Early March Morning Lake Elmo Aero Airplane Ride Sightseeing
Collection of images (still and video) from recent Early March Morning Lake Elmo Aero Airplane Ride sightseeing trip.
Series of 360 interactive immersive videos from sightseeing flight.
Our sightseeing trip started at Lake Elmo Airport taking off on Runway 4 (one of if not the shortest paved runways in Minnesota) and cruising over east metro above Lake Elmo, Oakdale, Maplewood and on into Downtown St. Paul Airport (Holmand field) where we do a touch and go.
From there we head southeast out over Woodbury before turning east towards Afton and crossing the St. Croix River south of Hudson Wisconsin.
We follow the St. Croix River north passing over Hudson, North Hudson, St. Joe and Houlton turning southwest west of Somerset Wisconsin.
We then head south along the St. Croix river on the Minnesota side passing above Stillwater before wrapping up our morning flight back at Lake Elmo Airport.
Big thank you to Lake Elmo Aero (www.lakeelmoaero.com) and pilot Jon Adsit for a fantastic flight experience. You can get in touch with Lake Elmo Aero via info@lakeelmoaero.com and 651-777-1399 as well as via CTAF/Unicom: 122.8
2019 Summer Open House Lake Elmo Aero at Lake Elmo Airport
Check out some images from summer 2019 Lake Elmo Aero open house
Pictures Over Stillwater provides indoor, outdoor, ground, aerial and all around content creative services. The following are some 360 interactive views including still image and video. Our 360 panoramic imagery capture experience includes 360 cameras for ground and aerial (attachment to aircraft e.g. airplanes) along with Drone based for one off as well as recurring projects.
Some of our 360 experiences include indoor virtual tours (photo and video) for real estate (residential and commercial), engineering, site planning, construction progress reporting and 3d modeling, along with general marketing and event support among others. From relative low level (eye height) to under hundred feet, to hundreds of feet, to above 40+ story tall buildings, and higher using airplanes, from empty property lots to completed structures, we have experience with diverse projects.
Tiny Planet Aerial View Stillwater MN
Tiny Planet Aerial View MN State Capital St Paul
Spherical View Fall Colors Stillwater Minnesota
Interactive 360 View Center Field St Croix Prep Academy
Fall Colors Downtown Minneapolis Minnesota 360 View
360 Interactive Fast Video Tour St Croix Bike Loop
360 View Lowell Inn Washington Room Stillwater MN
360 View Grand Ball Room Stillwater MN
Interactive 360 Grand Pizza Downtown Stillwater
Interactive 360 Images Marine on St Croix
Interactive 360 Marine on St Croix (Low Level)
Interactive 360 Marine on St Croix (High Level)
Interactive 360 Pictures Over Stillwater
Following are a collection of drone aerial interactive 360 spherical images from around Stillwater showing different neighborhoods as well as downtown and surrounding areas. The interactive 360 aerial views allow you to rotate around, side to side, up and down, as well as zoom in and out. Check out some areas you might know well from a different vantage point perspective, as well as see some new areas in and around Stillwater Minnesota.
Stillwater Public Library 360 Demo
4th Street Entrance Stillwater Public Library
The following is a short Virtual Tour of the Stillwater Public Library.
360 images including still and video are great for virtual tours along with next generation virtual reality (VR) tours. Virtual tours are great way to showcase your property, facility, factory, property, showroom among other views with customers, partners, prospects among others enabling an interactive experience for the viewers.
2020 St Croix Valley Fall Colors 360 Views
Not all platforms are able to display 360 content (video or still images). An alternative method to show 360 content includes formats such as so called tiny planet views. The following are some tiny planet views based on 360 camera images.
The following is a 360 Interactive video view from 2020 Withrow Area Classic Car Show Wishes and More Wish Granting. Play the video and rotate around to see different angles and views.
The following is outward orbit 360 (horizontal) view from above Oak Park Heights Minnesota looking at the St Croix River Valley. To the east is the St Croix River and Wisconsin, to the west Minneapolis.
360 Interactive Video Virtual Tour Candyland Stillwater
Here is an example of using a 360 camera indoors for a virtual tour as we stop in for a quick visit at Candy Land in downtown Stillwater.
It is 2019 Spring Flood season in the upper Midwest including Minneapolis St. Paul twin cities metro area along with western Wisconsin, eastern Dakotas and elsewhere. In the Minneapolis St. Paul twin cities metro area, there are three major rivers all of which flow into the mighty Mississippi river, not to mention numerous smaller rivers, streams, creeks as well as other runoff.
For the 2019 Spring Flood season, in the Twin Cities metro, western Wisconsin, western as well as southern Minnesota as well as eastern Dakotas, February record-setting snow fall are now melting. Besides record February snow fall, there was a lack of snow cover in the Twin Cities metro and surrounding area in early January to protect against the extreme cold, thus driving frost deeper into the ground.
With frost being four plus feet deep, snowmelt that would normally start to seep into the ground is having to run off elsewhere which results into the area lakes, ponds, creeks, streams, small rivers and ultimately the Mississippi and other large rivers.
Above via Twincities.com image via www.picturesoverstillwater.com
2019 Spring Flood Content
Note that we are FAA Part 107 certified (e.g. commercial drone operator) and MNDoT Aeronautics & Aviation Drone as well as Aerial Photography licensed, and insured, meaning our images as well footage can be used safely for various commercial purposes including by news or other organizations.
Dynamic Fall Weather St. Croix River Inversion Fog Dragon Breath. One of the things I enjoy about living in the Minneapolis St. Paul metropolitan area is the changing weather and seasons, if you don’t like it, wait and will change. That has been the scenario past week or so here the Stillwater St. Croix River valley eastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin areas. So far in the past week, we have seen highs near 70 lows of freezing frost, clear and windy to wall clouds and tornadoes. We have also seen partly cloudy with calm windows high humidity between rains including inversion fog layers on the St. Croix River.
Some drone-based aerial views above and around Stillwater as well as St. Croix River valley over the past week. These include visits to Stillwater Fire Department open house, Art Fair, fall colors, St. Croix Sailing School High School Regatta in Hudson, new St. Croix Crossing bridge and much more.
From a sUAS or drone flying perspective, strong winds are a challenge and even more so are rain. However, in between those conditions, there have been some great opportunities to go upstairs and gets some different and unique perspective views that past week.
For example, check out the following video that I captured the other evening of inversion fog layer over St. Croix River valley shortly before evening severe storms arrived.
Dynamic fall weather resulted in Layer of Inversion Fog (Dragon Breath) Over St. Croix River flows south under Arcola Soo Line High Bridge towards Stillwater MN.
Some Tips, Recommendations and Reminders
Keep the weather in mind, head in the clouds and feet on the ground meaning watch the sky along with weather, while you are safe on the ground. Weather can change quickly, so be ready, plan ahead, watch forecasts and be prepared. When you contact any airports or air traffic control for the areas you will be flying (e.g. for those in Stillwater area, the downtown riverfront is controlled airspace), ask for conditions at their location to compare with your own local. If you are flying an sUAS or drone, keep your eyes on the aircraft, if using first-person view (FPV) goggles have one or more visual observers (VO).
Pay attention to surface winds along with those aloft, look around where you are going to be flying. Look at flag poles which way they are pointing, the direction of clouds, smoke from chimneys and other indicators. Also, note that winds can vary at the surface as well as a few feet to hundreds of feet up in the air. Another consideration is how the windows can be more turbulent around buildings, bluffs, hills and other structures, something to keep in mind. Note that while your drone may have automation and is fine once up in the air (watch out for fly-away during high winds), the landing may be a challenge. Likewise, not if, rather what happens when your software based automation AI enabled drone stops working and you need to land manually? How will you avoid a crash? The answer is being prepared.
Something I have noticed is that changing weather, the birds can be an indicator of when to land or get out-of-the-way if you are flying FPV mode with no VO, how will you see the birds behind or on your sides? Likewise, keep the aircraft in visual line of sight (e.g. don’t fly beyond where you can see it) so that you can recall quickly before developing weather has an impact. Also if you are using filters, adjust accordingly for example if cloudy try an ND4. Have fun, however, be prepared, be safe.
