National Geographic Expedition Support: Toroweap PickupFLAGSTAFF, AZ – Pete McBride and Kevin Fedarko’s through-hike of the Grand Canyon is complete.  On their their third-from-final leg, 4 Corner Film Logistics extracted Pete and Kevin from the Toroweap Overlook on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  With the Help of Steve Hatch and John Dillon, Chad, Harlan, and Nat Geo editor Sadie Quarrier were flown from Flagstaff, to the Bar-10 ranch on the North Rim.  Had Chad, Harlan, and Sadie driven from Flagstaff, to the Bar-10 ranch, the drive would have taken nearly eight hours, yet the flight was little over an hour and fifteen minutes. Upon landing at Bar-10, Chad, Harlan, and Sadie hopped in a SUV that had been driven into the Bar-10 from St. George, Utah by one of the ranch hands and set off over the mount Trumbull wilderness to find Kevin and…
Confluence Project: Confluence PointNORTHERN ARIZONA – 4 Corner Film Logistics is spearheading an effort to document and make available in an open-source format archival footage of the confluence of the Colorado River and the Little Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.  This iconic and majestic part of the Grand Canyon is currently under threat of development, so at a bare minimum, our goal is to document this place for future generations.  And yes, I did say threat of development.  While you may be wondering how the heck someone is going to develop something in a National Park, it turns out that the Eastern rim of the Grand Canyon is on the Navajo Nation.  This means that it is NOT inside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park, and developers have learned of this detail.  These developers are currently working to court the Navajo…
National Geographic Expedition Support: South Bass Trail HeadTusayan, AZ – 4 Corner Film Logistics (4CFL) recently completed an extraction and insertion of a National Geographic team that is through-hiking the Grand Canyon.  The team’s journey will require them to hike more than 650 miles through the length of the Grand Canyon.  For this particular leg, the team had requested a pickup and dropoff at the South Bass trailhead.  Getting to the South Bass trailhead requires driving more than 30 miles of dirt road, including a few miles on the Havasupai Indian reservation, and navigating the pasture wash.  Under ideal (dry) conditions, a high clearance four wheel drive vehicle is required to get down the wash.  When you’re travelling out there in the middle of winter, after the region has received several feet of snow, all bets are off. Hours of research ensued.  Countless phone calls were made, and…
FAA Admits That Registration Information Will Be Made Publicly AvailableFlagstaff, AZ – Today, Forbes published an article by former NTSB member John Goglia that brings to light some disconcerting information concerning the FAA’s recent registration program for drones and model aircraft:  Your full name and home address provided during the registration process will be publicly available, even if you are a minor. It’s definitely worth reading the whole article, and not just going off the headline alone.  If you don’t agree with what the FAA is doing here, let your representatives know how you feel.  You are also able to comment on the FAA’s interim rule here.  Please be an adult with your comments. The Academy of Model Aeronautics released a statement that is encouraging all of it’s members to hold off on registration.  You can read their whole statement here.  According to the FAA’s FAQ, if you purchased your UAS…
RC Aircraft / Drone registration is now a thing. Here’s what you need to know:Washington, DC – Today the FAA (with parent, DOT) announced the details of the drone registration process it had announced it would have in place before the Christmas holiday.  Not only are drones now subject to registration, but any RC aircraft that weighs between 0.55 to 55 pounds needs to be registered as well.  According to the FAA, pilots who fail to register their aircraft could face civil penalties up to $27,500 and criminal penalties up to $250,000 and three years of jail time. Each pilot will have a registration number that they will need to affix to each aircraft they operate, as opposed to registering each aircraft.  That makes life bearable for folks who build their own aircraft (like the author), and are constantly changing and tweaking parts on a given aircraft.  The registration process is allegedly very simple…
New Reebok short features footage shot by Lightforce MediaWinslow, AZ – Lightforce Media recently helped with the filming of a new short for Reebok featuring professional climber Sierra Blair-Coyle.  Three separate camera units spent a day following Sierra up and down East Clear Creek reservoir as she completed numerous deep water solo problems.  In addition to an HD camera unit, 4 Corner Film Logistics was on set with their boat-mounted Movi camera crane to capture dynamic shots of Sierra and the canyon.  A crew was also brought out from LA with an array of GoPro cameras that were used to create a 360 degree video when the footage from each camera in the array was combined.…
Why do you call it a “Blag” and not a “Blog”!?    Because there are billions of ‘blogs’ out there, but there aren’t many ‘blags.’ My hobby isn’t to mispronounce words.  But I do need to give a nod to XKCD, which is the source of the word ‘blag,’ and so many other great things.  This webcomic is so brilliant, and so on-point with so many things that we face in life that it’s creator was able to quit his job at NASA (!) and work on XKCD full time.  Let me give you a few more examples of the brilliance that is XKCD: Anyone else ever noticed this?   Sometimes, I read the comments on YouTube, just to feel thankful that I have an education – and an understanding of history. Fact: The internet is always right. XKCD has been this little part of the internet that I’ve really enjoyed following…