I took the drone down to the Pueblo Riverwalk on a coolish, cloudy morning this past Saturday. I’m still working on my comfort level while flying in urban settings, so I got down there around 8:00 a.m. to avoid the throngs of weekend walkers that flood the Riverwalk. I was more than a little anxious as I launched the drone.

The flight was made possible by my friends at the Federal Aviation Administration who recently tweaked the local airspace boundaries (in preparation for the debut of their airspace authorization program, LAANC, in Colorado). They’ve rolled back the controlled Class E airspace to the Interstate 25 corridor, putting a good chunk of Pueblo into Class G, or uncontrolled airspace, including downtown.

The Riverwalk flight was my first real foray in a populated environment. It went well, I suppose. I was airborne for about 45 minutes but my anxiousness never really abated. I managed not to crash into anything or, most importantly, anybody. No one was terribly interested in what I was doing, either. Which admittedly were all concerns of mine. And I managed to make a picture on top of all that. That’s something to build on.