I had a specific picture in mind and a certain story to tell but when I woke up about 6:00 AM, I could hear the wind growl. Sancho does way better in wind than you might speculate, but still has limits. I wondered if this wind would exceed those limits? Yet, Sancho’s GPS ability to lock onto a certain spot in the air and hover in place steady enough to shoot smooth panorama’s amazes me.   The sun rose at 9:24 AM, but before 9:00 there was enough light for me to watch tree branches sway back and forth, but decided I might as well go check it out and drove to my would be launch site. The picture I planned to take would require me me to take Sancho up to about 200 feet. I called the Wasilla Airport AWOS, four miles up the road and found the winds were at 17, gusting to 22. I knew they could be even stronger at 200. I backed out.   I drove to this place, unfolded Sancho and placed the drone on the roof of my car.  I decided to send him up just ten feet, see if he hung stable and if not, bring him right back down and go home. If Sancho stayed stable I would shoot the picture with Sancho hovering a short distance above my car. The whistle blew in the distance. I started Sancho’s rotors and elevated the drone to just two feet above the car.  Sancho was stable. I guided Sancho through a slow, 360 degree pivot. Sancho held stable throughout. The whistle blew again - close. I sent Sancho up ten more feet. The Aurora Winter train - the only train train of the week scheduled pass through Wasilla in daylight - rolled into my frame.   Next Saturday, sunrise coincides with the train’s arrival. If conditions are right, will try again. If I get it, I will tell the story. After that, I don’t know. No more trains will be scheduled to arrive in Wasilla when the sun is above the horizon until late January.   If, in this time period, a beautiful, sunny,  day is forecast, I might drive a ways up into the Interior to a place where the Aurora Winter Train will pass through when the very low sun is still above the horizon. Yet on such days Interior temps tend to be in the -20 to - 40 range and can go into the -50’s and 60’s. I fear this would be just too cold for Sancho. Photograph courtesy of Bill Hess