Hornet-Fighting Drone

Occurred on August 25, 2017 / Madawaska, Maine, USA

Info from Licensor: "I discovered the huge Bald-faced Hornets’ nest on the Hughesnet Satellite Dish. I have been attacked by Bald-faced Hornets in the past and figured the safest way to eradicate them was from behind the screen door while piloting my DJI Phantom 4 Pro. My thought was that the suction from the props would draw them in and be chopped up. I proceeded to fly the UAV near the nest, but the obstacle avoidance prevented me from getting close enough. After switching off the obstacle avoidance, I was able to fly under the nest. I discovered this from flying under the nest earlier in the day before deciding to record the video. I had already got a large number of the hornets on the first unrecorded flight. What I didn't expect was for them to get aggravated just from the sound of me launching my UAV on the second 'recorded' flight. They remembered the noise from the first time and were attacking my camera on the tripod near the nest. Once I was near / under the nest they started attacking the UAV. Then I pounded on the wall of the building to shake the dish to agitate / provoke more of them to exit the nest. By the end I'd guess I got about 75% of them. A week or two later the remaining hornets were gone. It took about an hour to clean the UAV. Note: No UAV components were damaged during the making this video."