Early May quadcopter flight at Malham Cove

4th attempt to get these shots...
Nearly perfect conditions today to fly my Walkera Hoten X quad at Malham Cove. Very little wind although got a bit of buffeting nearer the cove itself at height. This is a compilation of 2 flights and possibly one of the first time human eyes have seen the Cove from this angle, particularly the shot at the end - hope you like it....
Concern has been expressed about what I did being perceived as potentially disturbing to the nesting Peregrines at the Cove. I considered this before going out to fly but chose to go bearing in mind the following:
The quad itself is small, and has a "wingspan" of about 40cm so is substantially smaller than a flying peregrine (wingspan up to 120cm) so IF they did see it and IF they decided to react (2 VERY big ifs there) would more than likely have perceived it as prey, not a threat, and attacked (which thankfully didn't happen, I would have been mortified - I am an outdoors type who revels in watching nature just getting on with its life uninterupted).
The quad runs with 4 small brushless electric motors, so is very quiet, and cannot be heard at all from a short distance away except when directly overhead. As you can see in the video there were a few people about and no-one was looking round for the source of any disturbing noise.
There is already a fair bit of disturbance at the site from the multitude of visitors, and whilst at the top of the Cove people can, and do, get within a few metres of the nest site and yet chicks are reared succesfully most years despite this (the only time they fail is weather related). I did most of the flying with the quad about 100 to 150 metres out so could frame more of the Cove in shot. The only time I was closer was for the vertical shot at the end, and that flight was 6 minutes start to finish and throughout this there was more noise from the climbers present than my quad.
Incidentally, there were actually several birdwatchers present at the time of filming, but not the official RSPB volunteers. They weren't at all concerned, indeed were very inquisitive and interested and chatted to me about my quad and camera setup after flying.
Camera is a Hobbyking 1080 HD wingcam (shooting at 720p so can get 60fps).
www.gledz.com

[@roderickguyler2189]

And the Oscar goes to Malham Cove

[@royjohnsonvideo]

Fantastic.

[@555miriam]

Love this~

[@shamirshakir]

Music?

[@daleswildswim]

+shamir shakir If I remember correctly its by Flook - can't think which tracks though, sorry