Race drone soars like a bird along Swiss mountain tops [video]

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to soar like a bird along mountaintops in the Swiss Alps? Very few people get to see the snow-capped mountains this way. However, this amazing drone video “Elevations” brings it right to your screen.

The short film, “Elevations,” was made by Montreal-based Swiss physicist Gabriel Kocher, who has a second career as a drone racer (Gab707). He finished second in the Drone Racing League’s Allianz World Championship earlier this year. The drone in the short movie races over a rocky valley up the face the face of a mountain. On its way up it passes over waterfalls, flies around moutaintops and captures breathtaking 360-degree views.

Race drone soars like a bird… more like a jet actually

Kocher made the video as he was hiking through the Swiss Alps. In the film, he uses a custom-made race drone (specs below), that he built himself as reported by The Telegraph. The speed with which he flies up the mountain and the sweeping turn he makes along the way, give you the feeling of soaring like a bird, or maybe a fighter jet. He told Digital Trends:

“In contrast to regular camera rigs, this kind of machine brings through all the control movements made by the pilot, capturing much more of the sensation of flight. Its very high power-to-weight ratio – around 8:1 – allows it to get very close to obstacles and acrobatic flights.”

The pilot’s viewpoint

Kocher has also posted a second video in which you can see what the pilot sees. The quality of that footage is a lot less, and you can only imagine how hard it must be to fly a drone through a mountainous landscape that way. On YouTube he mentions:

This was the first battery on this location, I had spotted the line beforehand and measured out distances and altitude changes. I knew it was gonna be tight in terms of battery life, but still went for it! The summit is about 2.8km out with about 1600m climb. I was a bit too heavy on the throttle on the early section to come down comfortably. This is a very old battery that’s not enjoyed all the racing I’ve put it though, that’s why it dropped voltage early… These packs hold up much better than that normally.

I had to cross the river barefoot to get the quad. It was freeeeeeeeeeezing.

What you see bottom right corner is the crossfire output power, not the vtx output power.

More of Kocher’s video work can be found on his YouTube channel, Instagram or Facebook.

Location:

• Swiss alps

On the ground:

• Taranis X9D with Crossfire
• Fatshark HD3
• Clearview Racing receiver
• 2x TrueRC X2air antennas

Drone setup

• Nracing Katana (stripped down light edition)
• Hobbywing 2405 1800Kv
• Hobbywing 4in1 esc
• TBS Vision+Colibri fc
• Crossfire micro receiver
• StrixRC Pagoda antenna
• Runcam swift 2 fpv camera
• Gopro hero 5, recorded on protune flat, 2.7K 60fps
• A really old Tattu 4s 2300mAh

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