I take the drone, headset, and controller outside and set them up.
I turn the drone on and get it hovering before putting the VR headset on.
The first thing I see after putting on the headset, is myself, standing there looking a little goofy.
Man, is that how I look? I really am skinny. Do I always look this goofy?
Whatever, let's just fly.
I control the drone to turn around and fly upward.
As the drone ascends I am able to get a good look around. The different perspective allows me to see things in a way I hadn't before.
However as the drone got higher my fear of heights really started to affect me. I know it is just a video but I even feel my stomach drop when I fall from something high in video games.
So a first person view from a 4k video in VR, yeah that does something.
I only gained a fear of heights because I fell out of a tree when I was younger.
It's not a super long story, so I'll tell it.
When I was younger around 11 or 12. It was a bright and snowy night, the clouds were overcast and bright, with snow drifting all around.
My friends and I, who had been playing in the snow all day, decided to play one more game that night.
It was a version of hide and seek tag that was named after an old horror movie villain who wore a white mask.
Usually I would volunteer to be it first, but not tonight. We played odds and evens to decide who would be it first and it was not me.
After we had decided that we had to decide on the bounds of the game.
It was an easy task because we played here all of the time.
The bounds were set to the 3 acre plot of land at the top of the block. It consisted of 2 acres that were essentially a field with a few trees and a garden made by the people who owned the land we were on.
They were nice people who let us play here all of the time, you have to remember at this time of my life I lived in the countryside where everyone knew everybody.
Anyway the other acre was a wooded forest that wasn't very big.
And on a night like tonight we all knew we would be hiding there.
So we all ran into the woods when the seeker closed his eyes and started counting.
As the laughing and giggling band of kids entered the woods we split up to find our own hiding places.
I knew exactly where I wanted to hide, In the big tree we always sat under in the woods.
Because who would look there in the dark? Even if they saw me, what were they going to do? Climb up after me?
The only thing I had to worry about was my footprints in the snow. So I ran a few circles around the base of the tree then ran off towards where I saw one of my friends go until I found his footprints and connected our trails.
After that I stepped backwards through my own footprints, careful not to make any new prints until I got back to the tree.
Once I was back I climbed up the tree, climbing higher and higher, until I was almost at the top of the tree.
When it happened, I slipped.
I fell out of the tree, hitting every branch on the way down. Until the final branch which was the farthest fall because the branches get more spaced out the lower in the tree you are.
I landed on my left ribs knocking the wind out of me, then the branch slid up to my underarm, before I was fully sliding out of the tree. But my left hand somehow grabbed onto the last branch.
So there I was dangling from the lowest branch of the tree, I don't know how long I hung there before I realized that I was only a few inches off of the ground.
So I let go and collapsed into the snowy ground below.
I really don't remember how long I was laying on the ground wheezing before I managed to stand up.
But when I did manage to stand I was holding my left ribs and taking shaky breaths, looking out into the field of snow that I could see from inside the woods.
As I stood there and looked around I still remember the stillness of that night, and how quiet it was.
I remember standing there for a few minutes looking into the distance trying to find someone, anyone so I could tell them that I was going home.
But the only thing I could see was the stillness of the night, and the only thing I could hear was the deafening quiet that amplified my wheezes and the slight blow of the winds through the trees.
Since I couldn't find anyone, I could only turn and limp my way out of the woods and walk down the quiet snowy street under the street lamps, all alone.
To this day I think back and question why there was no one there. Surely they would have heard me fall out of the tree. Surely there would have had to have been some kind of movement, that I would have seen if they were still playing.
So I question, did they know I fell and they left me to die? Did they just ditch me as a prank? Or were they actually still playing but I just couldn't see them?
I don't know and I don't think that I ever will.
Anyway since then I have never liked heights.
But I can get over it. It's not to the point of being paralyzed it is just an aversion to being in a high place that I can't control.
I think once I get more adept at controlling the drone that aversion will fade away.
I control the drone to fly over the trees behind my house to fly free over a place where no one will see.
While flying I look around the woods through the changing leaves in search of anything that might be moving, like deer.
This would be a lot easier if I had thermal imaging on the drone.
That sounds like a project for another day.