Ever used a drone? If you have, you've almost certainly had that "oh sh*t" moment as your expensive, and admittedly, super awesome toy narrowly escaped a crash that would inevitably end its life. Well, Ryan Chatfield knows that feeling exactly. He was on a beach capturing a beautiful Western Australian sunset when his drone's batteries begin to die. Watch this video to see him race across the beach to save it before it plummets into the rocks and waves below!
As seen in the video, Ryan Chatfield's drone is high in the sky while filming when the batteries begin to slowly die. Even though the drone is only slowly losing altitude, the issue is that it's elevated high above the water instead of the nearby sand. At the beginning of the video, he's only a speck on the other side of the beach - barely visible - but as the video continues, you can see him racing desperately to the end of reef where the drone is falling. As the drone nears the water, you can see Ryan as he's climbing over rocks in the reef. He then finally jumps into the waves at the last moment to grab the drone when it's only inches from being submerged in the ocean below. You can't ask for better timing than that!
He definitely captured an extremely tense moment, but gave us all some good laughs in the process!
Have you had a close call with a drone? Or how about with another type of photography and/or videography equipment? Share the experience below!
[via Time]
Dude when I saw your run.. I thought you were on a bike for a second.. Usain Bolt couldn't run that fast to save that drone lol
For real! Dude was bookin' it!
Here's an idea for these videos that do emergency landings onto water... an emergency button for the drone, like for jets you can and sacrifice the 1 million dollar+ jets for the life of the pilot. Why not do the same just for the life of the drone, put something like tiny blow out balloons of some kind if it is going to land on water for it can float on the water. Yea, you may lose the wings but you save $1k+ and lose maybe a few hundred from the wings depending the drone.
Seemed awfully close to winning a Darwin award.
People who do this forget about their own personal human safety for a $1200 toy. what were to happen if he slipped off the rocks and smashed his head open?
There should be some type of award for this. Crazy photography moments haha