Drones in Haunted Zones Dan Baines Drones in Haunted Zones Dan Baines

Phantoms of Snowdon

What with trying to complete a multitude of projects and attempting to write a book, the poor old blog has been feeling rather neglected of late. It's not that I don't have anything to post, in fact it's the opposite. I have a whole host of interesting snippets, thoughts, urban exploration reports and creative splurges I need to vent so I thought I'd start with my drone footage from 2016.

The following footage was shot in one day with my son on our annual climb of Snowdon in Wales via the Rhyd Du path and back down via the Ranger Path. The weather was perfect for filming with almost zero wind, even at the summit. Ithis allowed me to fully test the range of the Phantom 4 and I was able to fly for over 2km without any drop in video link. The initial footage flying across the lake and up the waterfall was a continuous flight in one direction, a round trip of 4km! At the higher altitudes I did lose the drone in cloud a few times but the Return to Home function worked like a dream and my bird came back to me at the touch of a button. What struck me was the feeling of vertigo even with my feet firmly planted on the ground as I watched the monitor screen. Watching the point of view camera of the drone soaring off a cliff thousands of feet up at 40mph left me with a dizzy head and a surge of adrenaline I wouldn't normally have expected.

The Phantom really captured the beauty of Snowdon in a way no other medium could, unless you had access to a helicopter. The stunning scenery was breathtaking and you could be fooled into thinking it was shot in New Zealand. All that is missing from the shot is Gandalf and a few Hobbits riding their horses across the range.

My son and I will return again this year. Whether we'll be lucky enough to repeat a flight in these conditions again, who knows but the beauty of Wales draws up back every year regardless.

The music is Blueprint for a Slow Machine by 65daysofstatic and taken from the 'Music for an Infinite Universe' album

 

The Youtube version can be watched here, for some reason I was unable to successfully embed my own video.

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