I got my M2P back in 2019. Got it registered and got some advice from Greg Reverdiau (Pilot Institute) of all people. At the time I was living in Prescott, AZ. I got into it for the videography. The lakes & rocks around Prescott are beautiful. Drone pilots are welcome. I enrolled in Greg's "Drone Maneuvers Mastery" course. This helped with the manual dexterity of the controls and my spatial awareness.
I started flying around Watson & Willow lakes in Prescott and shooting video. I even started messing with Waypoints. I got some decent video footage that I cleaned up in Adobe Premiere and some aftermarket LUTs for color correction. I was really enjoying this! Fast forward 18 months. My wife's health was having a problem with the altitude and lack of humidity in Prescott. She wanted to move back to Florida. In the Spring of 2021 we moved to Ocala, FL. Once we got settled, I started looking for places to fly. Where I was looking was outside of controlled airspace, so I went asking locally. I got turned down everywhere I looked. One place I finally got permission to fly was the Marion County Offices field. Not much to look at, but a place to get out and refamiliarize myself with my drone.
Four years later, we decided to downsize and moved to "On Top of The World" in Ocala. The entire HOA is a "No Drone Zone" except for their RC flying/car racing field. They have a small space carved out for drone racing.. Problem is you have to become a club member, pay their extensive dues (flying insurance) and join the AMA. I took the TRUST test as soon as it came out. I also updated the firmware in my M2P so I am now RID compliant. I even put a small strobe on the bottom to help me with LOS visibility. However, I'm still stuck with having no luck with finding "Visually Interesting" places to fly. My M2P is getting old and my batteries are as well. I'm not sure I want to invest in new ones (if they are available).
If there are any recreational drone videography pilots in the Ocala area I'd like to hear from you.
I started flying around Watson & Willow lakes in Prescott and shooting video. I even started messing with Waypoints. I got some decent video footage that I cleaned up in Adobe Premiere and some aftermarket LUTs for color correction. I was really enjoying this! Fast forward 18 months. My wife's health was having a problem with the altitude and lack of humidity in Prescott. She wanted to move back to Florida. In the Spring of 2021 we moved to Ocala, FL. Once we got settled, I started looking for places to fly. Where I was looking was outside of controlled airspace, so I went asking locally. I got turned down everywhere I looked. One place I finally got permission to fly was the Marion County Offices field. Not much to look at, but a place to get out and refamiliarize myself with my drone.
Four years later, we decided to downsize and moved to "On Top of The World" in Ocala. The entire HOA is a "No Drone Zone" except for their RC flying/car racing field. They have a small space carved out for drone racing.. Problem is you have to become a club member, pay their extensive dues (flying insurance) and join the AMA. I took the TRUST test as soon as it came out. I also updated the firmware in my M2P so I am now RID compliant. I even put a small strobe on the bottom to help me with LOS visibility. However, I'm still stuck with having no luck with finding "Visually Interesting" places to fly. My M2P is getting old and my batteries are as well. I'm not sure I want to invest in new ones (if they are available).
If there are any recreational drone videography pilots in the Ocala area I'd like to hear from you.
