The Drone Dish: Petr Juračka

On this episode of The Drone Dish, Tyler chats with Petr Juračka, aka scientik, about some of his widely popular aerial videos. In 2016, Petr was the first person to fly a drone on the summit of K2, the second tallest mountain in the world. From that flight, he has held the record for the highest elevation drone flight.

Petr has pushed his arsenal of drones to the limit in many of his travels, be sure to visit his AirVūz Profileto check out more of his work!

And to see more videos from the world's best drone pilots, click HERE! 

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Tyler Mason: We're very excited to be joined on The Drone Dish today by Petr Juracka, all the way from the Czech Republic. Petr, thanks for coming on the show.

Petr Juracka: Thank you for inviting me.

Tyler Mason: Absolutely. I was reading on your website, you've been flying multi-rotors, or drones, since 2012, which is pretty early for most drone pilots. How did you first get into it way back then?

Petr Juracka: Well, this was a pretty crazy story. I was a professional and a photographer in the movies at that time. I started in the movies in 2011, and I found that it would be really great to get some greater perspective, some upper perspective in the hills, especially in the mountains. Then I was searching for some multi-rotors, or some helicopters, and there was nothing on the Internet. But I found one guy who was just making some crazy quadricopter. I just spent all my money I had at the time, bought this quadricopter, and crashed it several times, and hurted my hands and hurted my legs, and hurted my laptop, and the blood was everywhere. It was crazy, and I love it.

Tyler Mason: I wanted to ask you about your video, 'K2 With A Drone'. It's currently one of the most viewed videos of all time on AirVuz.com. I'm sure that was just an incredible experience to fly there. How did you get that opportunity to fly your drone at K2?

Petr Juracka: I published one of my first videos called 'Phantom Free' from the Alps, on the Internet. That was Klara, Klara Kolouchova, who was the first Czech woman who was summiting Everest. She told me that she is preparing her K2 expedition and would like to join me, just invite me. I tell Klara, "Okay, can I take the drone?" And she told me, "Yeah, you can take the drone." So I took the drone through the K2 and did the story.

Petr Juracka: You know the K2 is the second highest peak of the world; it's dangerous. It's really a big deal to go there, so it's a lifetime memory. We were preparing my body, and my drone for longer than half a year. I was trying the drone in the hyperbaric chambers. I was trying to make some approximation how the drone will behave at such altitude. I crash it in hyperbaric chamber, so it was ooh. But it was flying. I was making the tests for cold temperatures because when there is minus 20 I thought it might be a problem. It wasn't. It was okay. You have just to warm the batteries, and if you warm the batteries it's okay.

Tyler Mason: Your film 'To The Mystery!' has a lot of gorgeous nature scenes from all over the world. What was the inspiration for that video, and do you have a favorite scene, or a favorite location that you filmed in that?

Petr Juracka: I told myself I should make some real, so I grabbed all the footage I took of the drones within about a year, 2017, and made it 'To The Mystery!' So it's from the Kilimanjaro, to Ecuador, to Alps, but 'To The Mystery!' is about ... a bit longer than one minute, maybe one minute and a half, and I was working for two months on it, on the evenings because I wanted to have every second as I imagined.

Tyler Mason: The last thing I wanted to ask you, I know on your website you talk about having vision problems as a child, and now you work at the University in the Czech Republic with micro-photography, you're obviously a drone photographer and videographer. Do you think those early problems with your vision maybe kind of helped you appreciate the beauty that you're able to see now in your career and in your hobby as a drone pilot?

Petr Juracka: Well I believes it, yes. My sight was very poor, very poor. I just saw the shapes, and some colors. I don't remember it well, but my parents tell me that they remember it very, very well. They putted the glasses on, then my life was changed. Ever since then I really appreciate my sight and the vision and I can see the colors, shapes. I can see right now for the glasses because there was all the training, not surgeries, but training in a special kindergarten. So I see, and I love it. I love the life. I feel that this was the great starting point, for to be almost blind.

Tyler Mason: Well, Petr, you've certainly captured some beautiful footage. We can't wait to see more from you on AirVuz.com. Thanks for coming on The Drone Dish today.

Petr Juracka: Thank you very much.