Requirement for filming snowboarding with a quad copter

[Ronnie]

My son and I went snowboarding yesterday and for the first time I brought my quad copter up to take some aerial shots of the resort. I could have shot the intended footage from the parking lot which is very close to the resort but I went ahead and asked if I could bring the quad copter onto the slope. Not surprisingly I got referred from the guy at the gate, to another person at selling lift tickets, to that persons manager and finally the head of the ski patrol (makes sense since he has overall responsibility for safety on the slopes). He went onto state that I'm the fifth person who has asked this year and that I would need to show proof of insurance and work with the front office to get permission to fly in the park.

I figured I would buy the insurance so that I could try to get some on the slope footage next year. When I was a member years ago, the AMA (academy of model aeronautics) charged $60 per year for $1m in coverage so I thought I would start with this type of coverage And go from there. Luckily or unluckily, I happened to speak with one of the resorts marketing reps before leaving yesterday. In addition to proving that I have $2m in coverage (cost would still not be a concern even if it was double that above) I would likely be subject to a site fee since they would have to close off the lift and run that I wanted to film on. So much for that idea. Although I'd love to get some footage of my son coming boarding down the hill, I'm not prepared to pay an undetermined sight fee to do it. She did perk up when I told her they could use the footage I take for free but fell short of waiving the sight fee.

It's probably better for me that this idea is not financially practical. My plan was to control the quad copter from a stationary spot at first then as I snowboarded down the hill along with my son. Not only would wind have been a factor but the change in elevation from the top to the bottom would have been some thing to deal with as well. These factors plus flying while snowboarding would have made for a few white knuckle moments I'm sure. Unfortunately, I didn't even get parking lot footage yesterday, which I was hoping to use to convince them that I can fly this thing safely and show them what kind of footage I would give them for allowing me to film there. The compass was out of calibration, I think its because I placed the qudcopter upside down in trunk next to the car's deck mounted subwoofer whose magnetic field threw the compass out of calibration. In any case, I've already learned the hard way with the first phantom not to fly when the compass is out of calibration.

 

[Julian]

Sometimes business managers are too dumb for their own good. I understand the liability concerns, but if they'd seen the size of the copter and realized it would not hurt anyone more than perhaps a scratch, then perhaps they could use "good judgement" in letting people fly. If I were the manager, I'd say, show me in the parking lot you have control. And sign here saying if it goes out of bounds that it is lost and unrecoverable. That would whittle down those who know what they are doing to only serious people!