitchens. Instant set-up, no permissions.
Peter: But outdoors, drones win on stability. The drone doesn’t notice if I’m tired. It stays steady.
Fiona: Outdoors I win on spontaneity. The Osmo is in my pocket. No boot-up delay, no compass calibration.
Peter: I envy how you can keep shooting in wind.
Fiona: And I envy how you can float above puddles without getting your shoes soaked.
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Voice-over
Maybe drones often do the impossible, Osmo handles the sensible. And if you want a  cats-eye view, use a floor level dolly. There are filmmakers who are using an Osmo on a stick to achieve drone-like footage. Ian Andersen gives a tutorial.

Zoom Flameout

Zoom screen vanishes…

Trevor: My Zoom link just collapsed mid-sentence.

Xen: Looks like your connection blinked out for a moment. Let’s get you reconnected.

Trevor: Can you tell what it was?

Xen: Hmm. Could be an overload, ISP fluctuation, WiFi interference, cache glitch…

Trevor: Thanks for the quick restart. I’m back online again.

Xen: Glad to hear it. My guess? System overload?

Trevor: Could be. Stuffed up the piping. Like that 747 way back flying through volcanic ash, all four engines sflaming out. 

Xen: Good analogy. Then one by one they restarted and the plane made it to Jakarta.

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Voice-over

In 1982 Flight BA 009, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, experienced volcanic ash ingestion causing temporary total engine failure. Following successful restarts once the aircraft exited the ash cloud, it landed safely in Jakarta.

Gulls and Drones

Tin Bird cockpit monologue: Motion detected. Two biological interceptors. Larus. Territorial aggression.
Gull 1: Here comes that tin bird again.
Gull 2: This is wrong. Invasion of our airspace.
Gull 1: Same again? Dive at it? 
Gull 2: Good to go.
Gull 1: Skraa! Charge! Dive!
Gull 2: Kree! Too fast, missed.
Gull 1: Ka! Wind shifted.
Gull 2: Ka-Ka! Tin Bird saw the wind shear coming.
Gull 1: Skram! This OUR territory. BUZZ OFF.
Gull 2: Yah! Feathers forever.

_________

Voice-over
Tin Bird memo: Larus fly aggressively and are not stupid. But they are emotional.

Flyaway Drone

Rueful…
Roderick: How’s the ATTI mode practice shaping up? Still flying without the satellite safety net?
Eddie: It was going reasonably well… until this morning. Two minutes after takeoff, one tidy practice circle, and then it headed straight out over the mudflats like it had somewhere to be. Crashed out there.
Roderick: Ouch. Did you manage to retrieve it?
Eddie: All the pieces, yes. Broken landing gear, snapped prop arm, and the battery contacts are full of silt.
Roderick: All right. One, compass or IMU disagreement. If the sensors can’t agree, the drone can fly in the wrong direction.
Eddie: I calibrated on Saturday, though not there.
Roderick: Second: GPS instability or mode confusion. Over mudflats you can get reflections, brief dropouts, and sudden transitions the control logic doesn’t handle well. Or radio interference. But there’s also sticky or drifting controller sticks. A bit of grit, wear, or moisture and the stick doesn’t quite centre.
Eddie: So my thumbs stopped, but the controller kept send a wrong signal?
Roderick: Precisely. ATTI doesn’t make flying more difficult. And it removes excuses.

_____________
Voice-over
There was more but Roderick ends by suggesting a thorough checklist before takeoff. 

1. Controller first — always

• Power on the controller before the aircraft.
• Move both sticks slowly through full travel; feel for grit, hesitation, or lazy centring.
• If a stick doesn’t snap back cleanly to neutral, stop. Clean it or swap controllers.

2. Calibrate with intent, not habit

• Compass and IMU only if needed — but do calibrate when changing locations or surfaces.
• Avoid metal tables, vehicles, and reinforced concrete. ATTI exposes sloppy calibration instantly.

3. Know the wind before you fly

• Watch grass, flags, smoke, or ripples — not the weather app.
• Pick a ground reference and imagine how fast the drone would drift in 10 seconds if you let go.

4. Choose the right airspace for ATTI

• Wide, empty, and boring beats scenic every time.
• Avoid water, mudflats, cliffs, and anything that creates optical or RF weirdness.

5. Confirm the mode — twice

• Visually verify ATTI mode on the display.
• Say it out loud if necessary. Pilots skip fewer steps when they sound faintly ridiculous.

6. Short hover test (10–15 seconds)

• Lift to chest height.
• Hands off the sticks briefly.
• Observe drift direction and speed before committing to manoeuvres.

7. Keep manoeuvres small at first

• Circles, figure-eights, and slides — all close and slow.
• ATTI rewards smooth inputs, not ambition.

8. Maintain a mental “abort box”

• Decide before takeoff where you’ll descend if things feel wrong.
• In ATTI, landing early is not failure — it’s judgment.

9. One variable at a time

• Don’t combine new modes, new locations, new wind, and new batteries in one flight.
• ATTI is a teacher; don’t shout over it.

10. End on a success

• Finish the session while everything still feels calm and predictable.
• Fatigue and confidence spike at the same time — that’s when mistakes happen.

Go-around

Cockpit communication
First Officer: Problem in the cabin. Flight attendant just collapsed. Tom is doing initial assessment: checking airway, respiration, and circulation.
Captain: Understood. Ask him how long until the cabin is secured for landing.
First Officer: Twenty minutes to address medical emergency and secure the cabin. Meal trays are still out but not yet collected.
Captain: Twenty minutes? We're only fifteen from touchdown. 
First Officer: Maybe declare a medical emergency with ATC. We won't have time to land safely with the cabin unsecured.
Captain: We'll initiate a go-around. This should give the crew the extra time needed to stabilize the situation and secure the cabin properly. Wheels up.
_______________
Voice-over
So we did go round again. The passengers had to wolf down their curries before trays were hastily collected. And on landing the flight attendant was taken off first.

Porky and Bess

Porky picks up a package from Bess, an old acquaintance…

Bess: To Narita, Terminal 1, South Wing, Baggage pick up.
Porky: A suitcase disguised as a Totoro?  What’s in it?
Bess: This is a need to know only assignment. I’ll pick it up myself on Sunday.
Porky: Where to this time? 
Bess: Somewhere south. I’ll be gone a month. Usual fee?
Porky: You owe me the usual story. Where you went, whether the mission went well.
Bess: Deal. When I get back. A story told in metaphors.
Porky: And with a bunch of riddles to go with it.
Bess: Was it ever not thus?
____________
Voice-over
Porky delivers packages for clients who give him stories to write about. Bess is an agent who is has a delivery assignment every couple of months to a different country. Her instructions are always hidden in an anime character. They met years ago and now take on jobs not for money, but to time-travel. 

Kite flying in Bali

On the beach below the whirr and the growl of Bali kites…

Mervyn: Everybody seems to be doing it. Do you fly kites, Kamang?

Kamang: Well, I used to run a business before Covid. My business suffered a lot, no tourists and restrictions. During Covid, flying kites helped me to cope with stress and depression.

Mervyn: So kite flying helped you through?

Kamang: Absolutely! It was my therapy. Running with the wind, feeling the pull of the kite, watching it fly up was a sense of freedom.

Mervyn: And helped you stay strong. I hope your business has started to recover.

Kamang: Slowly picking up. It’s been tough, had to sell my car, no eating out. Flying kites with my kids also brought me closer to them.

__________

Voice-over

Flying kites in Bali is a cultural heritage. It is also a reminder that some joys in life are simple and are celebrated in Nature outdoors.

Air Traffic Control plus FlightRadar24

 iPad atop a laptop

Simon: You know what I found on Radio Garden? Haneda Air Traffic Control. Exchanges between controllers and pilots. 

Alexa: So you can listen to things you don’t hear at check in or in the waiting areas! 

Clunky, but diverting...

Simon: Right, like “Japan Air 449, head two zero zero, NOW!” But I enhanced it a bit by not only listening to ATC but following the actual incoming flights on FlightRadar24 on computer. Like really being in the control tower.
Alexa: Think I would rather have spent the time listening to a concert.
Simon: Well, it’s part of my current look into open source intelligence.

________

Voice-over

Some sites to get started on OSINT: Google Earth or BellingCat.

Flightradar24

Tracking flights…

Bill: Look. A chopper just going over.

George: Does that app you have on your phone tell what it is?

Bill: Here it is. An MBB/Kawasaki BK 117.

George: Ah, the German-Japanese venture. Used a lot in rescue and police work.

Bill: Heading for the hospital. Yes, see it’s descending, now at 500 feet, hovering, landing.

________

Voice-over

Flightradar24 is an app providing realtime tracking of flights, overhead and across the world. Developed in Sweden in 2006, it uses several sources to collect data, notably crowdsourced volunteers using ground-based automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) receivers. Other sources include satellites and multilateration of Flightradar24 receivers. 

Pegasus White Rabbit

It was looking like...

Staying in lockdown 

Could mean lockout

From the burrow

So…

Rabbit bought wings

And put a ring

Around a March departure…

 

Will the veils of the virus lift?

Like sun coming through cloud rifts?

We can but hope

Rabbit will fly…

 

Hoping for a Pegasus, 

not a Pigasus…

 

WHITE RABBIT 

WHITE RABBIT

WHITE RABBIT

Barking Drone

Farmers at the pub…

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Trev: Hey Joe, that a drone I saw you playing with in the paddock the other day?

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Merv: Yup. Use it to muster the sheep.

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Trev: Does it work?

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Merv: Sure, it goes up and hovers over the flock and barks and chases them to the next paddock.

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Trev: It, uh, barks?

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Merv: Yeah. I recorded one of the sheepdogs barking, and the drone broadcasts the bark, so now the sheep think the dog flies in the sky.

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Trev: Well, I’ll be darned.

_________

Voice-over

Drones can assist in farm-work. Many are tools, not just toys. They can work with sheepdogs, or even replace them sometimes. Takes a bit of training the farmer, and the sheep. Oh, and the dog, so it doesn’t chase the drone.

...

Green Tea Napkin

On an ANA flight...

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Flight Attendant: Coffee?

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Passenger: Green tea thanks.

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Flight Attendant: Sure. Healthy!

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Passenger: So they say. Do you have shincha or macha?

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Flight Attendant: Sorry. Only sencha.

_________

Voice-over

Forgot I was in economy. Never mind. Together with the green tea is a napkin made of paper and used green tea leaves. The disposable chopsticks are made from forest thinnings. OK, ANA! Good airline!

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