Snoqualmie Falls DJI Phantom 2 Vision + Plus Flyover

This flyover of the famous waterfall in Washington State, USA, Snoqualmie Falls, was "sketchy" as my kids would say. The results are a bit rough but still beautiful so I posted it. First, I accidentally shot it in 720P, which turned out great because while you might not see it on KZbin, the source video is fantastic. I highly recommend using the 720P 60 FPS setting on DJI's Phantom 2 Vision Plus. As for the flight itself, I wasn't expecting such gusty blowback so you see the copter's prop guards bouncing all over the place. Amazingly, and testament to DJI, the 3d gimbal kept the camera rock steady. The real trouble started while over the falls. My phone popped out of the clamp and skittered over the rocks. I was flying blind for a few minutes, I could barely see the UAV and couldn't tell its facing. I grabbed my Samsung Galaxy Note 2, popped it back in the clamp and saw that the FPV was frozen. I rebooted the Vision app and everything came back, or so I thought. This all occurred while I was doing the 180 yaw over the falls. So I overshot it a bit, it doesn't look bad though. What I noticed on the return flight was that the Phantom had lost all of its GPS satellites, and the directional arrow on the app was no longer visible. While I could still see FPV, I was flying back down the falls in complete manual flight. I've practiced manual flight... on a flat field in no wind, but never with buffeting blowback between cliff walls and over water. That was scary. Luckily my son spotted for me and we had pre-planned an emergency landing procedure where he'd catch the legs while I shut down the rotors. Thankfully it all worked. I don't recommend either complete manual mode without a lot of practice and I certainly don't recommend someone catch the copter as a landing method. In our case, it worked.

[@broadcastmaster44]

Awesome video! It's nice to see someone really pushing their Phantom Vision 2 + to see what kind of footage you can get! Hoping to get mine next Monday (it's being shipped right now) so I can start posting some cool videos too!

[@SeattleDrones]

Nice video and impressive you were able to do the manual flight without the GPS. Thanks also for talking about the PSE and the "no fly" rule there. It's a bummer of a rule but it was still fun to see your video.

[@msgeek703]

Epic. Absolutely epic.

[@22waffen]

superb!!

[@CharlieDresen]

Very cool.

[@scottcampbellphotography2514]

Very fun #aerial photo shoot with my #DJI #Phantom #drone #UAV on a hot day at Snoqualmie Falls, WA, USA

[@scottrose8898]

Was it hard to get permission for this? PSE?

[@scottcampbellphotography2514]

Hi Scott, actually, I didn't get permission. However I should have. I think I would still have been able to fly, just not that exact path. PSE has since contacted me and requested me not to fly from the tourist side of the river bank or over PSE equipment, which makes complete sense. I'm trying to get hold of someone at PSE now to see if I need to take down the video. So my advice is to be careful.