Lots of keen drone pilots have been heading to Iceland recently to capture dramatic aerial shots of Mount Fagradalsfjall, which has been erupting since March.
DJI, which released its first FPV (first person view) drone in the same month, recently hooked up with local drone pilot Ása Steinars to capture footage of the volcano’s spectacular lava fountains using the company’s latest flying machine.
The results, we’re sure you’ll agree, are pretty incredible. Although some of the footage was also captured using a Mavic 2 Pro, it seems likely that the faster sequences that take us through the lava fountains were shot by the DJI FPV drone.
DJI doesn’t say if any drones came to a fiery end in the making of the video, but there’s at least one shot where the machine appears to get trashed by a flying chunk of lava. And then there’s the heat — some drone pilots visiting the volcano have already seen their drone innards fry after they flew their device just a bit too close to the action. And taking footage of a volcanic eruption doesn’t only carry risks for the drone. The pilot, too, needs to keep a sensible distance from the hot spots, with both the lava and possibly lethal gases posing a threat to safety.
Last month, Steinars posted on her own YouTube channel a DJI FPV drone video (below) of the eruption. “New volcanic fissures keep opening up at the eruption site,” she wrote at the time. “What started as one crater is now 10 majestic ones.”
For more drone footage of Iceland’s erupting volcano, check out this stunning effort from ace drone pilot Stefan Forster, shot with another DJI drone, the Mavic 2 Pro.
As with all FPV drones, the DJI FPV drone flies faster than most consumer machines and includes a pair of goggles for a more immersive real-time flying experience. In our in-depth review of DJI’s device, Digital Trends praised the quadcopter for its speed, agility, and responsive controls but added that its manual mode comes with a steep learning curve.
Digital Trends recently gathered together some of the very best FPV drone videos to highlight the astonishing flying maneuvers available to some of the top pilots in the game today.
