Jun272015

FPV Copter Flight over the Sylvenstein Bridge, Bavaria

Mike vom Mars Blog bavaria bayern bridge brücke dji fatshark fpv kopter lake mobius action cam natur phantom scenic See sylvenstein water

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You’ve probably seen this scenic spot in some BMW car commercials. I did -and since then, I planned to visit this gorgeous place to do some FPV with my Phantom there.

The slightly curved Sylvenstein Bridge crosses the Sylvenstein Reservoir, a beautiful man-made mountain lake with cyan colored water, surrounded by an impressive, scenic mountain view.

The Sylvenstein Dam is an earthen embankment dam in the Isar valley, in the alpine part of Upper Bavaria, Germany which impounds the Sylvenstein Reservoir (German: Sylvensteinspeicher).

Several hydropower plants were built in the tributary of the upper Isar river in the 1920s, for example at the Achensee and Lake Walchen Power Plant. Therefore, the river ran nearly dry during the dry season. This mainly affected the town of Bad Tölz. A reservoir was established to ensure a minimum level of water in the river. During the dry season a volumetric flow of 4 cubic metres per second is released to prevent the Isar from running dry. Additionally, the reservoir provides flood control for the Isar river between Bad Tölz and Munich.

The dam is 44 metres high and has a length of 180 metres. It was built between 1954 and 1959. From 1959 on, the water was also used to drive a hydropower plant of 3.2 MW. The plant was upgraded in 2000 with new turbines to generate 3.8 MW. During the 2005 European floods, because the maximum capacity of the reservoir was reached, more water than normal had to be released into the Isar river, but the flooding would have been more severe if the Sylvenstein Dam had not been present.

My Drone Shots

Most of my aerial shots and videos are done from first-person view using Fatshark goggles and the DJI Phantom 2 V2 with the Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal. I am not a fan of the latest "once click" drones with all the built-in smartphone stuff. Digital video submission does not provide the same, smooth experience than analog 5.8GHz submission and suffers from a low framerate and a high latency - which is absolutely deadly for a pleasant FPV experience.

Highlights