Flying Inspire 1 into Iceland’s volcano with Good Morning America

(Written Feb 3, 2015) Hello, everyone! DJI has just returned (to the remote hut where we are staying) from making history with Good Morning America. We took meteorologist Ginger Zee on a tour of the inside of the erupting volcano at Holuhraun (in the Bardarbunga volcanic system in Iceland) using two Inspire 1 quadcopters, broadcasting live to the GMA audience in HD video via integrated Lightbridge connections. Both Inspire 1 units were completely stock, and pilots Eric Cheng (DJI’s Director of Aerial Imaging—who is writing this post) and Ferdinand Wolf (Skynamic) were impressed by the Inspire 1’s ability to weather harsh conditions. A total of 12 flights were made over the volcano in snow, -10C temperatures, and winds as high as 30 knots. Once the cold and wind were conquered, the Inspire 1 units had to endure the incredible heat coming from the eruption and large lava lake! Both Inspire 1 units had melted frames when returning from flights, and kept working perfectly.

What an adventure, and the perfect field test of the Inspire 1 in incredibly-harsh conditions! Do you have any crazy stories of Phantoms, Inspires, and other quadcopters enduring crazy conditions? We’d love to hear about them.

The video was also re-cut for Nightline.