Saturday, June 19, 2021

Zen and the Art of Motor Maintenance


The Way of Drone is hard, a life of rigid austerity devoted ultimately to self-levitation.

Looking at my work to date, I realise I have seen something similar in a previous life as an airline captain, during a visit to a shrine in Tokyo in fact.

Accordingly I arrange a pause in proceedings while a Shinto priest recites incantations over the airframe amongst clouds of incense, so as to speed it on its course with every blessing.

As a part of the effort, I compose my own haiku for the occasion:

O drone
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, slowly!

(Adapted from the work of Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828)

All of which stemmed from a moment of supreme enlightenment when I entered a trance-like state in pursuit of the best possible way of fixing the motors.

For in replacing the three-way tube connectors with four-way, I attained nirvana.