CARL WRITES: Examination of BetaFlight YouTube video

An Examination of the BetaFlight 3.0.0 Drone 'Big Cat' Youtube Video.

Initial reactions

I must admit, the first time I watched this Youtube video www.youtube.com/watch?v=lklmUuSPDtw&t=161s, the animal captured at 2:07 looked, in my opinion, to be quite large and robust, suggesting that the first genuine big cat had been filmed in Britain from a drone's on-board camera. The drone is travelling at high speed, and a cursory look at the surrounding area, such as the wrapped hay bales in the field to the right of the animal; and what appears to be tractor tyre marks in the ploughed soil, seemed indicative of a black leopard wild in Britain. However, I felt even though the footage is persuasive, a more analytical approach would be required before we were to claim, to any level of certainty, what this animal in the video actually was. What I needed was a nearby object that could help indicate the approximate dimensions of the creature captured in the video.    

BetaFlight 3.0.0 Testing + Big Cat Sighting - YouTube www.youtube.com Just testing the new bf3 release and all is great so far cant complain! Then out of no where a large black animal comes into view..... Lumenier QAV210 frame...

Taking a Closer Look

Unfortunately, as Oscar Wilde once said, "The truth is rarely pure and never simple", as annoyingly, I would not be able to find a clear shot of the mystery animal (clearly a felid), close enough to a comparable object to deduce its proportions. I would need to look elsewhere in the video for a solution.

So, what else was there? The crop had been recently harvested (hence the bales), so I couldn't use the growth-rate of the crop. There was the ditch to the right of the cat, but unfortunately, there was very little to indicate its width; however, this ditch, located so close to the cat, would later be of particularly importance. The third time I watched the video, I noticed at 2:35 there was another ditch located at the opposite side of the field, and this one had a recognisable object adjacent to it (a white car possibly a BMW). What I needed now was an aerial view of the ditches to show they are both approximately the same width. Again, unfortunately this wasn't to be, but I did find that between 2:17 and 2:23, the drone rushes between these two locations without significantly altering its altitude, and we can clearly see both ditches located either side of the property. These ditches, acting as a dividing moat between fields, are uniform in their dimensions, as would be expected.

Although not perfect, if we utilise the approximate dimensions of the white car to indicate the overall width of the ditch, we can use this to guesstimate the size of the cat.

As mentioned previously, there are what appear to be tractor tread marks in the ploughed soil located to the left of the cat, and if the general assumption is made that these tracks were produced by a commercial sized tractor, then the cat in the video might seem large enough to be a black leopard. However, at 1:55, we get a valuable, high angle view of the whole area, and it can be clearly seen that the visible fields are very long relative to their width (in fact, I wonder if this was filmed in Lincolnshire, famous for its flat, narrow fields) which would imply the use of a compact tractor with a narrower wheel span, therefore producing smaller tracks.

The field bales located to the right of the cat might be commercial sized bales. However, they are not positioned in the centre of the field, and are much closer to the cat than initially expected. This can be clearly seen if one follows the combine tracks up the field towards the lampposts and trees in the distance (2:08). The distance of the bales from the cat; the changing angle of the camera in relation to the cat, and the unknown altitude of the drone all produce unsatisfactory reference points.

From 2:16 to 2:23 we can see that the two ditches located either side of the property are approximately the same dimensions. Therefore, if we mentally superimpose the white car into the ditch located parallel to the cat, suddenly the animal appears significantly smaller. At 1:39, we get an aerial view of the white car parked next to the second ditch. During this section of the video, we can see that the total width of the ditch, at ground level, is approximately the total length of the car - approximately 4,800 mm or 480cm. In the trough of the ditch where we see the shallow drainage water, we can deduce that this area is approximately half the width of the white car - about 900mm or 90cm. 

If we now go to 1:57, we can clearly see that the total length of the cat is approximately half the width of the trough, which is about 450mm or 45cm. With a little imagination, we can now mentally superimpose the white car into the ditch located next to the animal, suggesting the animal in the video is approximately the dimensions of a domestic cat.  

At 2:29, we get a long distance view of the white car parked up by the entrance to the property. In this shot we can compare the white car to the adjacent avenue of trees proving there is nothing diminutive about these, and then if we go on to 2:33 through to 2:45, and keep in mind the height of the trees using the previous reference of the white car, the cat that comes into shot at 2:40, is clearly far too small to be an adult leopard. If this mystery cat was a leopard it would have to, at best, be a cub. 

The most plausible identity however would be a black domestic cat Felis catus.         

BetaFlight 3.0.0 technical details.

Lumenier QAV210 frame.

TBS - PowerCube BetaFlight 3.0.0.

TBS - Unify 5.8.

TBS - Triumphs.

Emax 2300kv series 2 cooling edition.

Race Spec 1300 mph 4S.

RC Hobby - 5x45 Tri-Props. 

GoPro Hero Session 4 1080 60fps.

GoPro Studio. 

Conclusions

Although by no means conclusive, this elementary analysis seems to suggest that the cat filmed from the BetaFlight 3.0.0's on board GoPro camera, was probably a black domestic cat F. catus. During a recent conversation with Olivia McCarthy of the CFZ Mystery Cats Study Group, I was informed this model of drone is not known to travel at low speeds smoothly, that the batteries do not last very long, and that it would be difficult for the pilot to follow the cat at a steady speed for an optimal recording. Also, the panoramic nature of the drone's on-board GoPro camera, and the velocity of the drone itself, produce less than perfect results.  

A deliberate hoax seems unlikely, an honest misidentification on the part of the pilot is far more plausible.

Even though on this occasion it seems unlikely this animal is anything more than a black domestic cat, it is entirely possible that in the near future, a similar drone will eventually capture a clear video of a genuine British big cat.