Category: learning curve

Flying things on flying things

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I’m travelling again in a few weeks time. And it will be the first international flight I will have done since I got Florence, my little Mavic.

It’s been a wonderful few months together. I can’t imagine being without her, and so, obviously, she must come with us in September.

The rules for carrying drones on planes are pretty much universal. The danger here (such as it is) comes from the lithium ion batteries. Because of its compact size, the Mavic’s batteries are only 43.6Wh a piece. But you still need to follow the protocols, so you discharge them, you cover their terminals and you take them on in your cabin baggage.

Easy.

But we are (thankfully) flying Emirates. And their rules are slightly different.

Now, Emirates are the only airline I have heard of that have this policy. I don’t understand why they need to be different, but (and I am saying this in hushed tones) I’ve never really worked out how you were allowed to take a drone on a flight anyway, given that it could be easily used as a dangerous weapon (those propellers can get up to 8000rpm). Eina.

Still, having checked with other drone owners online, there are various anecdotes about getting through DXB and not getting through DXB with a drone in your cabin and/or hold luggage. And I’m not massively happy about Florence being gooied around in a suitcase. I’ll give the airline a shout.

One thing we won’t be taking with us is the beagle. Three reasons here:

1. A week apart is good for everyone concerned (most especially me).
2. The beagle is not a falcon.
3. We’re not going to certain destinations in Pakistan.

Wow.

Presumably, this isn’t just any falcon. You can’t just turn up with a falcon you snatched from your local National Park the previous day. Or with a beagle disguised as a falcon.

So majestic – see how it soars on the breeze! Such effortless grace!
[crashing sound, frantic barking, further crashing sounds]

I can’t believe you can take a falcon into the cabin, but not a Mavic.
It can even go in a cage if it needs to.

I’ll give the airline a shout.

It’s only words

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…and words are all I have. To take your heart away.

What? No. Nothing like that. Calm your loins, pet.

Linguistics. Linguistics and language, and this introduction:

Some data visualizations tell you something you never knew. Others tell you things you knew, but didn’t know you knew. This was the case for this visualization.

to this data visualization:

from prooffreader.com.

And yes, when you look at the individual letters and think about where you might be most likely to find them in words, you realise that you knew all this already, it’s just that no-one had ever presented it to you in data visualization form. Just like the quote at the top of the page.

There are several (or more) other interesting data visualisations on the prooffreader site, if you have some time to spare.

False Bay Flight Fun

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A quick lunchtime trip to the False Bay Rugby Club with the newly-mended Mrs 6000 gave me a chance to chuck the Mavic around, much to the joy of the kids and dads playing on the rugby field.

This was all about having fun, not a photo or video expedition, so there’s not much to report other than the fact that it was nice to get some fresh air and some more but you can have a look at a different view of things here if you want.

School holidays are now upon us, so not only does that mean an extra hour in bed each morning, but I will also be using every opportunity to spend some time with the kids and – because I have a little bit of annual leave coming up – flying some new places too.

Workend

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It’s the weekend, but I’m at work. Hence “workend”.
Yeah, I know. I was also impressed.

Experimental protocols are no respecters of the 5-day working week. Actually, scrub that: they are if I write them. I work around the difficult concepts of “weekdays” and “weekends”, and the work still gets done. This one wasn’t written by me though, and that’s why I’m in the lab at 7:30 on a Saturday morning.

Yes, I know that some people work weekends, and I’m very lucky to only have to come in for a few hours this morning. But I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I worked in the NHS for 9 years and even if you’ve never been to the UK, the Daily Mail has told you just how much that workforce gets routinely shafted (fairly equally under both a Conservative and a Labour Government, for the record).

So I’d kind of hoped that I’d done the hard yards in the respect, like I’d moved on, settled down and could spend cold, winter Saturday mornings snuggling up in bed with a warm wife and no beagle.

But other people who write experimental protocols are no respecters of the 5-day working week.

Great quote in 3D Latin at Bee Emm Dot Com

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It’s been a while since I’ve included anything from friend-of-the-blog BrianMicklethwait.com. That’s not to say that I’m not a daily visitor to his haunt – I am. But he is him and I are me, and thus it’s only when the paths of our mental scribblings cross that I choose to share his stuff with you. Sometimes that happens three times a week. Sometimes once in three months. I don’t keep count or have a quota to fulfill: when it happens, it happens.

Good news, reader: it’s happening right now with this image of a bit of wall of the 5 star boutique Milestone Hotel in Kensington:

See it there? That’s 3D Latin, that is…

Spero Infestis

it says

Metuo Secundis

Which, according to several (or more) websites, translates as:

I hope in adversity, I fear in prosperity.

or, in more basic terms:

I am hopeful in times of danger; I am fearful when things are going well.

Which seems both a positive outlook, but also a bit pessimistic at the same time. So overall, pretty neutral and perhaps even rather sensible, then?

Given that generally, we live our lives not in a constant state of one extreme or another, but mostly somewhere down the middle, this 3D Latin thing will only kick in occasionally, but when it does, it will surely temper our acute and foolish emotions and restore some sort of natural order to proceedings.

I like it.