Cloud Surfing - dangerous stuff?

[Marco Cantieni]

Fascinated by cloud movement since I was a kid I finally got it done. It took me 2 months considering it back and forth to do it or not taking the risks. Then I found a way to minimize the risks.

VLOS: Taking advantage of wholes in the cloud cover let me keep my bird in vlos. It took me a dozen flights to collect all the footage.

Iced blades: I waxed the low noise blades of my Mavic minimizing the risk of frozen water could hold onto it.

The only trouble I‘ve encountered was a foggy lens. Here is the result:

 

[kevinmitts]

Beautiful! How high up were you? That would scare the hell out of me!

 

[Marco Cantieni]

Beautiful! How high up were you? That would scare the **** out of me!

105m was the maximum

 

[kevinmitts]

Wow, that's not that high at all to get such great shots.

 

[Marco Cantieni]

Wow, that's not that high at all to get such great shots.

It was difficult to catch the right weather at my starting points

 

[Wr4ptr]

Awesome footage! I love that you used the Mavic to "scratch an itch" that you've had since childhood.

 

[JoostGT3]

Absolutely wonderful, and I love how you identified the risks and mitigated them. Great job!

 

[Clinton1]

Stunning, well done. Thank you for sharing your childhood dream with us

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Too bad we don't have mountains where I live. I would have to go far above the legal limit to do this.
Nice shots!

 

[Marco Cantieni]

Too bad we don't have mountains where I live. I would have to go far above the legal limit to do this.
Nice shots!

Where do you live? I did those kind of shots also in the plains. With the right weather conditions - sunshine after rain - you can get good results.

 

[jerryflah]

Fascinated by cloud movement since I was a kid I finnaly got it done. It took me 2 months considering it back and forth to do it or not taking the risks. Then I found a way to minimize the risks.

VLOS: Taking advantage of wholes in the cloud cover let me keep my bird in vlos. It took me a dozen flights to collect all the footage.

Iced blades: I waxed the low noise blades of my Mavic minimizing the risk of frozen water could hold onto my blades.

The only trouble I‘ve encountered was a foggy lens. Here is the result:

How spectacular. Well done and I applaud your investment of time and deliberation as well as the time involved with editing.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Where do you live? I did those kind of shots also in the plains. With the right weather conditions - sunshine after rain - you can get good results.

In the Netherlands. If the cloud base is low enough to be over the clouds with 100m altitude it is prohibited to fly. You need to have a minimum vertical distance from 1000 feet to the cloud base. So flying above clouds and even above mist is always a no go.

 

[fathead]

Lovely stuff! I’m also fascinated with clouds and made a similar video when visiting my parents in the north Georgia mountains...

 

[knsaber]

love! your heart must be pounding each flight through so much condensation? great audio track too.

 

[Marco Cantieni]

Lovely stuff! I’m also fascinated with clouds and made a similar video when visiting my parents in the north Georgia mountains...

Nice work. Awesome you got the bird rock solid in the air. The timelapses appear to be perfect.

 

[fathead]

Nice work. Awesome you got the bird rock solid in the air. The timelapses appear to be perfect.

Thanks! I’ve only been in a position to catch those conditions twice. But I was lucky that my parents house sits high on a mountain for the morning I captured all that footage. And yeah, I was surprised those time lapses came out as well as they did to be honest.

I’m currently visiting friends in Miami and there have been some stunning clouds. But all too high to fly above, so I have to settle for below.

And I guess thanks for inspiring me to finally post. I’ve been lurking on here for a few years now. But I couldn’t resist engaging another “cloud surfer!”

 

[wxperson]

Lovely stuff! I’m also fascinated with clouds and made a similar video when visiting my parents in the north Georgia mountains...

what part of North Georgia were you at?

 

[fathead]

what part of North Georgia were you at?

Rabun County. All that footage was near Black Rock Mountain/Wolffork Valley/Rabun Gap area.

 

[skadee]

Very cool videos, I’ve been waiting on the right conditions to be able to get “on top” myself.

Please remember that you need to be able to see and avoid manned aircraft, and you won’t be able to see any aircraft that are in the clouds. Check with a local flight school to help you identify where the Instrument Approach paths are to airports in your area of flight. In the event that an aircraft needs to fly in those conditions, they will fly within 400 ft of the ground when nearing and departing airports.

 

[Doofus]

"The only trouble I‘ve encountered was a foggy lens."
Might not a drop of defogger (like you get at a scuba shop) on the front lense prevent this?