The Isle of Man: By Drone
How one man mapped the Isle of Man, with 4D visual insights
In the early stages of Hangar Technology we released an application called Hangar 360 , first as a gift to the drone community — an autonomous flight control app for DJI drones, allowing hands off capture of captivating, 360 photos. Secondly to demonstrate, from end-to-end, the full autonomous nature of the Hangar Robotics as a System platform. Between March 2017 and March 2018, over 50k 360 photos were captured using our application on 6 continents (anyone reading this from Antartica?) These photos ranged from shots of construction projects to beautiful views of vacations and personal adventures.
Hangar users are ardent sharers of their incredible captures and one particular share led me directly to Craig Goffin. Whom, over the course of 8 months, captured over 300 immersive 360 photos using our application. All contained within a 32 mile long, and 14 mile wide Island. The Isle of Man.
Aside from our world map, and the images captured I knew very little about the Island Craig calls home. Bursting with curiosity I reached out to Craig to learn more “The Isle of man is a small island in the Irish sea between England and Ireland,” stated Craig “on a clear day you can see the five kingdoms, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and of course, The Isle of Man.”
“The Isle is also home to an annual cross country motorcycle race called the Isle of Man TT or Time Trial.” Craig informed me, riders set off in 10 second intervals, bombing and dodging around a 37 mile course that circumnavigates the interior of the Island. “We are currently seeing laps of 133 mph average speed per lap, bare in mind this is all happening through towns and villages” all dotted along the main thoroughfare around the Island.
“I’m not a local to the island” stated Goffin in our first skype chat, “I came here for the first time in 2013 with friends to watch the TT races and fell in love with the place, visiting as often as possible. In 2016 I was made redundant at my job of 27 years in England, and threw my net out wide.” Craig now works in IT on the island and “jumped at the chance to live a more relaxed lifestyle.” There is no better indicator of the relaxed lifestyle Craig enjoys than his 360 photos.
Over the course of his captures Craig has fostered a growing community on Facebook called Isle of Man by Drone boasting over 7,600 page likes and followers, and generating high levels of engagement including the interest of BBC, which is easy to understand given the imagery this island has to offer.
Hangar was at a unique point when the conversations with Craig began. We had just completed some development on a solution for Non-profit community initiatives to capture aerial 4D data, pre-planned and precise. After learning a little more, I found Craig was the perfect user profile to begin using, and delivering feedback to our team on this new platform called Hangar OnDemand for Communities.
One of the most delightful surprises came when I asked Craig how he managed to keep track of all of these 360 photos,
“We have a huge map of the island on the wall in front of my Mac. We use colored pins, blue pins for each location we’ve captured a 360 photo, a white pin for future flights, and green pins for the Tholtans (derelict farm buildings), also the TT course is lined with Red pins, and our no fly zone is notated in yellow and red.”
The serendipity of this just blew my mind, because we were just then rolling out custom community worlds. I couldn’t wait to invite Craig to begin using our new platform, not only giving him the incredible ability to capture 360 photos with higher precision, but transfer all the analogue information Craig had compiled into a geo-referenced accurate digital world map. Allowing easy planning of future 360 photos, as well as effortless viewing, downloading, and sharing of previously captured 360 photos, all in one centralized place. (I have to admit, first I ran around the office showing everyone Craig’s analog map, knowing how perfect this encounter had become, a print still resides on my desk.)
“I LOVE IT” Craig exclaimed after introducing him to Hangar On-Demand, “The fact I can now preplan flights is just remarkable, and the system allows me to plan flights and move 360 locations if I am too close to buildings using the satellite view. Honestly its just awesome, I love the process”
“[360 photos] are interactive, people feel like they are there! I spot places or things I didn’t even know existed when I’m reviewing my 360’s in the new platform” stated Craig,
“It’s not just about what my followers enjoy, it’s also about what I see. I feel like I’m fully exploring my island with new eyes.”
Craig’s intentions for this project are to continue to map the Island with 360 photos, capturing certain data points over time, “I’ve already been told over and over again that my images are going to be fantastic for future generations looking back. The historical ramifications are awesome.” He also hopes to extend his missions beyond the Island, to the surrounding 5 kingdoms. He openly invites European drone operators to contribute to his world of imagery, and share in this crowd sourced initiative. Craig will place pins in your area, and you will use the our latest application to capture, all the data captured will be effortlessly delivered to Craig’s map.
It may not be fully realized what Craig Goffin has been able to accomplish, however, his map is an array of informed, designed, and specific 4D data points. Craig has mapped his Island with not only stunning imagery, but visceral 4D data points. Data is in the eye of the beholder. To some, it is beautiful imagery of the Isle and it’s countryside, to TT fans, a way to relive, plan, and dream about the daring races that take place on this Island. Personally, this shows the power of the individual, enabled with a one touch software solution, armed with a drone, to take on our own small world, and invite other to step into another reality, with just a click.
I encourage all reading this to visit and enjoy the beautiful work of Craig Goffin, to learn and explore through his view of The Isle of Man, and ponder the never before possible impact of this unbiased, macro view of this corner of our ever changing world.
