Drone launch at sea to film dolphins

Cheers Mad.

 

It's a wild place with 12m (40ft) tides, so most of what you see on the video is underwater at some point. And at low tide the beaches are amazing. The houses are for weekenders in the summer. We have 2 seals and loads of birds but no permanent humans. No real tourists apart from nature lovers on RIB excursions.The reef is 7 miles from Normandy

 

Thanks for the feedback guys and the comments Meta4.

Your photo is cool; they are probably the same dolphins! Sometimes they co-operate and sometimes they don't.

Launching from a small boat is so nerve-wracking. The glare meant I could barely see the drone or the screen, the Go-Home is pointless as I am never going to get my boat back underneath a descending drone in a current of 4kts to catch it, the dolphins keep disappearing then re-appearing 150m away and sometimes I was down to 1m above sea level to try to get the perfect shot. I even thought a dolphin could take the drone out when it surfaced!

Twice I launched alone, drove the boat while flying the drone then landed and caught the drone is a strong current which meant that every time I let go the boat controls to catch the drone, the boat moved away. I honestly thought I'd never catch it and with 2 mins fly time left I realised (I was dumb not to think of this sooner) that to recover the drone I would have to hover it down-current at 2m asl then drift underneath it and catch it.