Diggerduggs Drone Discoveries: Episode 3 - A tour of an old, abandoned Walking Dragline machine in Southern Saskatchewan, Canada
Heeeeeey fellow Steemerz
"On the way to the spot"
I had the chance to take and fly my new drone with two fully charged batteries, each ready to give me 25 or so minutes of fly time to a special spot. I have had the idea of taking a drone to this spot and taking some awesome footage since I first drove by it weeks ago. Basically its an old, abandoned, half rotted Walking Dragline Machine (You'll understand shortly what this is and what it does)
New drone regulations in Canada which can be found HERE, now restrict pilots to some pretty limited flying conditions (compared to what it used to be even two years ago) So lets say being less than 5km to the Canada/USA border crossing, just outside the fence of a mining project where they currently have active mining and earth shaping equipment working. They are just these giant crane looking structures off on down the road a little ways on the ghorizon. That, the fact that I have only ever flown this drone twice before... ever, accompanied by the realization that I was literally almost inside at one point, an old, rotten, rusty and vandelized, massive piece of abandoned oldschool earth moving equipment, just left to weather away and rot into the ground as the years go by... in an eerie and creepy way, a way that makes a grown man check twice before touching the steel with his bare hands... all that made things a little nerve racking to put it lightly for me!
So whilst flying the drone, I thought I did a pretty decent job and maneuvering it through the air like a graceful sparrow, which on the odd pic or snippet in a video I did, but for the most part, according to the video evidence, did not do such a fantastic job as I had thought standing from the ground!
However I did manage to get some kinda knarly shots of this old piece of giant equipment.
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!!!!!! UPDATE: !!!!!!
I decided that only one time out to this old giant for pics was simply just not enough! So I went back for more... and I got more pics alright... I actully got some rad shots and a few vids too, with a story to go along, which I will try and narrate throughout the pics so its not just a whack of pics in yo face!
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Well ok Digger, but what are you even talking about when you say a Walking Dragline Machine?
"Well this is it... an abandoned Walking Dragline Machine, a majestic old mammoth that once moved more dirt than you could propably conceive possible with one swoop of its bucket"
So basically the first time I went with the drone to the site, everything went without a problem, I got some pics and some vids, nothing too spectacular which is why I couldn't post without going back for round 2!
Round 2 however was a different story! All added together here
:D
This is how big the chain links on this machine are, bigger than my hand :O
"Right at sunset the first day"
Kind of shows the enormous size of this old equipment with me standing there in front
So I walked all the way from my truck to this mammoth which was a good 400m (1200feet) walk. As soon as I got close, I suddenly got chills. Not from anything specific, more so just to be standing in the presence of a machine and its parts strewn all over the ground, kinda leaves someone wondering what this was like years and years ago. I have no idea how old this equipment is or how long it has been sitting here, but if I was to guess... I would say its from the 80's at leeeast! So it just gave me that eerie impression, and made me wonder what, how, when and just where this piece of human ingenuity worked? Why did they just up and leave, abandoning it? Was anyone ever hurt or killed? Just a lot of speculative questions went through my mind you know and left unanswered with truth. It leaves you with that uneasy, creepy feeling. Mind you I was more excited than anything and my adrenaline was pumping more than normal lol! Because let me add again, I wasn't even sure if I could even be there taking pics and vids!!!
"My simple setup"
Well here we go, Some cool areal shots
"All those massive gear looking things were taller than I was, and TBH am not sure what they are used for, I figure maybe the inner workings of the machine, the guts per say"
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"Yeah that's me in the red circle!!!!"
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I know these pics may not do the most justice, but the absolute size of this piece of equipment is unrelenting. And to think, there are new ones out now that are TWICE the size...
The more I circled and filmed and snapped pics, the more I kept thinking of what it would be like to go inside that machine? Inside where all the brains and guts used to be, where all the action happened! I kept wondering to myself throughout the whole time and I really don't know why because I'm not a morbid individual, but I wondered, was anybody ever killed on this machine? Is that why they shut it down and just abandoned it? I know sometimes back in the day, once regulations started to come out, companies used to rather abandoned projects if someone was hurt really bad or killed rather than deal with the strife that arose with a workplace death! Could that have happened here I mean who knows!!!?
So that's what I mean by strange feelings when you get so close to something like this... your brain tells you it is out of the normal yet it doesn't stop your inner ninja from wanting to head inside and explore, explore, explore...
So then I said OK lets do it, lets be rebellious and go explore this machine...but theeeen I thought naw, don't do it Digger, don't risk getting in trouble... maybe its not safe, maybe it is cursed or something...!
So I didnt, and I kept flying :D
And that's it!! That's my adventure for the day!!! Hope you guys enjoyed it :D
"Is that a face only a mother could love?"
JUST KIDDING!!!
Come on now, did you think I actually wasn't going to go inside that massive piece of old art just sitting there begging to be explored?!
Well I did. I hopped the fence and got in... But not too far or for very long because to be honest... I felt suuuuper un-easy in there... I didn't even really go that far inside because ... well to be honest it was freaky as hell in there!!! But I was also super excited and caught up in the moment. I wasn't a very good camera man snapping lots of pics like I should have and even thought about at the time, but I got a few... and to be fair to me... its not often I find myself in such an offset situation such as this!!!
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"I was standing up here on this level for these pics, maybe 15meters (50feet) up"
Aaaaaaaaaand thats it... I hope they were as cool for other people as much as they were for me :D*
All photos taken by me, @diggerdugg :D
All work on this page done by me, @diggerdugg
Cheers and happy Steeming all you Steemerz out there!!
Now I will at some point when I get better at making videos and doing video editing, use the video footage I took here and use it to make a sweet video! If anyone have any tips or tricks on how and where to get started as a newbie with this, please let me know because I want to start dabbling in video editing very soon!!
SHOUTOUTS:
Transport Canada - For the drone regulations
Equipment machines on Youtube for their explanation oon what a Walking Dragline is
Gifs from Here
IF ANYONE SENDS A RANDOWHALE VOTE MY WAY, I WILL GLADLY AND RANDOMLY SEND ONE BACK YOUR WAY. THIS GOES TO ANYONE WHO DOES IT AT ANY TIME
:D
DIGGER
is that a mistake? how much my post is worth?
someone shared your post on curie (https://streemian.com/guild/curie) congrats!
Woooow. I will check in later this eve to investigate! This is the greatest day I've had on Steemit yet!! :D
Do you know who it was that did that for me?
Thanks for the help :D
You deserve it and thanks for boosting my post.
Thank you sir! One day when youre able to, pass it along... it feels good to help others and then watch as they get excited :D
Gosh I love photography. If I had some disposable income I'd buy a decent camera and pick up the hobby, or try to. Not much here to take pictures of in a small city it the Midwest, US haha. Anyway great post!
Thank you @diggerdugg for boosting my post with randowhale, you make my day.
Awesome blog! And great photos!
Thanks so much.
Beautiful! This looks like a great place to go!:) Please check my little journey that I made soon. I hope you enjoy my photos. @nakedchef89
https://steemit.com/history/@nakedchef89/travel-challenge-6-belogradchik-rocks-bulgaria
Cheers and happy Steeming
Nice diggerdugg. Thanks for sharing.
More cool ones as the days go on :D