John A. Roebling's Sons Company Upper Works

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Ghosts of the Wire Industry: Inside Trenton's Roebling Complex The first fence I found, I didn't jump. I had parked at the edge of the old industrial park and started walking the block, looking for a seam. That's the work. You circle the property, you read the edges, you find the spot where the chain link has been peeled back, or the post has gone loose. I found one almost immediately, a low fence, nothing to it. Then I noticed the man across the street watching me. So I kept moving, hands in my pockets, just a guy who'd taken a wrong turn. A few doors down, a commotion. Two people arguing in the middle of the street, loud enough that I slowed without meaning to. It ended the way those things usually end, with nothing settled. The man stepped back onto the sidewalk and then disappeared into the side of the building. Not through a door. Through a gap in the fence I couldn't see from where I stood. That told me two things. There was another way in. And I wasn...
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Mad Dog One



Taking my craft to the skies...

Today I called out of work to take myself down to one of the many New York City parks available in the city. It had been a long time since I ventured inside Calvert Vaux Park. A few years ago, I came to this park on the fly because word had gotten out for the next crazy Xandernation pop up party. I persuaded my good friend M to tag along with me that night. Just weeks before, Alex Shlaferman, the host of the party, had thrown another party on the ballsyous of all places: the Manhattan bridge. Yes, the bridge! This time I wanted to find out what all the fun was about. Finding our way inside the dark park. We made our way to the very back of the park where a huge crowd had coalesced around the DJ setup jumping to the heavy mix of dubstep. We partook in some alcohol being shared wildly around and taking in the copious amounts of marijuana smoke wafting from the crowd. After enough dubstep to keep me awake for eternity, my friend and I decided to leave early. Oh, boy, did we miss out on the fun later. Ater we had left, the party got shut down and an actual police helicopter came in with ground cars to put a kibosh on the festivities. Actual revelers were led out under the light of the hovering helicopter one hand on the shoulder of the next person in front as they were led out of the park. A wild night of fun unexpectedly missed.


See what I did here? đŸ‘€

Enough of my party story and back to the main attraction. Finding my way to a secluded spot away from the soccer fields and any human being. I quickly setup 'Mad Dog One' before anyone came strolling by wondering how the drone worked and start asking questions. Before I could finish setup, H, a new drone friend I met today, also came to the park to fly his drone for the first time as well. Long story short, he had an HEXO+ and I a Phantom 4. H taking his drone to the skies after a rather faster setup than mine, I followed suit awhile later. Feeling my way around the controls after two days of simulator flying, I took off beginner mode and took further to the skies. The higher view took shape as I started to frame my shots and snapped away. Before I could stretch a little further out, a low battery warning sounded urgent and I brought her in with a thud of a landing on a rather large rock nearly tilting her over.




No longer able to take to the skies since I only had one battery in stock. I walked to the other side with H as he made his second flight with wild success. Feeling confident and happy with what I made. I left and made adieu to H to fly again sometime next week. I have a few nicer spots out of state I would like to take from the sky so stay tuned to further new beginnings with my drony.


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