Apalachicola treated to drone light show
Saturday night at Apalachicola’s 10-Foot Hole, across from Battery Park, was an unusual one, as a large crowd gathered to witness a drone light show.
Created by Orion Skys, a three-month-old company out of Loganville, Georgia, the 15-minute show was brought to the area at no cost by the Franklin County Tourist Development Council.
Co-owners Prashill Patel and Kervin Larche oversaw a small crew that presented the show that with the help of Patel’s wife Tulsi, they designed and animated..
“She came up with a storyboard and then we designed it from scratch,” said Patel.
Orion used 100 A14 drones, which were controlled by a laptop. The drones move based on pre-set GPS coordinates that are bounced off a satellite to direct the drones below.
“If we need to make any edits, it has to be done before in the design studio,” Patel said.
The drones can fly for no more than 20 minutes. “And just in case there’s extra wind in the sky, more powerful winds. It takes more battery to sustain all these positions,” Patel said.
He said he is in talks with the Blue Parrot and Paddy’s Raw Bar on St. George Island to present a drone show later this summer. “We worked with (TDC Director) John Solomon for six months, and he was telling us that Apalachicola hasn’t seen a drone show,” Patel said. “And we thought it was a good opportunity to show what we can bring to Apalachicola, to Franklin County and to show them what a drone show actually is.”
For more information, visit www.orionskys.com
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.