i watched the bucks parade in milwaukee starting in the early afternoon. since this is their first sports championship parade in a long time, i'm willing to cut them some slack, but mistakes were definitely made. the players rode on the tops of double decker tour buses. they were positioned in such a way that it was hard for fans to actually see the players. for example, giannis was only on the left side of the house, so fans on the right side never got to see him. he should've been in the center, or rode in the front. also the bus drivers forgot this was a victory parade, and sped through the parade route, giving fans just a split second to glimpse the passing players. hopefully they'll do a better job on their next championship parade.

in the afternoon i went to market basket for the 3rd consecutive day in a row. i had a pineapple lindy's italian ice last night and it was pretty good so i went back for more. my mother also asked me to get some scallions and cilantro. plus i finally got that sushi i was eyeballing yesterday, saving it for dinner. they didn't have any pineapple-mango italian ice, but they did have watermelon-strawberry, so i got a box of that. i came home to drop off the sushi before riding to the cafe to deliver the supplies.

i left the cafe around 3:15pm and headed for prospect hill park to fly my drone, which i already brought along in my messenger bag. it's a great spot to fly, with a clear view of boston and (behind some trees) cambridge. however it's within a restricted runway airspace of logan airport, with a height restricted of 200-500ft depending on how far you are from the airport. i've actually flown here back in early january, but it was a little harrowing because my pixel 3XL phone crashed midflight and i couldn't do anything but wait until the phone reconnected with the drone. also i was still doing hand catching and managed to slice my fingers with the propeller blades. i was eager to try flying again this time with the far more stable iphone 7.

there was a man getting his photo professionally taken at the prospect hill observatory, and a couple having a picnic down below underneath a tree, but the place was otherwise empty, perfect condition. i still wasn't quite sure if i could fly, because for some reason there were helicopters circling overhead. i was tempted to listen to the police scanner to see if i could pick up any traffic, but they disappeared soon afterwards. (later i learned they were actually doing helicopter train above somerville, flying out of norwood airport). i climbed down to the mid-tier lawn to possibly set up my launch pad circle, but decided to do my launch directly from the observatory itself since it was higher up with a better view, plus it was solid ground so i didn't have to unfurl my launch pad. the drone was having a hard time locking onto a strong gps signal from the ground, so i put it on the wall and launched from there.

the couple beneath the tree actually heard my drone ascending into the air. i flew it over the union square MBTA extension station construction site (at 200ft elevation measured from prospect hill), then continued onwards towards boston, in a south-southeastern direction. i flew as far as rogers street in east cambridge, my former workplace (since torn down and replaced with a biogen lab). that was a distance of 5800ft, more than a mile, the longest distance i've ever flown. my RC signal was strong and i could've kept going but i saw the US department of transportation (DOT) building and remember seeing it on my flight map as a red restricted fly zone (i actually made a mistake, the restricted zone is the cambridge courthouse and jail building). not wanting to risk crossing into restricted air space, i made a turn and decided to fly back.

that's when my strong RC signal started acting crazy. was it because there was a plane or helicopter nearby? the warning alternated between signal lost and weak signal. finally i got an "aircraft not connected to RC" warning. i started to get a little panicked. that's when my remote control initiated an auto return to home command (RTH). i couldn't understand what was happening, because the drone was flying. but it was actually rising up to 400ft (i was flying at just 200ft) because returning home. so on the one hand wasn't happy to see that i lost signal mysteriously, but i was happy to know the RTH does work if i ever do lose RC signal control with the drone. instead of cancelling RTH, i let it fly back, stopping it only when it was directly overhead so i could guide it down manually.

once i got the drone back, i changed out the battery and wanted to fly it again, this time towards cambridge. but my view of the cambridge sky was blocked by trees, a couple came up to the observatory, and the sky started to darken with ominous clouds. i took those as cues to calling it quits. biking back, i tried looking for a new place to fly, but nowhere was as good as prospect hill.

later when i checked my drone footage, i discovered the reason why i had signal loss was because i fly by a building that was outfitted with various antennas and satellite dishes. it was also a good thing i didn't keep on flying past rogers street, i was actually flying relatively low (200ft) and there was a building ahead of me with various cranes that i might've crashed into. but that doesn't mean i can't fly elsewhere, and the next time i try from prospect hill, i'm going to see if i can reach MIT or maybe even the charles river.

when evening came around, i made some smashed cucumbers (using half an english cucumber), letting them chill in the fridge for half an hour before they were ready to eat. i also finally opened my container of sushi (spicy tuna volcano roll). i ate while watching the yankees-redsox game. midway through there was a rain delay of nearly an hour. when the yankees went up 3-1 in the 8th inning, i closed the stream, figuring new york was sure to win. but when i watched the news, they were saying how boston might win, so i switched back to the game, which was in the 10th inning. apparently the red sox managed to tie the game. but the yankees scored a run in the 10th, and it was up to the red sox to score a run to tie or more to win. but the yankees totally imploded, their closing pitcher suddenly lost his accuracy and every ball seemed to sail into the backstop, advancing the red sox runners. it was almost like new york didn't want to win, and gifted the red sox a walk-off victory.