Flying the Santan Mountains

[Thomas B]

I look at this part of the Santan Mountains while sitting on my back porch as I only live about 3 miles away in south Gilbert, AZ. I always wanted to explore the peak with my M2P...
Well, I ended up having about 8 hours of video to edit. It was taken on several different days over about 2 months due to falling on a distant foothill and breaking some ribs during early filming. I used the technique of landing at a distance and taking off again to be able to crest the summit without flying illegally. Worked great as the summit is well above the max altitude allowed by my M2P (unhacked)
The featured mountain is the tallest peak and is known by the name Santan Mountain. It is on the Gila River Indian Community property. All use, including drone flying, is now halted recently by the lease of essentially all the nonmounain land in the west end of the reservation, so this won't happen again....

The mountain range represents the various mountain ranges which are located throughout the reservation. These mountain ranges are considered to be very sacred by the Pima. Each mountain was given its own O'otham name by the Huhugam(Ancient Ones). Today, they are known as the Santan Mountains (JuJulgigk "Zig Zag Connected") , located on the northern reservation boundary. The summit rises to 3104 ft (946 m) from the desert floor. As you will see, there is no trail to the top or even on this portion of the Santans.
What I never realized is what you can see on the south side of this mountain. As a note, all my flying was on the north face.

I'm a newby at video and editing, but felt the edited portion was worth sharing. Constructive criticism is much appreciated
Hope you enjoy the video. No YouTube to like. Just a labor of love and curiosity.

The Superstitions are next!

 

[Bill combs]

I look at this part of the Santan Mountains while sitting on my back porch as I only live about 3 miles away in south Gilbert, AZ. I always wanted to explore the peak with my M2P...
Well, I ended up having about 8 hours of video to edit. It was taken on several different days over about 2 months due to falling on a distant foothill and breaking some ribs during early filming. I used the technique of landing at a distance and taking off again to be able to crest the summit without flying illegally. Worked great as the summit is well above the max altitude allowed by my M2P (unhacked)
The featured mountain is the tallest peak and is known by the name Santan Mountain. It is on the Gila River Indian Community property. All use, including drone flying, is now halted recently by the lease of essentially all the nonmounain land in the west end of the reservation, so this won't happen again....

The mountain range represents the various mountain ranges which are located throughout the reservation. These mountain ranges are considered to be very sacred by the Pima. Each mountain was given its own O'otham name by the Huhugam(Ancient Ones). Today, they are known as the Santan Mountains (JuJulgigk "Zig Zag Connected") , located on the northern reservation boundary. The summit rises to 3104 ft (946 m) from the desert floor. As you will see, there is no trail to the top or even on this portion of the Santans.
What I never realized is what you can see on the south side of this mountain. As a note, all my flying was on the north face.

I'm a newly at video and editing, but felt the edited portion was worth sharing. Constructive criticism is much appreciated
Hope you enjoy the video. No YouTube to like. Just a labor of love and curiosity.

The Superstitions are next!

nice work tom

 

[Thomas B]

nice work tom

Thanks Bill. Wanna fly the Rim with me one day soon?

 

[MPone]

Must be some task finding a higher elevation flat area to land and take off again.

 

[Vue D’Oiseau]

I look at this part of the Santan Mountains while sitting on my back porch as I only live about 3 miles away in south Gilbert, AZ. I always wanted to explore the peak with my M2P...
Well, I ended up having about 8 hours of video to edit. It was taken on several different days over about 2 months due to falling on a distant foothill and breaking some ribs during early filming. I used the technique of landing at a distance and taking off again to be able to crest the summit without flying illegally. Worked great as the summit is well above the max altitude allowed by my M2P (unhacked)
The featured mountain is the tallest peak and is known by the name Santan Mountain. It is on the Gila River Indian Community property. All use, including drone flying, is now halted recently by the lease of essentially all the nonmounain land in the west end of the reservation, so this won't happen again....

The mountain range represents the various mountain ranges which are located throughout the reservation. These mountain ranges are considered to be very sacred by the Pima. Each mountain was given its own O'otham name by the Huhugam(Ancient Ones). Today, they are known as the Santan Mountains (JuJulgigk "Zig Zag Connected") , located on the northern reservation boundary. The summit rises to 3104 ft (946 m) from the desert floor. As you will see, there is no trail to the top or even on this portion of the Santans.
What I never realized is what you can see on the south side of this mountain. As a note, all my flying was on the north face.

I'm a newly at video and editing, but felt the edited portion was worth sharing. Constructive criticism is much appreciated
Hope you enjoy the video. No YouTube to like. Just a labor of love and curiosity.

The Superstitions are next!

Good flying.

 

[Thomas B]

Must be some task finding a higher elevation flat area to land and take off again.

Yes it was. Used a process of utilizing high points with careful landing to be sure I could still have LOS with my M2P before actually landing. Also set RTH to an extreme altitude so that the drone would climb above obstacles....Especially after I could see all the variations of height of the ground on the slopes of the mountain. the search is one of the primary reasons I ended up with over 8 hours of video. A lot of planning required.
Thanks for watching.

 

[dave canada]

Thats some rough country i bet the coyotes moved to town ! Nice video

 

[Thomas B]

Thats some rough country i bet the coyotes moved to town ! Nice video

Thanks... yep we keep a donkey in the horse pen area. They hate coyotes and so the coyotes stay out.

 

[Smokieflies]

Good flying. On my monitor the ground was breaking up a lot (could of been YT) or low refresh rate of my monitor. Maybe flying a little slower over those great peaks would have been helpful. Sorry to hear flying there is not allowed anymore. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Thomas B]

Good flying. On my monitor the ground was breaking up a lot (could of been YT) or low refresh rate of my monitor. Maybe flying a little slower over those great peaks would have been helpful. Sorry to hear flying there is not allowed anymore. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the input. I’m new to video production from multiple clips.
My monitor is 5k. Maybe I should select a lower output from YouTube next time. Will be posting flight composite from the Superstition Mtns soon.

 

[Skywatcher2001]

Thomas that's pretty good stuff! Did you fly manual? Sensors off? It looked like a few times you got pretty low and the sensors stopped you. I love it bro. I want to do that with sensors off and a locked gimbal to give it the FPV feel . . . but I'm a fraidy cat.

Looking forward to the Superstition Mountains. Hurry that one up sir . . .

 

[Thomas B]

Thomas that's pretty good stuff! Did you fly manual? Sensors off? It looked like a few times you got pretty low and the sensors stopped you. I love it bro. I want to do that with sensors off and a locked gimbal to give it the FPV feel . . . but I'm a fraidy cat.

Looking forward to the Superstition Mountains. Hurry that one up sir . . .

Thanks! Appreciate it.
Just flew the bird. All sensors functioning..NP. I personally like those close passes as much as I like the reveals.
Those 2 places where where I stopped quickley were due to my too rapid approach. Don’t think many of the locations are accessible w/o climbing gear or a 12 mile one way walk... some maybe not at all.

 

[PortCanaveralFlorida]

There were some sections that I said to myself, omg there it goes, Oppps, whew, watch out!

Better have those hiking boots!

Fun place to fly though.

 

[Skywatcher2001]

Those 2 places where where I stopped quickley were due to my too rapid approach.

Yeah you did come in kinda hot . . .

 

[Jaymaharg]

Awesome Thomas! Been flying some of the hills in FPV view and working on editing - that's exciting but man does it feel so sketchy. Was way up north by Agua Fria National Monument (BLM land) and parked high on a bluff, pulled out the M2P and was cruising through some of the small canyons below the edge of the plateau - reason I staged on a high point near the edge... Found some coyotes and cows, coyotes were most exciting and also most inquisitive..

Great footage of how rough the terrain is and it did look like ACSS kicked in once to stop you - keep them coming!!

 

[Thomas B]

Awesome Thomas! Been flying some of the hills in FPV view and working on editing - that's exciting but man does it feel so sketchy. Was way up north by Agua Fria National Monument (BLM land) and parked high on a bluff, pulled out the M2P and was cruising through some of the small canyons below the edge of the plateau - reason I staged on a high point near the edge... Found some coyotes and cows, coyotes were most exciting and also most inquisitive..

Great footage of how rough the terrain is and it did look like ACSS kicked in once to stop you - keep them coming!!

Your vid sounds cool!
thanks for the comments.. one goal of the video was to show the multiple compound peaks as well as the rough terrain.

 

[AMann]

Loved the first minute, that low elevation part was the best. Things slow down a lot when higher up, maybe mix it up a bit with longer low elevation and shorter long shot sequences... also cut the abrupt movements- stops, height climbs, short adjustment camera pans. Just my 10cents. Nice work anyways! I also liked the soundtrack you picked for it.

 

[Thomas B]

Loved the first minute, that low elevation part was the best. Things slow down a lot when higher up, maybe mix it up a bit with longer low elevation and shorter long shot sequences... Nice work anyways!

Thanks... likely too much time trying to illustrate the scope of things. The slow parts were flown at 30-31 mph. Will check into accelerating more areas of the video. Appreciate your comments.

 

[AMann]

Thanks... likely too much time trying to illustrate the scope of things. The slow parts were flown at 30-31 mph. Will check into accelerating more areas of the video. Appreciate your comments.

You are welcome! I am certainly not a pro, and hope for the same critique when I post my first videos. I am getting better watching other’s work here too!

 

[TooTall]

...I'm a newby at video and editing, but felt the edited portion was worth sharing. Constructive criticism is much appreciated
Hope you enjoy the video. No YouTube to like. Just a labor of love and curiosity.

Awesome! That's exactly what I figured it would be... I love the desert landscape. Are you editing these in the SkyPixel app or through another program?