P4 Sports Mode. Somewhat excited and cautiously optimistic

[Rich C.]

My goal with the P4 was to literally fly with the birds. I put glass on some birds out in the distance, I fly out there, hover 7 or 8 feet over the water, and slowly creep up on the birds. I've been shooting wildlife for years using long lenses. I wanted a unique (for me) perspective.

I begin to execute my plan. I'm hovering 7 feet or so over the water and begin creeping up on a pond loaded with tundra swans. I'm getting good stuff. I satisfied with the video I'm getting, so it was time to have fun. I fly close to the birds, and they they take off with me behind them. Who knew a swan could fly so fast?. What I needed was Sports Mode.

I find another small pond with tundra swans in it. Same deal, I creep up on them and they take off with me behind them. I was flying with them! I was doing fine in Sports Mode. I get ahead of them and wait for them to fly under me. That was the moment I stopped relying on muscle memory, and started thinking about what I was doing.

Big mistake. The moment I started thinking about what I was doing I flew the P4 to God knows where, I used RTH to get the bird home.

It is time for me to get the video into my laptop. I'm somewhat excited that I may have a (very) small piece of exceptional video, me flying with a flock of swans.I will be thrilled if I got 10 seconds of video goodness.

Wish me luck, I'm going in

Cheers

 

[eatpasta]

@Rich C. well lets see it!

 

[AnchorageAk]

^ What he said. If you start putting feathers on you drone, we will start to worry about you.

 

[Rich C.]

@Rich C. well lets see it!

I have a few seconds of goodness. Props in the way, unfortunately necessary, it was tough keeping up with them, but I did. I'm putting together a video of my trip to Stillwater WMA (Fallon, Nevada). What a wonderful place, great egrets and ibis in the middle of December. I never knew that egrets could winter over in the cold (17 degrees F when we arrived there)

The P4 did good in the bitter cold. I started with warm batteries and even though I got the "Low Battery Warning" message, once the bird lifted in the air it let me fly, even with the chilly batteries,

Be back soon. Cheers

 

[Rich C.]

My goal with the P4 was to literally fly with the birds. I put glass on some birds out in the distance, I fly out there, hover 7 or 8 feet over the water, and slowly creep up on the birds. I've been shooting wildlife for years using long lenses. I wanted a unique (for me) perspective.

I begin to execute my plan. I'm hovering 7 feet or so over the water and begin creeping up on a pond loaded with tundra swans. I'm getting good stuff. I satisfied with the video I'm getting, so it was time to have fun. I fly close to the birds, and they they take off with me behind them. Who knew a swan could fly so fast?. What I needed was Sports Mode.

I find another small pond with tundra swans in it. Same deal, I creep up on them and they take off with me behind them. I was flying with them! I was doing fine in Sports Mode. I get ahead of them and wait for them to fly under me. That was the moment I stopped relying on muscle memory, and started thinking about what I was doing.

Big mistake. The moment I started thinking about what I was doing I flew the P4 to God knows where, I used RTH to get the bird home.

It is time for me to get the video into my laptop. I'm somewhat excited that I may have a (very) small piece of exceptional video, me flying with a flock of swans.I will be thrilled if I got 10 seconds of video goodness.

Wish me luck, I'm going in

Cheers

It was a challenge keeping the wildlife safe, and keeping my bird safe. Here it is, 37 seconds in all its glory.

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[eatpasta]

awesome! You were pretty dammed low for that entire clip!

 

[Rich C.]

awesome! You were pretty dammed low for that entire clip!

Yep, I got down as low as I could go. I'm beginning to get comfortable with stuff like that. It would be marvelous if I knew my height above water tho. Flying with birds is amazing, a truly unique experience for me. It's nice to know that I can fly with big birds... great egrets, GBH, Ibis, cranes, ospreys, swans. These birds are big and it takes them a while to get airborne, I'm hoping to fly with them when it starts warming up around here.

Thank you for your kind words.

Cheers