Yes, that’s right. A couple of days ago I bought myself a drone.
You might remember this post, “Why don’t you get yourself a drone?“, where I go through several reasons why I prefer a kite rather than a drone to do my aerial stuff. You know, shooting video and taking photos from way up there. So what now, you may think. Am I gonna throw away all my KAP-kites and do all my aerial videos and photos using a drone?
The answer is NO!!! No way!
So why this drone then?
Well, first of all – because (I think) it’s big fun! I say I think it’s fun. I don’t really know, because I have never ever flown a drone in my life. But I have a hunch that it’s fun to play around with a drone.
Secondly, I think that shooting videos using a drone will definitely spice up my kiting videos. It’s a really cool way to shoot B-roll and establishing shots to include in my kite videos. You know, shooting the scenery at the location from up above as an introduction and to set the mood in my more normal (?) videos.
A few days ago I stumbled upon this drone, the Staaker!
This is not quite a ‘normal’ type of drone, nope, the Staaker is, as its name implies, a follow-me drone. That means the drone – by using pretty advanced technology – is able to track, or follow, the pilot. The Staaker’s remote control, called a tracker, is stuffed with technology making the drone and its camera follow the tracker itself. The tracker is wearable, so just strap it on your arm, launch the drone, and the software will take care of the rest!
There are several different following modes to choose from and I can definitely see a couple of them being perfect for capturing epic video clips of myself flying a kite!
The Staaker also have a Scenery mode which disables all tracking functions and you can fly it more or less like a … normal drone. How cool is that!
The Staaker comes without a camera. Rather it has installed a gimbal that is compatible with various GoPro cameras. I’m using the GoPro Hero 7 Black, and it seems to fit fine.
Yesterday I completed my drone pilot certification, insured the drone, registered as a drone pilot at the Norwegian Aviation website and signed up as a paying member with this online drone club.
So with all the legal stuff taken care of, it was time for an hour or so on a large field close to one of the local beaches for my FIRST EVER drone flight! And here’s a quick video from the flight!
Wow! It was really, really fun! Now I’m looking forward to spending a lot more time with the Staaker drone so that I learn how to operate it and how to get the most out of it as a tool for improving my kite videos!
So stay tuned and I’ll keep you posted on my progress!
