With the thought of Chernobyl meals hovering over our table at the hotel restaurant like a nuclear cloud, Philip and I met the DJI guys for dinner after 18 hours of travel, 2 lost drones, a broken down van, and gorged ourselves on chicken Kiev, perogies, and latkes. We prepped them to anticipate nuclear sized mosquitos and lots of pickled salads.

I then returned to our room to take a much needed shower (with the typical European hand shower and no fixed shower head, but who cares at this point?!) while Philip held court with the front desk manager to try to communicate with Delta and KLM about the impending (hopefully) arrival of the drone box. A 2 hour power nap later, we got the call at midnight that the driver had arrived to take Philip back to Boryspil, so he charged out with the customs paperwork, luggage claim tag, passport, cash, sheet marks on his face, and hope. I turned on the tv and waited.

Philip returned at 4 am with the drone box and a smile and so the battery charging ceremony commenced - rotating and charging the 15 LiPo batteries in anticipation of getting the proper permits approved by the time we leave for the zone in 5-4-3-2….