Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Persistence

Persistence

When we went flying on Friday a nice young fellow at the table next to me was flying a “Quadcopter.” (QC) This aircraft is a helicopter with four rotors on the corners of a square. It is a very stable platform, much more that a traditional helicopter.

The way they maneuver is through a small chip that meters out the electricity to the rotors. To ascend the stick on the left (L) is pushed forward. This regulates the speed of all four rotors and the platform goes up. To descend the (L) stick is pulled back, bleeding off the power. To turn the platform on its axis (pirouette/ rotate direction) the (L) stick is moved to the right or left. Another term for this is “Yaw.” To make the platform go forward or backward the (R) stick is moved in the appropriate direction and the same is true for left and right.

While a quadcopter is perhaps the easiest of the rotor aircraft to operate, it still requires the coordinated use of both hands. Remember in grade school the exercise where you took one hand and slapped up and down over your head and with the other made a circular motion around your stomach? Recall how hard it was to get the two coordinated in perfoming those dissimilar tasks, concurrently? Another variation was the side straddle hop in gym class. These were difficult for me to learn but with considerable struggle, I somehow managed.

Well, the same sort of coordination is required to fly a quad-copter. The operator (pilot) must try and do both at the same time. In the military I applied to flight school and was turned down because of my eyes. There is not doubt that if I had been allowed to go, I’d have washed out for lack of aptitude.

Anyway my friend showed me how to operate the QC Linda had bought. It is small, about six inches square. Needless to say I didn’t get the hang of it to start with. On a fully charged batter the pilot gets about ten minutes flight time. So, there wasn’t really much opportunity to learn on Friday night because I only had one battery and a car charger. It takes about an hour to recharge one.

Yesterday however, after the chores, I started practicing on the rug in our bedroom. I got it to climb and descend, pirouette and go forward, backward and to the sides. Not very smoothly, mind you, but in fits and start, keeping it low so if something unexpected happened I could quickly chop the throttle and land. The dog was terrified. It made a buzzing sound and looked like some sort of a weird insect.

I took a playwriting class once at the Playwright’s center in Minneapolis. The instructor commented on my play that “There was a lot going on inside it.” It did have a couple of undercurrents. Writing well looks easy enough when reading a book but like flying a quadcopter there are things going on that require a lot of hard work and sweat. It takes a while for the brain to acquire these skills and even for those with aptitude, persistence is the key to getting really good at it.