A fisherman has taken flight at a Victorian reservoir after two years of work, a shed that almost burned to the ground and a prototype that got wrapped around a tree. A group of friends watched as stuntman Sam Foreman was lifted off the ground by a drone, cast a line at the Upper Coliban Reservoir and relaxed with a beer.
Mr Foreman, a carpenter from Kyneton who also considers himself a bit of a stuntman, said the project was the brainchild of his electrician cousin but he helped put it together – before playing the crucial role of test dummy on August 17 when the video was shot in front of a few dozen friends and family.
“It was a very crazy experience and we put a lot planning into it, a lot of time. We did lots of tests out in a paddock at the start. We couldn’t test it with a person because we didn’t want to take it out in public until it was actually ready to lift a person up,” Mr Foreman said.
The drone, which Mr Foreman said weighs over 30 kilograms and comprises 25 batteries and 12 motors and 12 propellers, took about two years to prepare and had successfully lifted 110 kilograms of dead weight before it was tested for the first time with a live human.
At 80kg himself, Mr Foreman said he was confident given the previous tests that the drone would take his weight, and he was pleasantly surprised with the level of comfort on the ride.
“As soon as I was off the ground I just couldn’t believe it… how stable it actually was.”
He said he was wearing a helmet and wetsuit, but chose not to use a lifejacket because it could have hindered his ability to swim away from the drone in the event that something went wrong.
“I did have comms on so I could talk to whoever the pilot was in case something did go wrong with the drone and I had to jump out of the chair … try and swim as quick as I could if it was going to land on top of me or anything like that.”
Sources: Sydney Morning Herald; Guardian News