Alula DLG 5000 feet in the air

It seems like the videos shot from rc planes and helicopters are changing a lot; sometimes it's less about the planes and more about the environment. I have been really interested in shooting video like this, focusing on beautiful places from interesting perspectives since I got started flying, but don’t ever seem to find the time to do it. 

One place that is still relatively unexplored is high in the mountains. There are some pretty obvious reasons for this I guess - unpredictable and changeable strong winds spring to mind, as does ‘inaccessible crash site’. 

So, I took my bixler and Alula to Mt Baker in the northern Cascades (Washington State, USA) to give them a spin in an area I knew pretty well. It was a short climb up to a nice ridge and then some early morning flying. The bixler was conspicuously noisy, so I mostly flew the Alula, which was new and I really had never flown it before. This video is essentially its maiden flight, catching great updrafts off an inaccessible cliff of about 1000 feet leading down into a spectacular valley between Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan. But it's also about enjoying the view. 

Here are some stills from the movie and the launch site, to give you the lay of the land, and the movie itself is at the bottom. 

 The ridge I was flying runs about 3000 feet SE/NW at an altitude of about 5000 feet. There was a steady wind coming up the valley in front of the ridge, so I tried to keep turning into the wind, which meant flying out over the valley. This is the view to the East, towards Mt Shuksan. 

This is the view of Mt Baker itself, looking SW towards the Rainbow, Park, and Sholes Glaciers under Grant Peak. Table Mountain is closer and to the right, and the large valley is to the left. 

Here is a similar view, with me visible at the lower left. I just kept gaining altitude, so a few times I lost my nerve and dove to bring it back closer. This seemed really high for a little Alula. 

This is the view to the SE, down the expansive valley to Baker Lake. As you can see you have lots of altitude to work with over the valley. 

After what seemed like hours, but was less than 3 minutes I lost my nerve completely and wanted to retrieve the movie, so I landed. I tried to catch it, but didn’t. 

I had an 808 #16 120 degree FOV camera taped to the top of the Alula so here is the movie of the maiden mountain flight.