Tips on Fireworks?

Joined
Jan 12, 2016
Messages
1,281
Reaction score
437
Location
Milwaukee, WI, Ft Walton Beach, FL
Well, with the holiday fast approaching, I have my orbits set. Obstacles checked in the area. Batteries charged. Tablet charged. Cards formatted and the case packed.

Any good tips on shooting fireworks with the P3? I mean other than the obvious of stay the hell out of the way of the fireworks. My orbit is set at 1400' radius from the launch area which should keep the drone near the back or outside the area crowd zones (not flying over crowds). Initially I have the altitude set at 200' just as a SWAG as to a starting altitude.

I also plan to apply white duct tape over the rear LEDs so its not a distraction to the spectators. I can always enable the front red ones when I need to bring it home for landing and battery/card changes.

Any thoughts on altitudes or initial exposure settings? I would think manual to keep it from blooming with the fireworks shots. Yall think the 200' starting altitude is a good guess? I can go down to 150' but I am getting really close to some power lines at that height and I would rather have the extra 50' margin of safety.
 
just filmed some and I was at 450 feet and they where getting pretty close to bird
 
just filmed some and I was at 450 feet and they where getting pretty close to bird

450 ft up or 450 away?

Just found this image as a reference.

56ddf5c4b8cf776354c5486f7a9c3a3c.jpg


Display Fireworks Facts


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
450 in height
 
well after seeing that I'm glad they didn't have any really big ones was around in my neighborhood lots of pyros
 
just getting ready for Monday night guess I need to set height some more around 800
 
Well, so much for fireworks being illegal :) They are going off all over the city.

The major show here is always on July 3rd with all the smaller parks going off tomorrow (Jul 4th). No way I was going downtown with the drone. Too crowded and I couldn't rely on a safe place to land on low battery so I didn't wish to risk hurting someone. So I flew from the house here and wondered around. Too far to downtown from here (too many trees here too) without a range booster.

The big show was clearly at or above me (300'). The local yahoo pyros seemed to be well below me.

If that chart is right, then my 1400' radius orbit puts me at 2X the safety zone that I wanted. And I doubt the smaller parks are going to be setting off 12" shells. 6-8 maybe, doubt they got the bank to afford 12" high lobs of cash.

I am thinking 400' might be a better cruising altitude. I am too close to an airport to risk breaking that. So if they do go higher, I will increase my radius to get farther away.
 
I just filmed some of my neighbors in my neighborhood. Not much, but cool!
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
have to sign a waiver in fl fireworks are for scary off birds on your property must have really bad bird problems in neighborhood
 
Nice little quickie :)

Gotta remember to pack up the 6pack cooler with blue packs to cool the batteries down for faster recharge.
 
Ok. Post up some video when you get it. I might try tomorrow night at the Niceville show.
 
Here's some fireworks I captured today. I turned the front red LEDs off in settings and I was flying a safe distance (over 1.5 miles) away from the fireworks. There were some fireworks in the distance (town firework show) but they were too small to see very well. I also took some light exposures with my DSLRs.
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Neighbor's fireworks
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
  • Like
Reactions: flpholt

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,359
Members
104,936
Latest member
hirehackers