Last year, my company hosted an extravagant “Family Day” celebration for its North American employees and their relatives. There were food trucks, train tours of our plants, inflatable obstacle courses, bounce houses, a DJ, and a lavish charcuterie tent! I’m sure the organization spent tens of thousands, but this year’s was even more massive.
My company is the North American branch of a privately owned Italian plastics compounder. We’re a Tier 3 supplier that makes the raw materials used in cars, appliances, and other consumer goods. I’ve written about the place occasionally, like when I celebrated graffiti on the railcars we receive, when I got my current position as the production planner, and when I was hired as a lab technician just over a year ago.
Last year’s Family Day occurred within my first month on the job. I didn’t want to go since I was so new and barely knew anyone, but I invited my parents, who were interested in seeing my new digs. We went, and I kicked myself as soon as we left.“I should have told my boss about my drone,” I thought. “I could have taken some cool photos for the company to post on the intranet!”
This year, that’s exactly what I did. I hemmed and hawed about attending but eventually became the hundredth person to RSVP. A hundred attendees doesn’t seem like a lot, but most of our processes are automated. Between our two buildings, I’d be surprised if a hundred people even worked here!
Family Day was from 10:30 to 2:30 on Saturday. I meant to get there around noon, but I was lost in a forest sixty miles away in search of an artesian well. Ceding defeat, I got to the plant just an hour before the festivities were set to end. I crossed paths with several people headed home as I passed through the entrance gate, but the entire grandiose setup remained intact.
The parking lot was full, and I heard bone-shaking music from an enormous array of amplifiers when I pulled in. I saw food trucks, inflatable games, obstacle courses that defied concise description, and…a petting zoo? An artisan marketplace?
My RSVP entitled me to some tickets for food trucks. Nerdy BBQ’s was tempting, but I was on a mission: I parked next to our recycling plant and got the drone out, but that’s when disaster struck: over the year and a half I’ve owned it, I’ve flown my DJI Mavic Mini SE twenty-three miles over fifty-four flights. You’d think I’d know how to connect the damn thing to its controller, but I guess I don’t!
Under normal circumstances, the procedure could scarcely be easier: I turn the controller on, plug it into my phone, and open the DJI Fly app. Next, I unfold the drone, turn it on, set it on the pavement, and wait for the “GO FLY” icon to pop up on my iPhone. On Family Day, the drone refused to connect to the controller, no matter what order I did things.
I tried time and time again to connect the drone with the controller until I googled it. A forum indicated that people who experienced the same issue found that it resulted from files stored on the drone’s microSD card. Apparently, some quirk in the firmware disagrees with the presence of media that the drone didn’t write. I couldn’t check its contents in the field, so I popped the microSD out. The drone connected to the controller like nothing had happened, and I put the card back in without any further issues.
Problems resolved, I flew the drone over Family Day. I was worried about whether the signal would penetrate our facilities’ concrete walls, but the drone flew like a champ on its first flight since July. I overcorrected a couple times when the signal lagged, and bringing it in to land was anything but smooth. Fortunately, the drone is easy to operate. Anyone familiar with a Playstation controller could fly it.
Family Day has been a great experience over the past two years. The CEO flies in from Italy and takes time to chat with everyone, which makes the Italian plastics giant I work for feel more like a small business. I’m glad my company values its employees, but I’m even happier to have had a chance to practice flying the drone for the first time since July. I’ve got some cool missions in the works!
