Drones and trains: March 17th - potential GADC meetup

On Saturday 17th March Chinnorr & Princes Risborough Railway in Oxfordshire are holding a photography training day as part of their Vintage Diesel Gala weekend. They’re very interested in finding our more about drone photography so members @Renni-Aire (who is a volunteer for the heritage line) and @Londroner will be attending to represent GADC and the drone community in general.

If any other members are interested in coming along the railway is offering a very decent discount on the day (9:30am - 4:30pm) of £30 (usually £90), lunch included. Comment below if you’d like to know more and we’ll send you the details.

So this is a definite then? They’re happy for us to fly there? Any insurance / liability requirements? Excellent work guys :clap:

I found this online:

http://www.chinnorrailway.co.uk/product.php/157/vintage-diesel-gala/6dda2678ade509d62fb28f8449da7d44

Pinging @Njoro and @JayForceOne in case they’re still up for it :slight_smile:

The event is definite, drone flying is not. However, they seem to be very interested in adding it to their regular photography training days. I think this will be more of an exploratory visit to ‘win over hearts to the cause’. Having checked out the area on Google Maps there could be some problems with housing estates very near the railway but until we get there and actually see the place we won’t know. Just added a third GADC member to the visit so if should be an interesting day.

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That’ll be the biggest GADC meet so far, nice one guys :smiley:

I’ve been a bit quiet over the last few weeks, her indoors has been really unwell and it looks like surgery. I can’t see me making it to the first drone meet so sorry I won’t be there.

Regards

Well, with an icy blast from the East, and constant snow flurries, Saturday 17th was perfect for drone flying. Errr, no, hang on, it was perfect for penguins, staying in the pub, watching the rugby (no, scrap that, given England’s performance) - in fact, pretty much anything than being outside, with or without a drone.

But, nonetheless, @Londroner , @Steel-eye and @Renni-Aire along with a couple of regular photographers did indeed battle through the elements for the Photo Day at Chinnor & Princess Risborough Railway.

It was a good day, with access all areas photography, cab rides, some useful photographer tips from a pro (if you pick up a railway magazine, Phil Marsh probably took the photo) and a very welcome bacon butty for lunch.

Flying outside was out of the question, in fact, as fingers went numb, photography outside at all was generally tricky, but I did manage to get a flight in the engine shed (atti mode, scary) at the very end.

Did I mention it was cold? Engine sheds don’t have heating, carriages are steam heated (not much use on a diesel day), even cabs in Diesel engines are cold, but it was good fun. It did go to show the problems of trying to foreward plan any drone activity - the weather is hard to rely on.

But, we did formulate a plan that an-all access flying day would combine very well with one of the steam/diesel driving days they run on certain weekends - pilots could be dropped off at the trackside down the line (like at the top of one of the inclines, good for meaning steam work hard), would be on railway property, so would be ideal for photos.

Some pics below of the GADC-3, the engine shed and a few other photos, taken by Mr Olympus, not Mr DJI!

That is officially the largest Grey Arrows meet to date, nice one guys :clap:

Had to laugh at “The GADC 3” :rofl:

So a flying day is on the cards for a future even then? Any requirements to be met? (insurance, etc?)

Thanks for the share Colin :smiley:

It was cold, damn cold!

Great to meet up with Colin and my old friend @Steel-eye on a snow-swept Chinnor Station. Sadly I had to leave early but I’m glad to see Colin at least got his bird in the air, albeit in the engine shed. The only bit of DJI gear I got out was my Osmo Mobile 2 you can see on the table in the first photo!

As @Renni-Aire said, they seemed very receptive to flying drones around the property. I don’t think insurance will be a problem as the plan, as I understood it, is to do it on days there is no general public around.

I did manage to shoot a (non-drone) photo or three, My memory of the day -