clolson

My Feedback: (7)

I'm not sure if this is the best forum to ask this question, but being slightly video related I'll give it a shot.

I am planning to get a Rascal 110 and load it with some video equipment and a few other pieces of equipment that could possibly add up to aroud 5-6 lbs worth of weight.

The Rascal 110 has a wing area of about 10.57 sq-ft. The manufacturer estimates a total weight of 11-13 lbs which yields a wing loading of 17-20 oz/sq-ft.

My question is: What is a reasonable upper limit for wing loading on this type of aircraft? By my math, going up to a 30 oz/sq-ft wing loading would give me about 7 lbs of payload capacity which should be more than enough for my needs. I'm not going to be barnstorming with this aircraft so I don't anticipate structural problems with the additional load, but I'm looking for some sort of guidelines or suggestions to help me estimate in advance what kind of payload might be reasonable for this aircraft.

I'll probably try carrying some dead weight as a test before loading in real equipment, but for the intial planning it would be nice to have some sort of ballpark payload figures to try to work within.

Thanks,

Curt.

mklarich

Curt, you could carry a good chunk of weight in the airplane. The wing is built nicely, also as long as you don't plan on the loading the wings heavy, loops, rolls, walls, etc, etc you can carry a little more.

I have a senior telemaster that I loaded down with 1.5-2 gallons worth of fuel, batteries, servos, etc and it didn't break. Now, it did start to break the old rubber bands I had put on it when I started getting interference from the ignition system and it started pulling full up elevator and doing loops around its own canopy but I got it down and the wing is none the worse for the wear and I am still flying the wing. (on another airplane, tragic death)

Just my 2 cents,
Matt

PS. Head to www.blackwidowav.com and get 2 cameras, a camera switch, a 600 m/w transmitter, and a receiver and you will be good to go after you get a couple batteries.

clolson

My Feedback: (7)

Ok, thanks for the datapoint. The Rascal 110 has a bit bigger wing, but I don't know how the base/empty weight compares with your Telemaster. I'm told that a gallon of model fuel weighs about 6lbs so that means you must have been hauling 9-12 extra lbs, pretty impressive for a model airplane. My payload is looking like it will weigh in at about 5-6 lbs so hopefully that is well within reasonable limits for the Rascal given that it is a bit bigger aircraft.

Question for you are anyone else: is there any place I can download a full quality movie captured with black video equipment so I can get an idea of the level of video quality to expect? I'm pretty sure I've seen a lot of highly compressed web movies floating around here and other places, but I'd like to find something that would show the full size/quality that you can achieve. I don't know if that's even possible in a downloadable movie, maybe I'd have to find someone to send me a video tape for an appropriate size bribe???

Is there anyone in the Minnesota/Minneapolis area with a black widow setup that would be interested in letting me come watch a live session to see the equipment in action?

In case anyone cares, I'm pursuing this as part of a project through the Aero department at the University of Minnesota.

Regards,

Curt.

mklarich

Curt, I am unfortunately all the way in southern illinois. Takes me 7 hours to just get up to wisconsin border...

How good a quality are you trying to get with your video?

I can post a pretty high quality video to my website if you want, about 60 megs.

Matt Klarich

clolson

My Feedback: (7)

We aren't planning to shoot movies or tv shows or anything like that, but we'd like to get as much quality as possible so that we can see as much ground detail as possible. We have some mapping/monitoring type applications in mind. In terms of a demo video, if you are taking requests, I would request that you dial up the quality as high as it goes, and then put as big of a slice as you can fit on your web site without causing major problems. I have access to pretty decent bandwidth, so I can let you know when I've got it so you can take it down to make room for your other stuff. Again if you are taking requests, the quality of the video is more important than the length. We just want to get some sort of idea of what kind of quality we can get out of the black widow camera and wireless system.

Many, many thanks in advance if you can come up with something!

Curt.

Fubar-One

My Feedback: (1)

The video quality I get is on a par with what I would get if I sent my digital 8 camcorder aloft. It pretty much comes down to the quality of the camera itself. Those Panasonic CCD board cameras kick butt. I wish it was feasible to put a decent digital quality AVI online but it really isnt.
I am still putting together a DVD of my stuff...

mklarich

Ok, I uploaded a decent video on my clubs website. The video itself is great, no breakups (I'll tell you why later) but you can see some compression streaking (besides the transistions in the video parts, someone thought that was video distortion the first time they saw it).

I haven't shot much lately and I don't have a digital video camera to record with on the ground.

Matt Klarich

[link=http://www.stoneflyers.com/images/mklarich1.wmv]www.stoneflyers.com/images/mklarich1.wmv[/link]

Try saving it to your machine unless you have mad bandwidth.

Matt

Skycam41

Bruce Tharpe, maker of the Flyin' King told me that this plane should be able to pack a 10lb pay load. I only have about 3 lbs of camera gear on board and the FK just brushes it off.

clolson

My Feedback: (7)

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the video ... it was a lot of fun to watch. My apologies in advance if you've explained this all before, but can I ask what specific equipment you are using? What were you using to overlay the telemtery info? What were you using to sense/collect the telemetry info?

Thanks,

Curt.

kd7ost

Curt,

Are you still checking this Thread? I've been using the Sig Rascal 110 for a year now and have some information that would interest you. I fly with as much as 4 pounds of Camera, Batteries, Fuel etc. It needs a little tweaking.

Dan

clolson

My Feedback: (7)

Hi Dan,

I'd love to hear more details from you. Feel free to post here if you think this if of general interest, but also feel free to email me directly. I'd like to avoid posting my email address online (to avoid spam) but you can find my personal email address at my web site:

http://www.flightgear.org/~curt/

Best regards,

Curt.