FASF Airfield Security Chief, Bob Wright, of Columbus, Testing his latest model drone in high winds at FAS 1916 Airfield.
Yesterday, Saturday, June 24, 2017, Bob, who actually lives adjacent our our Airfield, made one of his multi-weekly trips over to the FAS Airfield East-West runway, to test out his new drone in high wind conditions. Surprisingly, this new hi-resolution video surveillance drone, although very small and light-weight, managed to cope with the windy conditions without any difficulty.
Bob has already accumulated thousands of feet of video of both the Airfield and local Columbus area from previous flights. He plans to edit some of the footage so that we can post the aerial views of the field and town sometime this Summer.
When we post these aerial views of the field and Village, one will be able to see precisely what the intrepid airman of the First Aero Squadron witnessed daily when they flew their JN-2,3, and 4 model Jennies on missions out of Columbus a century ago. Keep an eye out on our site for these upcoming aerial views by Bob of our FAS Airfield.
As is true of so many of our members, Bob has had a colorful and diverse career, most of it involving Aviation. After retiring from the U. S. Army, where he was a Supervisor of Aircraft Maintenance (of both Fixed and Rotary Winged Aircraft) in widely diverse parts of the world, including Korea and Germany as well as stateside, he also worked for Northrup-Grumman Aircraft Corporation on their advanced “J STARS” project in Louisiana. Once he had re-located to Columbus, Mr. Wright served as the Columbus Fire Chief for some 7 years, before making his final retirement.
In addition to his varied work career, Bob is also a long time motorcycle enthusiast as well as automotive restoration buff. Here, below, are two photos of several of Bob’s proudest restorations, for which he’s garnered numerous car show awards. On his large property near the FAS Airfield, Bob designed and erected a large hangar styled restoration facility, in which he does most of his automotive refurbishing activity. Bob’s wife, Brigitte, is from Germany, although he didn’t meet her there during his years of extensive service in that NATO ally, but rather in the U.S. Brigitte has a passion for growing her local food and raises chickens in a luxury Chicken house built for her by her husband.
One of Bob’s proudest restorations is this VW Camper Van, behind which is another prize restoration, his BMW motorcycle aboard its custom built show trailer.
Completely restored vintage air-cooled BMW motorcycle, a prize winning gem, at a local show. Bob is in background. Remember, to see any photograph in full resolution, simply click on it.