On Saturday afternoon, a group of men arrived at Columbia River Park to test-fly a drone and use it to film a kayaker (one of the group) in the Susquehanna. The endeavor lasted about an hour and drew a small crowd. The drone operators were somewhat tight-lipped about their enterprise, except to say they didn’t need FAA approval as long as they kept the drone below 400 feet. (That information was in answer to a question from one of the onlookers.)
The kayaker paddles out, in preparation for the filming.
An operator checks the drone before take-off. The camera can be seen here, hanging from the bottom of the drone.
Monitor – it sees what the drone camera sees.
The drone and two remotes
Some video clips are shown below. (My camera mike picked up a lot of wind noise, and the drone motors were a bit loud, so you may want to turn down your computer volume before playing the clips.)
Drone take-off #1
Drone take-off #2
Drone pursuing and filming kayaker from above
Drone landing
Columbia Spy 