New Video from this Morning
 

Hello all,

I had fun flying this morning in some low clouds burning off in the morning sunshine. I was hoping to fly above the cloud cover to get some shots looking between the cloud layers.
Everything was going fine until my plane flies behind a cloud. You can't hear these electrics... After about 15 seconds of flying blind, I had to put it in a dive to see where I ended up.
Anyway here's some edited clips from flight. I wish I hung in there a few more seconds, I probably would have gotten some really nice video after breaking the cloud plane.

I haven't seen too many new posts in a while, lets all go flying...

Here's the link.


[link]http://webpages.charter.net/pfedel/Morning%20Clouds1.wmv[/link]


Eyeinthesky[:'(]

RE: New Video from this Morning
 

Wow, very nice video and really cool with the clouds in the picture! We need details....plane, camera etc!

Mike

RE: New Video from this Morning
 

Yea that's some high quality video :D Obviously a pretty nice setup.

RE: New Video from this Morning
 

Hi, Thanks for the comments.

My setup is actually all "ebay" but I am about ready to go with the 200mw Blackwidow setup on a Condor Magic powered sailplane. Here's what I am curently using:

Accipter Badius - airplane, with the straight wings, but I used some fishing line to keep the wings from flexing too much.

Camera is just a cheap 200mw ebay system (probably 50mw rf), but I built a patch ant. on a tripod and I power the reciever with a 12 volt field battery.

A big disadvantage with these CMOS cameras is extreme lighting conditions, I have tried positioning the camera in the front, side, underneath, looking back, etc. I get the best flights in later afternoon, or under slightly cloudy conditions.

I think it helps having part of the plane in the camera view to help keep the contrast more balanced overall in flight.

With the camera facing forward I get too much glare and dark images, also with it facing towards the rear of the plane, as you climb in elevation it points more in a downward position with less sky.

I use a Sony Digital 8 camera to capture the video. It has a small display that I can look at during the flights to make sure I have a signal.
I use the Image Mixer software from Sony to dump the video into the PC, and perform the editing and music. Then I use the Windows Movie maker 2 to add titles, fade-in/outs and a great feature of this program is the ability to save the file in many different viewing formats, this way a one minute feature could range in file size from as small as 2 megs up to 100. For posting and emailing I use a 30fps, 340 kbps or greater format.

This may be redundant information for some of you, but it works well for me.

Thanks for checking it out.

Eyeinthesky

RE: New Video from this Morning
 

Dang, that's some really good video from a cmos camera:D Under the right conditions they work pretty well but sunlight doesn't seem to be one of thos conditions.....
I know where you can get a really light board ccd camera if you're interested.

RE: New Video from this Morning
 

Hey, where did you put the fishing line on your badius? Out at the end of the spar? I've got one and I'd like to limit some of that flexing also.

RE: New Video from this Morning
 

Hi Randall1959,
I thought about adding a CCD camera on this ebay system, I wasn't sure if the voltages would match up without adding a 5v regulator, this one is running one of those 8v rated systems. I probably will just leave it the way it is and get the BlackWidow system and be done with it.

On the Badius wing flex issue. I ran some 10 lb test line from the end of the spars and pulled it tight across the fuse bottom. It seems to keep the wings in a little more control without adding a lot of weight or change in the aerodynamics.

I was buzzing my house yesterday doing some LAV (low altitude video) I was trying to get some new and extreme views. I ran a few passes about a foot over the roof line and another time I got close enough to see into my upstairs bedroom window... It was kind of fun, you would never dream of doing this with a glow powered, or larger model.
Anyway, after about 20 trips, I got a radio hit and straight down into the grass. I was surprised to see the plane was ok even though the nose dug into the earth about 3 inches and dirt was spread all over the wings... I will have to post some video, I don't have the crash though, it was on the other side of the house and the signal was blocked when it dipped below the roof line.

Thanks for your comments.


Eyeinthesky