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Thousands across Brisbane marvelled as fireworks lit up the sky on Wednesday night. Not Michael Rubio, who had his back to the display, despite his plum position on the riverbank.
Rubio, a drone pilot who runs videography business Waking Dream, instead focused on manoeuvring a tiny interloper as it whizzed past exploding rockets.
“I get to see in my goggles directly what the drone sees,” he said.
Michael Rubio piloting a gimbal drone during Brisbane’s 2026 New Year’s fireworks show.Credit: Matthew Ryan
“Flying the drone millimetres away from exploding fireworks … just creates amazing footage.”
The video Rubio captured, shared on Thursday morning, shows the view from his drone – a manually piloted first-person view (FPV) craft – as it skims past sparks and smoke.
“The drones are built out of carbon fibre, so they’re really durable,” he said.
“I’ve flown through exploding fireworks and it’s never melted or damaged a propeller, a screen or anything.”
Rubio said he was more concerned about retrieving the drone from the Brisbane River had it cut out or lost power.
“They have a lot of power and a lot of capacity, but they don’t run for very long,” he said.
First-person view drones differ from more traditional gimbal drones, which have a mounted camera that takes sweeping static shots.
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Rubio said his set-up for flying an FPV required a spotter – Matthew Ryan – to help him maintain “situational awareness” of his actual body.
With their shorter battery life, carbon fibre bodies, and immersive piloting method, Rubio said FPVs needed to be operated both as a small aircraft and as a camera, rather than simply hovering and panning.
“Everything the camera sees is directly how you position the drone into a movement, so it makes it far more dynamic ... more like a bird, I guess you could say,” he said.
Rubio, who transitioned to becoming a full-time drone pilot and videographer in 2025, said he mainly filmed extreme sports, tourism and real estate content, film and television footage, and live event coverage.
Michael Rubio said he needed goggles to pilot the more immersive FPV drones, unlike the handheld controls used for a more traditional gimbal drone (pictured).Credit: Matthew Ryan
He said the New Year’s Eve footage had been months in the planning.
Rubio first worked with Brisbane-based fireworks operator Skylighter on a show earlier in 2025, when talks about the New Year’s Eve display began.
He said Skylighter handled most of the logistics, while he ran the test flights in the lead-up to Wednesday night’s show.
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But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Arriving shortly after 5pm, he and Ryan had to overcome “a few last-minute hurdles”.
“Initially, we were meant to be operating from the bridge,” Rubio said.
“We had to go to a Plan B and operate from where the other drone light show was, which ended up being quite good because there was a bit more undercover area to get away from the rain when it started raining a bit heavier.”
Rubio used the FPV drone for the 7.45pm display, and a gimbal drone to film the midnight show, walking away with about 20 minutes of footage by the end of the night.
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