So first off, I have to thank Transport Canada and Niagara Parks for granting my team and I permission to fly over Niagara Falls on such short notice. This was a very last minute shoot where everything came together about a day and a half before the first filming day, and getting permission was no easy feat I assure you! Every drone pilot I know around Toronto and the GTA said I would need at least 2 weeks to get clearance for this location, and when I first contacted Transport Canada, they confirmed this was true.
So how did I get it? Well, there is no exact answer. Maybe my Irish charm was enough to make them understand what was at stake and how the late timing was out of our control. On top of that, I got them everything they needed in record time after they first responded to my email. Even after getting permission, I had to call the Niagara Police, 3 different Niagara Helicopter companies and a few other key stakeholders in the area, and let them all know what I was doing, when and where. Happy it all worked out in the end!
On shoot day I was excited to fly my FPV drone at Niagara Falls, however it wasn’t all smooth sailing! As it turned out, the Mavic Pro 2 got most of the air time. Even though I had clearance from Transport Canada and a permit from Niagara Parks to fly here, my DJI FPV drone did not allow flying in full manual/acro mode. I unlocked both of my drones and the Mavic 2 Pro flew as normal with no hiccups, however this wasn’t the case with my DJI FPV.
As soon as I started to do some flips and rolls in certain areas of the falls, I got a warning on my screen saying that acro/manual mode was not possible and my DJI FPV automatically returned to normal/stable mode. As frustrating as this was it didn’t affect the job at hand. The performance by Alessia Cara didn’t happen until after sunset and flying FPV in the dark is near impossible, and the camera quality isn’t great in low light. So the Mavic 2 Pro took over all the heavy lifting for the actual job at hand as it has better low light performance and it’s easier to control considering it was dark.
If you want to see what my DJI FPV drone is capable of doing when manual/acro mode doesn’t get blocked, check out this video I filmed flying through the clouds and around Erindale park in Mississauga.
I will be posting some short epic aerial shots I got over The Falls on social media over the next few weeks, so follow along @mr.fpv on Instagram to see more. Until then, enjoy this aerial photograph I captured of Niagara Falls at night.
Safe Flying,
Mr. FPV