Year of the Drone

 As we enter the Year of the Drone, as reporters covering the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas call it, let’s begin with a little DIY…Do It Yourself. It is one thing to buy that ‘store bought’ gear and quite another to build a gravity defying, air worthy platform from disparate parts. Lots of parts and unimaginable disparity. (Though to be quite honest, it says right here in the manual from hell, on page 8, right after page 10, that the ‘multi-numb-capacitor automatically syncs to the electronic senso-mometer in the 5.25v position’.) Bullshit. It does not.

Like any really good hobby that has sustained for decades, the pursuit of remote control airthings appeals to many different folks for many different reasons. There are social aspects, constant challenges to flying skills, and the thrill of pissing away much of your disposable income. (Maybe even a little of that non-disposable stuff) Then there is the hacker segment of this hobby mob. Sourcing parts, combing online forums, sharing information at the flying club and the constant frustration with reading manuals and schematics from all corners of the great People’s Repub where most of these parts come from.

I heard a guy from Boeing once say that though you and I see a beautiful Boeing 777 in flight, Boeing sees millions of parts flying in tight formation.  With that in mind, the blog will turn to building a quadcopter from scratch. A worth endeavor that should be attempted by only hard core enthusiast with the capacity for repeated failure, frustration beyond that experienced by a US President and the undying faith that failure produces tremendous rewards. In this case, the reward will be a quadcopter that flies as good or better than that lowly store bought stuff that you dismissed as ‘wimp bait’ a few months ago when you ordered your first multi-rotor flight controller from Lin Chan’s Drone World HK.

An interview with Professor Scratcher

For the foreseeable future, this Blog will explore the fascinating world of dingy backroom skunkworks where few mortals have nor should venture. It is not pretty, it can smell at times and for sure the language can make a Louis CK show seem like a Sesame Street episode.

We will explore all aspects of the hacker DIY vision for four motor flight through the eyes of Professor Scratcher. A Whidbey Island recluse with a shop, some cool equipment and a wife with limitless compassion for the under skilled.

Topics will range from ‘what is scratch build?’ to who scratches what, where and why? What are the steps in building a sophisticated flying machine? And of course, we will spend a lot of time answering the ongoing question, “What the hell happened this time?” Or, what Prof Scratcher would say at the end of every build day, WTF?