Now...To Try And Get This Thing To Fly

 Since we're heading into the weekend, I decided to unbox a drone I bought about a year ago. For me, a drone has been one of those things, that--if I had the funds--I would buy a nice one...

At least, I think I would.

I follow several photographers on social media who use their their drones to capture incredible photos and videos. They make it look so effortless, and for all I know, maybe it is. I suspect, however, like any art form, the more you practice, the better you become.

This drone of mine is not a good one, I fully admit. Then again, I didn't want a good one, really. I wanted something on which I could learn the basics. After I bought it (and a back-up drone was thrown in the garage sale deal...), I went to the backyard and fired it up. It immediately tuned upside-down and crashed. I've had a couple of really cheap drones and they never did that. After a few attempts, I put the drone back in the box and set it aside to open another day.

Today was that other day.

I wanted to check the camera so I took off the propellers (to avoid getting hurt...) and tried it out. I got it to work and even sync'd it with the smartphone app. So far so good. After it got too dark to take outside, I decided to look online to see if there were any instructional videos on this particular model that might help. Yes, there are. Turns out, there are several steps I must do to calibrate the drone and the remote. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'm going to give it another chance.

I've wondered if I really want to invest good money in a top-tier drone. I'm sure I'd like it, but would I use it? Do I want it mostly because I don't have it? That's happened before and I hate finding out the main reason I want something is because I don't have it and once I get it, it's not like I imagined.

Hopefully, I'll get the thing to fly. If so, I hope also it takes photos and videos good enough to share. If not, well, since it was a garage sale find, I won't be out too much.

The $40 Bike Rack...

When I bought Donk The Subaru it came with some heavy-duty racks. In fact, the racks were worth half of what I spent on the car. In the past, many of the cars I've had came with roof racks, but I never really used them. I don't have kayaks, or roof-top tents, but I do have bikes.

Now, the issue--I don't have the cash to fork out for a good roof-top bike rack.

I did a little checking and found some cheap racks online, $50 to $100. But, some of the reviews of these products are not good. In fact, many are downright terrible. Turns out you get what you pay for. But, in my search, I found something that caught my eye...an inexpensive alternative.

I thought I'd give it a try.

First, I needed a fork mount. Usually you put these things in the bed of a truck. You hook the front tires in the mount (that's secured to the truck bed...) and you're good to go. An enterprising individual took the mount and attached it to a roof rack, and voila! Cheap bike rack.

I picked up a mount. Mine cost $30. Next, I bought two u-bolts for $5 each. Following the instructions from the cheap-bike-rack guy, I stopped by our Local Cycle Shop (actual name...) and picked up a couple of ruined bike tubes. I cut up the inner tubes, wrapped them around the rack, them secured the mount to the rack using the u-bolts.

It worked...

Kind of.

The problem was the back tire of my bike did not rest atop the other rack. I needed a plank. I didn't have any metal strips, so I grabbed a length of hardwood flooring leftover from when we built our house and attached it. I need to get it stained or painted or swapped out for a metal track.

And there you go--a cheap bike rack. Now, to put it to good use.