Just got back from a month+ as part of the first response team following Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines. It was complicated but I managed to take both a PV1 and a PV2 Vision with me and near the end of my deployment was able to fly them. I wish I had done that earlier; because despite having previously worked in many such disasters zones the capability (albeit being largely visual at this stage) to get up and be able to view over a wide area beyond the main roads where we are often confined to was break taking...in that it gave us a different and more clearer picture of what was happening in the communities we were trying to assist. My role is in shelter (and early recovery housing) and hence we could see where and how the tarps and plastic sheeting that was being supplied was used; we could see and get a feel for the extent and localities of housing damage (though it was extensive in the Tacloban-Tolosa area where I was essentially based) and you were able to get a better sense for the pain that communities were experiencing. Clearly, we do get off the main streets but again you are seeing it at street level....getting some height makes a huge difference.
Phantoms have feelings as well....
PS I was able to get the PV2 Vision battery problems resolved that I mentioned in another part of the forum and consequently sorting out the replacement of one dead PV2 Vision battery. So it was softly-softly with it but on the other hand the PV1 was solid throughout. But for impact with colleagues, it was the PV2 Vision. We will be developing their mapping capabilities in 2014 using PIX4D.
Phantoms have feelings as well....
PS I was able to get the PV2 Vision battery problems resolved that I mentioned in another part of the forum and consequently sorting out the replacement of one dead PV2 Vision battery. So it was softly-softly with it but on the other hand the PV1 was solid throughout. But for impact with colleagues, it was the PV2 Vision. We will be developing their mapping capabilities in 2014 using PIX4D.
