Grey Arrows Introduction
It’s nice to be here. I’m a relatively recent member, although I’m certainly not new to camera drones.
I’m Overkill — a 49-year-old Mediterranean-looking, olive-skinned, tanned, chubby bear with an unreasonable amount of crystal-white hair competing with an already rather impressive black beard. I’m probably more recognisable in person than by username. 
I primarily fly the DJI Mini 5 Pro, although I have access to other equipment too. My main interest is cinematic video: smooth, deliberate movement, creative manoeuvres, interesting framing and, just as importantly, what happens afterwards in the edit. I’m interested in the whole production process rather than simply putting an aircraft in the air.
I’m also particularly interested in drone regulations, because they directly influence how, where, when and by whom a drone can be flown. For me, the rules aren’t an afterthought — they’re part of the planning process and can fundamentally shape what is practical or even possible. That naturally leads into interests in flight planning, cinematography, editing, autonomous and automated flight, and mapping.
I’m equally happy flying recreationally or commercially. I don’t have a particular preference between the two: I simply enjoy the craft, the technology and everything surrounding it. It’s a genuine passion, and one that tends to lead to interesting and occasionally useful opportunities along the way.
Technology, video and audio production have been lifelong interests for me, and that extends well beyond drones. I’ve spent a very long time tinkering, designing and consulting across electronics, software and hardware — including designing PCBs and bespoke analogue and digital circuits.
One example is an ESP32-based EMS/OpenTherm gateway I’ve been developing for domestic heating systems. It combines OpenTherm with Ethernet, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, while leaving six external I/O connections available for things such as Dallas temperature sensors and RS485 CT clamps. The idea is to make it capable of working alongside home-energy systems too — monitoring and influencing battery, hybrid-inverter, PV, import/export and backup behaviour, and even using external APIs from EV chargers such as Ohme Home Pro or ePod to account for loads that a battery system might otherwise not know about. In other words: probably more engineering than a heating controller strictly needs. Hence the name Overkill. 
I tend to lurk, read and absorb quite a lot before I weigh in, but I’ll happily get involved where a subject interests me or where I think I can contribute something useful.
I’ve been consulting for a long time, so I may occasionally be useful to somebody wrestling with a technical, planning or practical problem. Equally, I’ve learned that expertise is partly knowing what you don’t know, so I’m hoping there are plenty of people here who can teach me something too.
For me, good judgement comes from absorbing information from different sources, questioning it, and then curating it with a reasonably discerning eye. I tend to bring a mixture of technical curiosity, foresight, contingency planning and risk management to things.
And finally, a small disclaimer: yes, I really do use em dashes — like this. I’m not trying to make my posts sound AI-generated; I just happen to find punctuation useful.
Looking forward to seeing what everyone here is flying, filming, building and figuring out.
It’s good to be here. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the forum and seeing what everyone else is doing with their drones.
I’m afraid “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth over-engineering” may be dangerously close to my actual design philosophy.
Sunny Blackpool, eh? That sounds suspiciously like Blackpool is trying to show off. 
relatively belated welcome