“What A Catch!” Man Rescues Falling Drone Seconds Before It Crashes Into The Ocean
Apr 22, 2015
Tiffany Mueller
Tiffany Mueller is a photographer and content strategist based in Hawi, Hawaii. Her work has been shared by top publications like The New York Times, Adobe, and others.
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When 34 year old photographer, Ryan Chatfield, took his drone out for a spin over Floreat Beach in Australia, his experience running the New York Marathon came in use. As the drone passed over the shoreline in a rocky area, it began falling from the sky. Chatfield, who was 100m away from the drone when it began it’s untimely decent, began a mad dash to the water in a last ditch attempt to save his precious camera equipment.
“If I hadn’t caught it, it would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean and I would have lost everything,” Chatfield told the West Australian.
After the 100m sprint through soft sand scaling a rock wall, sprinting down a short jetty, then scaling down some more rocks into the ocean, Chatfield grabbed his failing drone when it was about 30cm from the ocean surface. Of course, just as he has the drone in hand a wave comes in pushes Chatfield into the rocks. Luckily, he was able to hold the rig up above the water as he nimbly climbed out.
The entire pursuit was captured by the drone and makes for pretty fun television. My favorite part, however, was near the very end once Chatfield realized he and his drone were out of trouble. A big, smug smile spreads across the photographers face as he declares, “Nice Catch!” Gotta love this guys quick thinking!
[ via Mashable ]
Tiffany Mueller
Tiffany Mueller is a photographer and content strategist based in Hawi, Hawaii. Her work has been shared by top publications like The New York Times, Adobe, and others.
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9 responses to ““What A Catch!” Man Rescues Falling Drone Seconds Before It Crashes Into The Ocean”
Not as cool as I thought it would be.
Thats City beach, not floreat. Not that it really matters. Also, ‘groyne’ instead of jetty
Thanks for the clarification!
How does it fall so slow or was it trying to land there?
Also with the camera perfectly on him the entire time even after the catch? I am going to assume this is bullshit and done on purpose.
A soft-landing routine is programmed into most multi-rotor electronics. When the battery is near depleted (note: the flashing red light) it will command the bird to slowly reduce the trust as to affect a soft landing without any user input. In therory this to happen over land. However if this happens over water well the outcome is going to rather wet.
Is he available for the England cricket team?
Nice vid, but the red flashing lights indicate he was low on battery. User fault…
LOL, nice catch!
… OFF-camera, the headline reads “Man catches DRONE seconds before plunging into ocean, then trips on the rocks smashing drone to bits, oh the irony” Sorry, my humor in can seem evil at times. I am an RC-Flyer, and have flown many type of RC-Aircraft. This indeed was a very NICE save! However I would reserve this type of save for the smaller birds. With the larger and more dangerous aircraft one shroud refrain from bringing body parts within near proximity of spinning highspeed blades. Generally this is never a good idea! Stay Safe ;)