Are you saying the balloons fly back to the vicinity of their launch point?. I did some looking with satellite photos of the area to better understand what I see in your pictures. I was surprised ow small the area is. Are the land/sea breezes that dependable that the balloons to make a return flight?

We have a lot of balloonists here. They fly much smaller balloons. They fly much longer distances, usually from 10-40 miles. The gondolas only can accommodate the pilot and 3-4 passengers. In winter they have flights of dozens of balloons at times.

I am not really sure how they do it, but have seen them fly in different directions??

I might be wrong, as the wind direction in some areas might different.

Just from my location I could see them going in different directions.

The distance are not that great, probably 10-30 kilometers too.

Hey! where's the pictures?

quote:

Originally posted by miles58:
Hey! where's the pictures?

Bloody hell!

You sound like a woman.

Give them an inch, they want a mile!

There are at least 2300 pictures posted so far!!

Been a bit busy with shooting.

Might start going out next week

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by miles58:
Hey! where's the pictures?

Bloody hell!

You sound like a woman.

Give them an inch, they want a mile!

There are at least 2300 pictures posted so far!!

Been a bit busy with shooting.

Might start going out next week

I try not to be a pest with the questions, but the question I do ask have got to at least suggest that I find that desert incredibly fascinating and that I pay close attention to the content of those pictures. I am hooked! I admit I am a junkie. Mea culpa. Everything from the mechanics of the desert, the underlayment of the desert, the recreational uses made of it and the impact of it on everyday life there in the country all just arouse curiosity and wonder. I live on a much, much larger sand pile than all of UAE and parts of it are in the process of becoming a sand dunes desert and parts returning to vegetated. And yet, six months of the year it is covered with snow.

I promise to keep the questions to the minimum I can.

quote:

Originally posted by miles58:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by miles58:
Hey! where's the pictures?

Bloody hell!

You sound like a woman.

Give them an inch, they want a mile!

There are at least 2300 pictures posted so far!!

Been a bit busy with shooting.

Might start going out next week

I try not to be a pest with the questions, but the question I do ask have got to at least suggest that I find that desert incredibly fascinating and that I pay close attention to the content of those pictures. I am hooked! I admit I am a junkie. Mea culpa. Everything from the mechanics of the desert, the underlayment of the desert, the recreational uses made of it and the impact of it on everyday life there in the country all just arouse curiosity and wonder. I live on a much, much larger sand pile than all of UAE and parts of it are in the process of becoming a sand dunes desert and parts returning to vegetated. And yet, six months of the year it is covered with snow.

I promise to keep the questions to the minimum I can.

I am happy to a answer questions for you.

SAeed,

Thank you. That is most gracious. All I can ask is if you do not know you say so which you have always done and if you have the time and know someone who might know could you refer me.

Where I live is in an area from The southern border to about Lake Superior and extending perhaps 100 miles either side of the Minnesota - Wisconsin border and irregularly shaped. Perhaps 30,000 - 40,000 square miles in area. The area is mostly flat. The elevation changes that are present are at most maybe 300 - 400 feet, and result from either river gorges cut down into limestone bedrock and in a few notable places basalt or from sand dunes some of which are respectable height. Considered as a whole, it is obvious that at some time after the last glaciation this area looked very much like your desert even though climatically it was very different. Having been under thousands of feet of ice, area this had to still be pretty cold in winter.

Geologically our homes are scarcely different, separated maybe by 10,000 years give or take. That is just a blink in terms of geologic time.

That is where my questions about the underlying rock in you desert which appears to be very similar to our blue limestone here, are coming from.

That amount of sand that is fine and blows into dunes here is associated with lots and lots of water and very long periods of time. Rivers like the St Croix have evidence in their valleys of extraordinary power but in Northern Africa there is only the Nile that I am aware of the might have represented that kind of power. The and dunes of The Emirates may have begun their trip thousands of years ago and thousands of miles away. Not unlike the dust from North Africa making a measurable contribution to the US.

Setting aside the climate change origin or causes, it is simply obvious that it is changing, and doing so very rapidly. Somehow they ought to be a means to get a decent handle on where it will take our enviroments.

We have areas here so far from the sea, that have sea shells!!

In this particular area, the rocky areas do show signs of water.

What is more, the dunes do move, and they are trying to plant trees in area as where they wish to stop this.

We did go to have breakfast in the desert yesterday.

Had a Polaris buggy and a couple of fat bikes.

And a sand board!

Boy that was fun1

They tied it to the Polaris, and dragged each other over the dunes.

Utterly hilarious!

Doing complete summersaults, covered in sand completely!

Some of the kids tried to do some acrobatics on the fat bikes.

With predictable results!

Our chief photographer had a cycling contest, so we did not have any photos taken.

I did all the videos from the air, and will post some photos later.

Thank you! I was starting into withdreawal symptoms.

Falcon hunting season is coming to an end.

Yesterday was the last day of training.

I got some videos, which I hope I can get photos out of.

Also found a herd of gazelles yesterday, and was able to get a few shots of them.

We are planning a big outing this Friday, weather permitting.

The kids cannot wait to go out to the desert again.

More questions...

The little board you tow behind the dune buggy, can it be steered? Do you sometimes ride it down the larger dunes? We call them knee boards here and town them behind boats and I think that places here that have dunes they do ride them down the dunes. Sometimes we tow them behind snowmobiles or cars, ATVs and trucks on frozen lakes (the ice can be 4 feet thick).

Some of the pictures show sand being thrown by the vehicle wheels being largely dust and some places more sand ish to gravel. Is there difference in support for vehicle tires in the variability of the sand?

The little gazelles, are they fast like antelope here or more like the deer here are? They look small, maybe 50 kilos? They sure do look tasty to me! I love eating the local deer. My neighbors are always happy when a deer dies in their yard because I bring some venison to them as a peace offering. My neighborhood is overpopulated with deer and I shoot them with a crossbow. People get a little nervous about guns going off because there are a lot of houses here. Most of the neighbors are unaware of the neighborhood bears.

Yes, the surfing board is normally used on water, or snow.

It cannot be steered, one is at the mercy of the person towing it.

Practically all vehicles now have multi purpose tires, and they do work very well.


The gazelles are very fast, and do taste very good.

So did the "newly minted driver" get the Gladiator stuck or had she learned enough from the "expert" over the years to just roll on?

Is anyone in UAE doing any of the planting/mini ecosystem experimentation changing "desert" to an area with plants and "crops"?

We have been to the desert with her several times now.

Others did get stuck, including yesterday someone with a brand new Jeep.

But so far she managed to keep going.

Those who do get stuck almost always never listen to advice.

Driving in sand needs momentum.

For that one has to be in low gear, and keep the RPM high.

Practically all off road vehicles have the option of going into semi manual gear change.

Where one can keep the vehicle in low gear longer than in drive drive mode.

They do plant trees in certain areas to stop sand coming.

Great coverage of the attack on the yellow chute!
Thanks.

Amazing place!
I have a question or two.

1. That is a nifty looking little motor bike. What make is it? Can I learn more about it somewhere?

2. Is that a falcon chasing bait behind the airplane?

As always, Thanks for the photos. Takes me out of my covid cabin to another exciting world. Brian

quote:

Originally posted by Brian Canada:
Amazing place!
I have a question or two.

1. That is a nifty looking little motor bike. What make is it? Can I learn more about it somewhere?

2. Is that a falcon chasing bait behind the airplane?

As always, Thanks for the photos. Takes me out of my covid cabin to another exciting world. Brian

That is what is called a FAT BIKE.

It is an ebike made for the desert.

Do a Google search and you will find many.

They train their falcons by tie a dead pigeon behind the plane, attached to a small parachute.

They let the falcon chase it as long as they wish, then, they slow it down for the falcon to catch it, then they release it.

Saeed, Thanks. Very interesting! Brian

There always appears to be lots of food and coffee when you go to the desert. How do you manage to keep the sand out of the food? Doesn't look possible to me. That doesn't begin to ask how you manage to keep it out of the various body orifices. That has to be hard on your eyes.

Do you haul the dune buggy to the desert on a trailer or can you drive it on the roads there?

"Surfing" behind the dune buggy looks like lots of fun. Thanks.

Half of the 'surfers' were women and none of them were Walter! Where's his sense of adventure? The closest thing to him surfing was his sand caricature. What was he trying to do with you on the board and him
pulling on the rope!? There's got to be a story behind that conversation. Mr. Nice Guy's Deseret Adventures appears to continue to be working out quite nicely! You've got them all hooked, with regulars on each and every new adventure to the dunes! Next stop for the entire group: Tanzania!!

Crashed my first drone Friday!

I didn’t even try.

It did it all by itself.

I think it got the bloody Chink Virus!

I was flying about a kilometer away.

Suddenly, I get a message that the battery is low, and it is returning home.

I cancelled that.

A few seconds later, same thing again.

Cancelled again.

Now it would not respond to any input from me.

So I let it come home.

I noticed it had climbed to 250 meters.

I thought that is odd, as according to my program, the return home altitude was 30 meters.

It eventually arrived above us, and I cancelled the auto landing again.

No dice.

It was set on landing by itself.

Trouble was somehow it decided that the ground was 220 meters up!!??

It remained there.

Coming down very very slowly, and stopping.

Eventually it got to about 50 meters, when the battery clonked out!

Straight tumbling down!

Landed on its side and broke one arm!

I called my dealer, and he just laughed!

Saying it had finally given up, as he has never seen a drone which had flown so many hours!

I asked him for a replacement.

He said he did not have one, but had a model without the zoom.

These are the DJI MAVIC 2.

One model supposed to have a better camera, but no zoom.

I prefer the zoom model.

A friend was here was listening to this conversation.

He knows the dealer too.

He said “you better find one. Or he is going to fix you!”

The dealer said “I know. He will connive with my wife. And that is the worst thing I can think of. I will find vine”

We all laughed.

An hour later he called, and said he will drop the new one at my house by lunch next day.

He did, and got a free lunch too.

I think you're lucky it decided to come home...I'm afraid with my luck it would have ended up a couple of miles away in the desert or in the ocean.

quote:

posted 02 March 2021 17:37 Hide Post
Crashed my first drone Friday!

I didn’t even try.

It did it all by itself.

I think it got the bloody Chink Virus!

I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit! Are you sure that Walter did not monkey with it? He's known to touch things that he shouldn't! Better that it happened at home than in Tanzania!

quote:

Originally posted by K Evans:
I think you're lucky it decided to come home...I'm afraid with my luck it would have ended up a couple of miles away in the desert or in the ocean.

I have a friend who has lost a drone in the desert.

I gave him a replacement, and told him if he ever looses it, make sure he takes a photo of the screen, and remembers exactly where he was.

Sure enough, not long after, he called and said he had lost it again.

Next day I went over, and we tried to see what had happened.

It was in the desert too.

Looked at the pictures on his phone, and we did a drone search and find job.

Luckily, he crashed it less that 300 meters from where he was, and no wind came over night, so we found his drone.

Only one propeller was damaged, and he could fly it again.

In Sweden I fly my drone several kilometer over water, and so far nothing has gone wrong.

Other drone owners there absolutely refuse to do that.

Was asked to film a wedding once, as no one would do it.

The bride and groom were arriving by boat to the reception.

And they wanted to be filmed as they were coming into the fjord from the open sea for a while.

Did that and they all enjoyed the video.

Summer is coming, so we probably have a couple of weeks more we can go out.

Last week was a classic!

We got a new drone, in addition to our replacement one.

This one is made for racing, it is what they call FPV drone which you have to wear a pair of goggle to fly.

Bloody fast.

The video is not as good as from the Mavic, but still good.

The girls got stuck in the Polaris, someone tried to get them out, and he got stuck in his Jeep!

We left them to their devices, and enjoyed the show.

They got well and truly stuck, in fact we had others come over and ask if we needed any help

The one of the girls got into the Polaris, and got her friends to try to push.

She hit the gas.

Everyone got well and truly sand blasted!

quote:

The one of the girls got into the Polaris, and got her friends to try to push.

She hit the gas.

Everyone got well and truly sand blasted!

She was the only smart one. Could it be that the driver was Saeed's daughter, the beautiful Hessa, and that the rest of the girls were just suckers?!

Yesterday was an absolute blast!

Got a couple of those new DJI FPV drones.

The ones you have to use goggles to fly them.

Some of the boys tried them with hilarious results.

One managed to loose his.

Another one got lost!

We got all of them back.

Amazingly fast.

Can do over 90 miles an hour!!??

Just watched the DJI video on the FPV! Amazing!!

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
Just watched the DJI video on the FPV! Amazing!!

We have two of these, and the nitwits were supposed to be racing.

Trouble was everyone was going in different directions!

Next week it is the girls turn.

Can't wait to see pics and video! Just watching how fast the FPV is and how maneuverable it is, is nothing short of amazing!

You don’t deal with the sort of individuals I deal with.

Collectively they lack a very important part of their anatomy!

One actually admitted “I leave my brains at home when I go with Saeed! Saves it from be scrambled!”

The two Einsteins who operated the drones set everything wrong!

No nuclear inventions from them.

Their brains have been nucleared!

Here is an example.

Of them was given a GoPro camera to mount on the Polaris 4 seater.

He did.

Mount it upside down, took a video of himself setting it up for about a minute, then turned the camera off!

That is we got

quote:

Mount it upside down, took a video of himself setting it up for about a minute, then turned the camera off!

That is we got

Damn, Saeed, that is down right spooky! I see what you mean! Any relatives of Walter!? You seem to surround yourself with some real doozies!

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:

quote:

Mount it upside down, took a video of himself setting it up for about a minute, then turned the camera off!

That is we got

Damn, Saeed, that is down right spooky! I see what you mean! Any relatives of Walter!? You seem to surround yourself with some real doozies!

His son!

I showed him the video.

Her said he was extra careful.

He double checked, and tribble checked, so I don't make fun of him!

I suppose nothing works when it is in your genes!

Funny thing we were all laughing at another character I have the misfortune to mix with.

He did exactly the same thing mount the camera upside down.

He said he is used to his iphone, as it corrects itself.

One of my friends said I should start charging fees for all this entertainment.

A few weeks back it was very foggy.

So we waited for the fog to clear.

It took its time, so we decided to have our breakfast and coffee.

The back of my Toyota was used as a table, sticking out of the car.

One chap took an ebike, and disappeared in the fog.

A few minutes later he appeared.

We were in an open area.

The way he was going, there was a dead tree about 40 meters from my car.

The space between it and the car was open.

He made a beeline to my car, hit the tail gait from the side.

He catapulted over it, and the ebike went underneath!

Scattering all the food and coffee all over the place.

He got a few nasty wounds.

Well deserved if you ask me!

quote:

One of my friends said I should start charging fees for all this entertainment.

Yes, you should! You definitely should!

"One chap took an ebike, and disappeared in the fog.

A few minutes later he appeared.

We were in an open area.

The way he was going, there was a dead tree about 40 meters from my car.

The space between it and the car was open.

He made a beeline to my car, hit the tail gait from the side.

He catapulted over it, and the ebike went underneath!"

How in the HELL can you NOT SEE THE CAR'S TAILGATE!!! What kind of IQs do these people have?! You should should also charge a deposit and proof of insurance from all of your friends!

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:

quote:

One of my friends said I should start charging fees for all this entertainment.

Yes, you should! You definitely should!

"One chap took an ebike, and disappeared in the fog.

A few minutes later he appeared.

We were in an open area.

The way he was going, there was a dead tree about 40 meters from my car.

The space between it and the car was open.

He made a beeline to my car, hit the tail gait from the side.

He catapulted over it, and the ebike went underneath!"

How in the HELL can you NOT SEE THE CAR'S TAILGATE!!! What kind of IQs do these people have?! You should should also charge a deposit and proof of insurance from all of your friends!

Worst part was not seeing the tail gate.

He was going straight towards the middle of the open area between the dead tree and the car.

He times it perfect as he turned and made a perfect beeline to the tail gate.

We asked him how in the hell did he do that.

He just said "I don't know"