The skies over Barga have been buzzing recently with the sound of drones circling overhead.
As the price of drones has gradually dropped, so they have become more widely available but there are some technical problems with these machines that still have to be sorted out – the main problem being the battery life.
Powering four propellers and all the controlling mechanisms drains the battery very quickly bringing flights to an abrupt and expensive ending.
Recent drones now have software installed which once the battery has dropped to a low level, it automatically stops its flight and returns home to its original GPS position.
All well and good BUT there could be a problem with that as on its return flight it goes straight home by the quickest route .. should there be something in its path … a building or a tree, then quite often it fails to return to its expectant controller.
Precisely that was the case this week as a drone crashed 35 metres up into the large cedar tree between the Museum and the Duomo in Barga Vecchia.
Luckily, the tree surgeon Marcus was on hand to scale the cedar tree in search of the missing drone.
The barganews photographer was on hand to document this event but as dusk fell, the mostly black coloured drone was still not making itself seen and eventually Marcus after a fruitless hour climbed down from the tree empty handed.