FPV, Experience for Yankee George

February 18, 2013, Carlsbad, CA

It was a very nice February day in San Diego.  Some people don't get to get out and enjoy a day like this.  Kyle "Redbeard" Varonfakus and Treggon "Iceplant" Owens set up an "FPV accessibility" event at Dave's beach in Carlsbad where we were asked to take George "Yankee" Pena up in our FPV Quadcopter rigs.  Yankee has been stuck in his wheelchair now for a couple years.  Brain fine, body is failing him. 

Just two years ago, Yankee was still giving tennis lessons to seniors.  Back in the day, Yankee was a catcher for his namesake, among others like the Cleveland Indans.  Here is his Rookie card I found on the internet. 

Yankee was a very active person, it pains him to be sedintary.  He spends his days in a nursing facility. I think about what it must feel like to have once stood next to the greats.  Here he is in a photo that used to be on Yankee's wall, standing next to Mickey Mantle.

Redbeard and Iceplant met up around 2pm, facing a brisk, on-shore wind.  The glider folks were out in force, as seven, unpowered gliders were soaring above us when we arrived. From carbon dream machines, to foamy Radian's, the strong wind kept everyone aloft, all afternoon. Redbeard's hand built pirate quad was ready to go.  Iceplant spotted, as this is also a running area, and multi-rotors and runners with music don't mix.

Family Pena dealt with non trivial logistics of getting Yankee out of the car, and onto the tarmac.  Iceplant and Redbeard worked towards FPV setup, dodging and weaving the poor slope soarers who had to dodge Redbeard's tripod mounted on the cliff edge.

Yankee thought he was coming out to watch the planes.  Yankee was pretty happy at just watching large gentle gliders, we floated the Radian, showing off a bit for uncle. Family Pena came out in support and wanted to check out the action. 

THEN I strapped the FatShark Attitude SD's on his face, slipped the battery into his jacket pocket, and a HUGE grin appeared on his face.  I picked up Redbeard's quadcopter, and started walking around with it, walking up to his neice and grand-nephew's waving hello.  He was pretty amazed at that.  Here we are showing himself and his family.  See him reaching out, adapting instantly to the goggles.  It was amazing seeing the old time catcher come alive.

Then we took off, and headed down the beach.  HUGE smiles ensued:

"I'm FLYING!" George exclaimed.  Check out the look on his face.  I have had a lot of FPV experience in my time, but this takes the cake.  It opened my eyes to how people might use this technology in the future to experience things they no longer can. 

The future for people like Yankee is here.  This has lead to a heated discussion in our local FPV RCGROUP thread for the North County San Diego.  This smile on Yankee's face has started us to form an FPV Club.  It's mission will be to host FPV Fly In's to provide positive experiences for all involved.  We formulated ideas on how to work with our local disabled groups to provide these experiences at our FPV fly ins. 

We are miles away from camp pendleton, thousands of troops have come home to our community.  There are significant issues with injury, mental stress... something like the RC Hobby is a great way to connect with a vet.   (Yankee's a vet, but "not the kind that gets to go to the PX" as he puts it.)  With all our soldiers coming home, it might be productive for all parties to channel some of that energy into the RC Hobby.  Host a buddy box session.  We want to take them flying just for fun, just to go look at surf.  We want to answer questions about the hobby, and let them know what it took to build the machines.  We want to show them, and everyone involved how great a hobby FPV is.

From Time Magazine to our local news, the scary stories of Drones have been dominating our media.  I couldn't let this experience pass by without stopping, taking photos, and blatantly self promoting it.  It was the most satisfying FPV flight I have ever been involved with... and all I got to do was spot for Redbeard.  Redbeard built that quad, hand made his glasses from other parts to his comfort, hand made his tripod mounted base station and Iceplant plants his hard earned seal of approval.  He really represents the pirate spirit of our hobby.  We threw it down, went home, edited, then posted, then were ready for the next day.... at our real jobs.

God has Blessed America