This Drone Pilot Takes You on a Wild Ride Inside and Under a Moving Freight Train

Drone pilot Paul Nurkkala just broke several laws (or at least came close) in order to deliver us his most recent drone footage video. The video titled “Flight of the Year” takes you on a first-person journey. Nurkkala is extremely talented. He uses live feed goggles to operate his drone that is equipped with a GoPro HERO5 Session action camera. The camera is light enough to keep his custom-built drone off the ground but fast enough to capture the wild ride in exquisite detail. Nurkkala describes his video saying, “I recognize that this isn’t the most ‘flowy’ video or anything, but all of the things were all in the same flight, so I wanted to show that off."

While the video is undoubtedly impressive, it might have also got him into a lot of trouble. Union Pacific who operates the train seen in the video commented saying, “Union Pacific operates in a safety-sensitive environment. Never operate a drone in a manner that could distract or otherwise endanger yourself, Union Pacific employees, equipment or the public. All drone pilots must operate in compliance with applicable Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations and safety guidelines. Flying a drone in a reckless manner is a violation of federal law and FAA regulations and could result in civil fines or criminal action.” Legislation has been slow to catch up with amateur use of drone technology and even where rules exist enforcing them is an entirely different matter.