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Stunning video of Floating Harbour captured by drone
A bird’s eye view of Bristol’s Floating Harbour has been captured in a stunning new video.
In order to comply with Civil Aviation Authority visual line of sight rules, Trevor George followed the drone at dusk on October 27 while riding as a passenger on his e-cargo bike.
The drone started its flight above the fire-damaged Underfall Yard, heading along the docks before turning left at the Arnolfini and finishing at the Cascade Steps.
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In the description of the video on YouTube, George said: “I’ve long wanted to fly the full length of the Bristol Harbour in one go, but to comply with CAA regulations the drone always has to be in ‘Visual Line Of Sight’ (VLOS) so organising this has been challenging.
“Ideally a boat to carry me when the time and weather has been right would be easiest.
“However, I have a Cargo eBike, so with a willing ‘driver’ and myself sat on the back we were (mostly) easily able to follow the Mini 4 along the Harbourside shared path, with the Drone Controller on my neck strap.
“I fastened a lightweight (less than one gram) strobe-light to the underside, so I could see it at all times in the half-light. I also pre-planned a ‘Waypoint flight’ at home on my Tablet so it followed that predetermined path and speed exactly, so the flight wasn’t jerky as we rode over bumpy parts.
“So that we could keep up with the drone, the video was taken with the Mini 4 flying at 10mph, with -15 degrees downward camera tilt, and mostly at 100 feet, dropping to 50 feet for the last leg of the trip up St Augustine’s Reach.
“In editing I have doubled the video speed to 20mph, so hopefully the video hasn’t become too long and boring.”
Main photo: Trevor George
Read next:
- Drone films views of Bristol Cathedral not seen for 500 years
- ‘Epic-scale’ drone light show coming to Bristol
- Amazing timelapse video of Bristol took two years to make
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