This footage of a racing drone soaring through the Swiss Alps will take your breath away
This amazing drone footage offers thrill-seekers an exhilarating yet soothing bird’s eye view of the spectacular scenery of the Swiss Alps.
Opening with a fast-moving downhill trajectory, the new film traces the rugged contours of the rocky alpine landscape, soaring over jagged snow-capped peaks and gushing waterfalls, before racing upwards to reveal captivating 360-degree panoramas from above.
The short film, titled Elevations, was shot by Montreal-based Swiss physicist Gabriel Kocher, who also works as a racing drone pilot. The transfixing video, filmed while he was hiking through the Swiss Alps last month, was captured using a custom-made “first-person” racing drone he built, which allows the user to simulate the feeling of flying a plane, staying very close to the terrain while twisting and zipping past mountain edges.
“What makes this unique is that the drone is flown FPV [first-person view], through video glasses that allow me to see through a small camera placed on the drone,” 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,” he added.
The new film is the latest from Kocher’s Gab707 YouTube channel where he features some of his other similar work, such as first-person drone footage of an amazing cliff dive off the coast of Ibiza and waterfall diving in Iceland.
The video channel aims to showcase new forms of drone videography that explore landscapes in a more creative way.
