Whale

Today I had a business appointment at the town hall in Harlingen.
This is a yearly thing, and I knew it would be a short visit. Not more than 30 minutes.

Just like previous years, Richard came along, so that we could spend the rest of the day photographing and maybe even fly our drones for a while. Last year we couldn't because there was too much wind. A storm really.

When I parked my car in Harlingen, I soon found out that a parking ticket could only be paid with coins. I didn't have them, neither did Richard. No apple pay or with a card possible. 
Well, my appointment wouldn't last long, so I left my car without paying. Fingers crossed.

As soon as I entered the town hall, I was asked to identify myself and I was asked if I'd came by car. "Yes, I did" I then received a parking permit for a parking right next to the entrance. And because I was the first one that arrived, I still had some time to re-park my car. I ended up at the spot that is normally reserved for the mayor. Cool!

All went very smooth and well, and within 30 minutes I was outside again. I called Rchard who had been killing his time downtown Harlingen. 

We went to a coffee take away and then went to the harbour to fly our drones. By now it had become very foggy and the temperature dropped just below zero, although we didn't realize that, nor the consequences of it.

No wind at all, so we were anxious to fly! It was very quiet, no people around.
Richard was the first one to take off with his drone. It soon dissappeared into the fog.  I followed and flew not so high, but in a straight line above the water. 
I didn't take long before Richard told me that his drone reported an error, something with his propellors and motors was wrong. At almost the same moment I got a warning about my downward sensor not functioning.

I had my drone in sight hovering above the water/mud and decided in a split second I had to get it back from the water, safe above the ground again. It soon hovered about 10 meters above me. I pushed the downward stick, but nothing happened. What? I couldn't descend. I pushed and pushed and then heared the confirmation: "LANDING". 
No! Not yet, it was still too high.
But, it descended.....finally.
Normally it reduces speed when the surface is getting near, but not now.
Bang!! It bounced on the ground, but at least I had it safely back. I immediately stopped the motors. 
At that moment Richard's drone came down, full speed. Bang!!! That one bounced also, but much faster than mine did. It bounced back into the air again, but Richard regained control and landed it again, more softly.

We were shocked about what just happened. The problem had been the fog and the low temperature. There was a lot of icing on the wings, and because of the moist the downward sensors were off.
We learned (the hard way) that fog combined with temps below zero are not a good combination for flying.

Luckily I managed to capture todays blip during this flight.
A huge whale in the harbour of Harlingen. Because of the low tide it wasn't in the water. When it is, it blows air into the sky every once in a while as a fountain.

After this experience we left Harlingen and went to the Lauwersmeer area. With much less fog over there, and a temp of 3C, we checked our drones. All was well, no damage at all. We flew around for a while. Photographically it wasn't very interesting. Grey, dull and flat.

In Lauwersoog we got ourselves a take-away 'kibbeling' (bits of fried fish). Normally the bits are small, but this time the chunks were huge. About 10-15 cm each. A real whale-kibbeling.

Around 16.00 hours we were back in Delfzijl and closed off a nice day. With much less photos and airmiles than expected, but that's all part of the game! Thanks Richard for joining. Let's repeat this next year.