One of the things they don't tell you about when you start flying UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, AKA "drones") professionally is the amount of on-going maintenance, upgrading, and customization that is involved. These units are highly complex pieces of aeronautical equipment; an airbourne amalgam of carbon fibre, computer components, and sharp spinny bits.

Our Java Post Aerial Photography UAV technician, Trevor Bennett - who is also a certififed UAV pilot, spends a lot of time tweaking and testing our various UAVs, ensuring that they are safe, reliable, and efficient tools for our aerial photography projects.

But another thing they don't tell you when you start maintaining and upgrading UAVs is just how physically awkward it can be. Pokey, too.

Here's Trevor installing a new Gremsy gStabi 3 axis digital camera stabilizer gimbal onto our FoxtechFPV K-130 octocopter, affectionately known as "The Kraken." The K-130 is the largest of the 3 main units in the Java Post Aerial Photography UAV squadron. It's also the most powerful of our UAVs and can carry the heaviest camera payload. The Gremsy gStabi gimbal, combined with the lifting power of the Kraken, allows a variety of camera makes and models to be flown.

As you'll see in the next few photos, however, is when you're trying to install something on the bottom of a UAV, you have to work awkwardly crouched down beneath the propellers arms, trying not to bang your head or get yourself poked in the eye.

And, for those times you need to adjust something on the top of the UAV, you have to wriggle in between the propeller arms, engaging in what looks like some kind of weird wrestling match betwixt man and machine. Trevor, did you remember to disconnect the battery cable to the propeller motors? You had better hope so, or you're about to feel like a banana in a blender.

And yet one more awkward position and the installation of our Gremsy gStabi 3 axis digital camera stabilizer gimbal is complete. Nicely done, Trevor. Now go see a chiropractor about that sore neck and spine. It's the price one pays for keeping the Java Post fleet flying.