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PSA: Make sure your FPV zone is wild horse-free before flying

A recent Instagram post from Italy caught our attention, and we think you might enjoy it as well. It involves an FPV drone, a wild horse — and a pretty spectacular collision. Warning: Don’t try this at home.

The post comes from the Instagram account of gianmarco.gabriele, who has more than 22,000 followers. Among those followers are experienced FPV pilots like Team Black Sheep, so clearly Gianmarco knows what he’s doing. He also flies with a group called dirtyseagullsfpv, which specializes in capturing some of the many beautiful spots around Italy. Here’s a dirtyseagull post showing some impressive flying inside a now-abandoned “treehouse” in Italy:

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Quanti di voi da bambini hanno desiderato vivere in una casa sull’albero? Immaginate di esser adolescenti negli anni 60, vostro padre un grande architetto contemporaneo e vostra madre una pittrice, entrambi con la voglia di divertirsi e soddisfare quel desiderio. Così che nel 68 fu posata la prima pietra di questa straordinaria struttura la casa albero sperimentale della famiglia Perugini. Modulare come una costruzione in Lego. Sospesa su “rami” in cemento e pensata in totale contrapposizione ai canoni stilistici dell architettura romana. La casa è stata abitata per più di dieci anni e adesso è in rovina in balia dei vandali. Dopo tanti anni ho deciso di tornarci e filmare questo piccolo video, non è venuto come avrei voluto ma pazienza. •••••••••• How many of you as children have wanted to live in a tree house? Imagine being teenagers in the 60s, your father a great contemporary architect and your mother a painter, both with the desire to have fun and satisfy that desire. So that in 68 the foundation stone of this extraordinary structure was laid, the experimental tree house of the Perugini family. Modular as a Lego construction. Suspended on concrete "branches" and designed in total opposition to the stylistic canons of Roman architecture. The house has been inhabited for over ten years and is now in ruins at the mercy of the vandals. After many years I decided to go back and film this little video, it didn't come as I would have liked, but that’s it. #brutalism #itsabandoned #architecture #drone #fpvdrone

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That’s some awesome piloting!

When in Rome…

Gianmarco.gabriele has been at this game for a while, and his Instagram feed is filled with some pretty glorious videos and stills. Check out this shot of the Coliseum, taken in the pre-COVID era:

Did you know they used to create a lake in this and stage battles between ships?

Trevi Fountain

It’s funny how the internet works. At the beginning of this story, gianmarco.gabriele was to me an unknown name. But as I started poring through his Instagram page, I noticed at least one post that had gone a bit viral earlier this year. It’s a spectacular flight around Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain, which was made even more spectacular by the absence of people due to COVID19. Just watch. I’m willing to bet some of you have seen this before:

That’s one gorgeous video

The horse, the drone, the collision

And so, what about the horse? Well, seems that Gianmarco was helping to document the capture of a horse that had been living in the wild. For several days, they had walked with it, slowly guiding it back to a stable. As they approached their destination, Gianmarco decided to grab a clip by drone. It seems that spooked the horse a bit. In fact, with the magic of Google Translate, let’s let Gianmarco tell the story:

For three days we always walked safely with 4 people to direct the horse towards the stables. On the 4th day I asked to shoot a clip for the backstage to the person positioned on my left .. unfortunately this request, added to one turn too much around the horse, meant that when the horse should have entered the stables he discarded right taking me smear. The front hoof hit the radio antenna, the impact made me go forward with my torso and the hind leg impacted the FPV goggles. It was like being run over by a train 🤣 🤣 luckily I came out unscathed! By swiping to the right you can see the clip from the drone!

Gianmacro.gabriele via Instagram

And what did that look like?

Well, exactly like this:

Ouch. OUCH!

Of course, Gianmarco had his goggles on and couldn’t see what was coming.

But there is some good news here: He entered this clip in a GoPro contest and won!

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