Armed Forces Day 2018 on Southsea Common
As seafaring fanatics, Naval history nerds, and signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant, we were excited and honoured when Portsmouth City Council requested we shoot the Armed Forces Day 2018 parade on Southsea seafront.
The annual commemoration takes place on the last Saturday of every June. The march proceeded from the D-Day Story museum over to Southsea Common, where the rest of the Armed Forces Day celebrations were unfolding.
As always, we planned ahead to ensure our flights were legal and safe — very important when shooting near crowds of over 5,000 people, and especially imperative when there’s a parachute drop-in on the event schedule!
We took off from beside Southsea Skatepark, where Portsmouth City Council had kindly cordoned off a section of land for us, discouraging members of the public from getting too close to our lift-off and landing platform.
Our take-off zone was over 400 metres away from Southsea Common, so using our cinema-quality zoom lenses was essential for obtaining the best footage we could from a safe distance.
It’s no surprise that the parade looked amazingly well-coordinated, and particularly impressive from an aerial perspective.
It’s always a good idea to leave some leaflets near the perimeter of your sectioned-off area informing curious passers-by of what you’re up to. This also doubles up as a spot of free marketing — include your social media handles!
During the flights, our spotter — a ground-level observer who assists the pilot in looking out for potential disruptions and dangers — also spoke to a number of inquisitive people, informing them of both the fun parts and the legal responsibilities of drone usage. All while keeping their eyes on the skies, of course!
One young boy was very interested in seeing one of our take-offs, so we gave him and his family a safety briefing, requested verbal permissions from them to take off from a closer-than-normal distance, and then kicked off a new flight. It turned out his dad was a helicopter pilot in the Army — a very interesting chap!
We showed them what the drone was seeing on our controller-mounted screens, and even gave them the opportunity to press the shutter button to trigger a panoramic photo! Here’s how it came out:
