Thanks to all the chasers for contacting me today whilst I was on Fan Nedd - 57 including 1 s2s in 40 minutes.
I usually park my car at SN923197 just above the hairpin bends on the North approach to the summit. Well today there was some activity at this location in the form of a film crew using a Drone to film a Morgan Aero 8 which was being driven up and down through the hairpins. Was this a promotional film for a re-modelled Aero 8?
Enjoyed the activation despite the freezing fog - Brrr
That drone looks like the one the film crew were using to film a Red Bull Downhill Challenge on Allermuir Hill last Summer. Quite quiet until it flew overhead. It was surprisingly stable for a blustery afternoon.
You are right, it was very stable. What impressed me was the fact that the operator left it in hover mode whilst he walked a fair distance to talk to the crew without even keeping his eyes on it - would have liked to have watched for longer but the chasers were waiting
Allen
First of all, many thanks for another summit that is adding to my growing list of activated summits chased and worked.
And from a chasers point of View, With out our intrepid activators to whom we may forget in some of the conditions they master and endure to put out signals from those summits for us to watch and work. Let alone chase around the bands from our comfortable surrounding of our shacks during this winter period.
To you Ladies and Gents
I salute you, and also thank you.
Keep up the good work.
And also please be-careful.
Also have to say, love these reports and pictures.
Hi Allan,
That’s the beauty of drones. With 3D accelerometers and GPS you can just “park” them anywhere you like and forget about them. Of course when the batteries start to deplete they will also “auto home” and land where previously programmed. You can also have them follow a pre programmed route or use a proximity beacon to follow someone. The technology is quite advanced and ridiculously cheap!
I’m in the process of putting my shopping list together to build one.
Ready made RTF models are available off the shelf, the DJI phantom being a very popular model (in fact quadcopters are often generically called DJI’s, just like vacuum cleaners are called Hoovers).
Cheap quads like the CX20 are available from Bangood and other outlets for very little outlay.
(other makes exist)
So as not to drift too far away from a SOTA theme, this is my local Summit G/CE-001 courtesy of a DJI.
You’ll see why it’s a very easy summit to activate
More to the point, where did you park at 007, as apart from the little pull in at the top of the hairpins the road is pretty narrow with few parking options?
Hopefully the space will be free in the next week or two!
Thanks for the info above. Yes, I parked in the little layby above the hairpins which is a few steps from the stile which takes you to the wall . I usually follow the wall up to about half way then break away for the summit. Well troden these days.
The car in your picture displays the reg. number AERO 8… given the incidents with number plates when the Top Gear team where in LU-land I’d be surprised if they were out filming with anything but a real number on display. In fact how do you legally drive a car on a public road without a valid number?
Well if you are the Queen or King of England you do not need a number plate. Also there is the unique advantage of not needing to put your country on your postage stamps. That said I bumped (not car to car) into Princess Anne last year who had a HRH prefix plate.
Night night
Mike
Correct. The Morgan car company do have a range called the AERO. As far as I can see there does not seem to be a model with the same backend as the one in my photos. Number plates can be changed for a video shoot. They were also controlling the section of road by the use of radio communications. There was also a large lorry further up the road which means the car could have been transported to the location. That’s why I came to the conclusion that it was called the Aero 8 and that some sort of promo video was being made. It’ll be interesting to see if anything appears on their website in the near future.
