I have been here a while and don’t think I ever introduce myself. Pretty basic intro - I am a drone fan from the Phoenix area, I live in a little town called Waddell, AZ. My wife and sons tolerate my drone flying. I do a few commercial tasks when time permits to broaden my horizons.
I am a huge fan of software tools to make the hobby even more powerful and love Flightreader, FRAP, and other things I have come across. I also enjoy automating as much of any commercial plan as possible using Dronelink.
I am a member of the American Model Aircraft association and enjoy every minute with a drone in the air.
Welcome to the site, I was stationed at Luke AFB back in the early 1970s and I dirt biked all over that area and I do not remember your town being there. All I remember were dried up fields when the water dropped too low for the pumps…
I checked out your web page, Southwestern Aerial Studios, nicely done…
It looks like you are flying a Mavic 3, you might want to also check out the MavicPilots Web site…
Oh yes, we know Luke well! The F-35’s there are loud. : ) El Mirage, Surprise, and Waddell have all grown with the times and of course, strangely enough, Glendale and Phoenix own patches of land still around the base to protect it from residential encroachment. And before I continue on - thank you for your service!! You served at the same base where Sully trained, so they turn out good product. : )
My webpage used to be a lot better. A few weeks ago, I had some plugins go south, and then found my web guy is no longer in business. (Hoping he is ok, but seems to have fallen off the grid) so in a fit of panic I re-did it myself and well, the results are less than what it was before. haha.
Yes, I am on MavicPilots. I get a little something from all the drone related forums. There is so much great help out there and expertise, I can count on learning new things often.
When I was there, I was a Jet Engine Mechanic. I worked on F-100s, F-4s, and then on F-15s. In the interim, I also worked on F-104s, the 2nd Luftwaffe Squadron (German Pilots in upgrade training…) flew them.
Back then, all that jet noise did not bother the few folks who lived nearby. And it was only the folks in Sun City that complained… Also, back then there were no bridges over the Aqua Fria or New River and hardy anuthing was between 91st Ave and the base, and we use to take Glendale, Northern, and Camelback pretty fast and on more than one occasion, the troops hit the flooded riverbed and hydroplane across and crash on the other side as the car would usually start spinning in the water so when there was rain in the mountains, the base would close. Back then it usually took a couple of days before the “Do Not Cross” barricades went up.
We even lost an airman on Glendale Ave. one night when he was racing his motorcycle down Glendale and there was a horse in the road. He hit it dead center and his motorcycle went under the horse’s belly but he didn’t. He hit the horse, full chest at a very high rate of speed. It took a couple of days to figure what happened. They found this dead guy and a dead horse in the road (he was not wearing a helmet). It was a while before someone asked about his motorcycle and then they found the motorcycle a 1/2 mile or so down the road, it had kept on going and finally ran off the road and off into desert a ways.
To pick up extra cash, I and a couple of friends also hunted Rattle Snakes in the White Tanks and the Aqua Frea River Bed. We did not kill them, we captured then and took them to ASU and they paid $5 a head so they could “milk” them for their venom. They had to periodically let the captured ones go and replenish them as fresh captured ones because the old ones who do not have to hunt produce much less venom…
I now live in Virginia and I am inside the Class D Airspace of Langley AFB… I can see that you are also either under or just NW of Luke’s Class D Airspace also…
I’ve called the ATC so many times at Langley that they know me…
Finally, the one good thing about the Web Business, you are not stuck with just the folks who live nearby, you could have someone from India do it for you. You also might contact the local community college and talk to the instructor who teaches web design and you might be able to set up a contest (you would have to pay so prize money of course…) or the instructor might offer the job to one of their students…
Love that history LoudThunder! If you ever get back out this way, give me a heads up. I often fly over at the AMA field “Mustang Field” which is northwest of Luke. Still in the desert. : )
