What Do you Do?

[hank970]

I served as an enlisted Marine and later earned a degree in geology. I enjoyed a 27-year career as a national park ranger, with assignments in AZ, MS, ND, SD, and finally, in CO. I had multi-disciplinary duties in law enforcement, interpretation, and resource management. I retired in 1994 as Chief Ranger at Colorado National Monument. Two days later, I began working for a custom cabinet manufacturer, first as a craftsman building specialty items outside the normal production stream, and then as a production planner, where I used a three-dimensional design software to translate customer orders into cut lists and shop drawings. After nine years of that, I hung up my spurs and began playing. I pursue interests in photography, writing, hiking, avocational archaeology, canoeing, woodworking, fishing, cycling, reading, and cooking, and I organize bi-weekly dinner outings for a large group of Park Service retirees who reside in my area. Next July, my wife and I will celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary. We have three kids and five grandkids. I'm new to drones, having bought my Air 3 less than a year ago as an adjunct to my photography hobby.

 

[sarahb]

Professional Photographer doing real estate.

 

[Flightplan]

My career has mostly been in Maritime and Ocean related positions. 7 years offshore hydrographer, sonar and lidar data analyst, subsea robotics, and now Business Development around Safety of Life at Sea and Maritime Navigation.
But on the weekends I like to ride my Scrambler around SoCal and occasionally fly my mini 2.

 

[Lens]

Last 20 years been working as an RF engineer. First 20 years worked as field engineer in Public Safety recording systems.
Love outdoor activities. Been hooked on DJI drones since the Spark days.

 

[Max Headroom]

Covered? Oxen or horses?

Bin.

 

[JDubyaM]

I've been an RC enthusiast since the color designated frequencies (orange & white, etc...) built up a Gentle Lady sailplane with an electric motor and "Heavy" ni-cad batteries that wouldn't climb above about 5', lol.
Career consisted of family farming, multiple delivery driver and managerial positions and finally pursued my dream of flying. Our savings bankrolled my flight training and I enjoyed a 25 yr career as a helicopter pilot & manager, the last dozen or so in EMS, until I retired. It was a great, very rewarding gig, wouldn't have missed it for the world!

 

[Rchawks]

I was a Machinist and spent 45 years working in a Factory environments. My first Factory Job in Texas was manufacturing Heat Exchangers for the Refineries. Very Long hours and very dangerous work. Almost lost a hand the first month working at my first job at 19 years old. Steep learning curve for sure. Even so, each day there was something new to learn from my job everyday I went to work and then the years just seemed fly by and now I'm retired. To those of you close to Retirement I would suggest not counting the days to go, it just seems to make it worse, lol.

(I've been an RC enthusiast since the color designated frequencies (orange & white, etc...) built up a Gentle Lady sailplane with an electric motor and "Heavy" ni-cad batteries)

Same here, I still have airplanes and radios from the past and been flying since I was 21. My first plane was a Gentle Lady. My second was a Coyote

 

[Cafguy]

I still have an old futaba 6x Super and It still gets used every now and then. along with a bunch of other antiques lol.

 

[Rchawks]

Yeah I keep the batteries cycled as well.

 

[Webheadfred]

I’m a retired Air Traffic Controller. I started out at Miami ARTCC and then West Palm Beach. In 2006, I transferred to Knoxville, TN as a supervisor / frontline manager. I actually was on several committees concerning drones and their usage. In 2009 I built several drones that could carry SLR cameras and Go-Pro’s. Then I discovered DJI Phantom 4 Pro. The rest is history.

 

[Daytona500]

I joined the Marine Corps at 17 did a 4 year hitch , then I had various jobs thu out the years, lots of construction in good weather then factory work in winters, finally stay in factory were I setup heavy metal stamping machines till I retired due to health problems. Got into Laser engraving and then into leather work were I now combine the 2 to make engraved leather Holsters and knife sheaths . I have a Air one and a Mini pro 4 for my other hobby , Photography . I love to chase covered bridges and water falls, and what ever else spike my interest .

 

[ryguy80]

Work as a corporate accountant for the last 20-plus years. Been flying drones the last few years and got my Part 107 a little more a year ago for side gigs. Got back into photography as a hobby at the start of the year, so it goes hand and hand with flying drones.

 

[Droning on and on...]

20 years at HP, R&D manager when I left. Then 3 years at Intuit as a Senior Program Manager, 3 years after that as COO of a small tech company. Dabbled in self-employed engineering contractor for a few years after that, came down with some health issues, retired.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I'm employed by the FAA and IRS to scan forums for law breakers and tax dodgers. Just kidding...maybe.

Hmmmmmm...

Actually, just a lowly aircraft mechanic who might never afford to retire.

Yeah, right. Can't fool me... That's exactly the answer from the employee manual to the question, "what do you say if you're asked what you do in an aviation or financial forum?"

 

[AlanL]

Retired after 37 years in Systems and Network Administration. Started out with DEC systems (DECSystem 20/60, PDP-11, VAX) in the late 1970's with serial and current loop communications and moved to Sun Microsystems SunOS unix with ethernet in the mid 1980s - all at the University of Utah. Spent several years writing software to gather statistics from networking hardware in carrier class networks in the late 1990s before finally designing and administering networks (wired and wireless) along with unix/linux systems administration for Clark County Washington where I live now.

Photography has been a hobby of mine since the early 1960's and my drone habit is basically an extension of that with a flying tripod. Current photo gear includes my Mavic 3 Pro on the drone side and a Canon R5 MkII on the ground with far too much ancillary camera gear and lenses to list.

I decided to get a part 107 certification a couple of years back just so I didn't have to give a **** about whether or not my flights were purely recreational or not. That has a nice side benefit of not needing to care about the endless threads and arguments in this forum about the recreational vs. part 107 topic. I do not currently engage in any commercial work with my drones but it's always nice to know I could do so with the pt. 107.

 

[hiflyer201]

Most interesting post. Read all the reply’s. Great to know people better.
I flew airplanes for a living. Several large corporations.
I’ve always loved photography and cameras. Drones have made it possible to film the views I’ve always dreamed of filming.
I still have an active flight instructor cert. but at 86 not much enthusiasm to use it.
I love my Air 2!

 

[Cafguy]

I took flight lessons long ago But could not justify the huge expense, I am an aviation junkie and I do fly my G.A. Airplane quite a bit now....... In flight simulator.

 

[LeeB]

Lot's of interesting stories here. I'll try to keep the interest level up with mine.

I transitioned from full-time work 2 years ago and started 2 businesses. My drone business (yes, I'm Part 107 for 5 years) and I build custom dollhouses and replicas.

The drone business is part of my transition plan but the dollhouses evolved from covid. Both are a lot of fun and at this stage of my life, if it ain't fun I'm not likely to do it.

The 2 businesses, plus a whole lot of other activities, help to maintain not just my sanity but my marriage.

 

[sawman]

I took flight lessons long ago But could not justify the huge expense, I am an aviation junkie and I do fly my G.A. Airplane quite a bit now....... In flight simulator.

Boy isn't that the truth!! I so miss the days of $1000 J-3 Cub/Champ projects and $8000 decent, flyable Cessna 150s.

 

[pinzmann]

Retired telephone systems technician. Worked for Pacific Telephone , AT&T, Lucent. Now I’m a RSO at the local rifle club and run their precision rifle matches.