Massive drone carries national flag in breathtaking Ekka moment in Brisbane

7NEWS

3 days ago

It's the Royal Queensland Show moment turning every head skyward: a car-sized drone soaring above the arena, towing a massive six-metre Aussie flag over the main arena timed perfectly with the national anthem.
'It's definitely the first time this has been done in Australia,' said Nick Kozij from Skylighter, the company behind the spectacle.
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'The drone has a huge payload and a whole lot of wow factor.'
This was developed in partnership with MAD Drones who, prior to this collaboration, had only ever used drones on large farms.
'We're normally in agriculture, spraying, seeding,' said MAD's chief pilot Marcelo Pullen.
'But this was something special. It literally took flight.'
The drone and flag combo soared through rigorous safety protocols, Civil Aviation approvals and secret test runs.
'We did a few more tests actually here in the RNA [Showgrounds]. We had to come in under the cover of 'we were going to do some spraying' and we quickly tested each time and got it down before anybody could get a photo because we wanted to keep it a surprise,' Pullen said.
'Wind, drag, visibility — we had to account for everything,' Kozij explained.
'We even built a custom rig to hold the flag upright mid-air.'
With Brisbane hospital helipads nearby and strict no-fly zones in place, the team mapped a precise flight path.
'Rule number one is if you're not willing to land on it, you don't fly over it,' Pullen explained.
'The two-by-two metre drone is locked to a certain altitude and flight path as well. So we can't encroach outside the arena.'
The Australian first draws a big 'wow' every night.
'And even while we're sitting here waiting to go in, I think there's probably been about 10,000 photos taken of the drone today, which has been pretty cool,' Kozij said.
'Every night, it's thousands of photos. People are stunned. It's a moment. A real moment.'