briansommers

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i have a tower trainer 60 arf that i have been flying a while and have a tt 61 pro up front which really pulls it around very well, so im thinking another pound shouldnt hurt,

i plan on wrapping it in foam then rubberbanding it to the top of my wing, im not concerned it will get up on off the ground what concerns me is the height, and how that might affect it aerodynamically - it is about 3.5 " high

would it be better to build a balsa box and then put the camcorder in it then strap the whole thing on?

it is the sharp vl-z5u

any advice?

SeacretsOceanCity

I have a Kadet ARF I was going to do the same thing I have a real small Panasonic mini DV
Not worth the risk for me .Im going for the Blackwidow system 350.00 or so
The DV was 600.00 and my wife would kill me if I wrecked it (Christmas gift)
Make sure you post some pics of your setup. The biggest enemy is vibration, I hear.
Isolate it the best you can . That trainer should carry it fine

Rj-TailSpin

You had better heat shrink it in some coverings... or else the glow fuel will get inside your "camera" and cause you problems. Glow fuel crawls like nothing else I can think of other than maybe transmission fluid... Initially, glow fuel doesn't effect electronics. After a while it will start acting up intermittently. Trust me... bag it in "Plastic" Not Paper!

Other than that... Do post the video here LOL!!! I found a site last year, can't remember what it was, where a guy installed a full size camcorder on an electric. He didn't worry about aerodynamics... just bam right on top the CG. He spent thousands on batteriess to lift that pig. The flights were really funny, but it did fly. The thing I remember though is the actual video didn't look much better than what we people are producing today. I record at 400 lines resolution. After it's imported into a computer, edited, and burned... you are hard pressed to notice the difference between the direct camcorder and the wireless aerials.

Don't get me wrong... I've thought about doing it myself-grin... several times! LOL

Good luck!
Rob

briansommers

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yeah well then about the fuel that settles it, i will build a balsa box and with a clear sheet of plexiglass or plastic or something up front and the put it inside, then i dont have to worry about fuel, because that also was a concern of mine.

my only problem is i need a shape guage, i could make one i guess, but would be eiasier to buy one

TPierce

I am doing the same thing with my Alpha. I just finished the setup last weekend. I am hoping for some video this weekend. I just strapped the cam on a piece of light plywood to the bottom of my plane. Its really hard to explain but ill try to get some pictures of the setup. My cam weighs 1lb 11oz and our club president said it should lift it good. My only other problem was ground clearance. I fixed that easily. Ill try to get a pic up in a few days.

briansommers

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ohhh, now thats an interesting twist - mounting it on the bottom?? yeah i thought of that but didnt think that would work - how did you fix the ground cleareance issue?

TPierce

i used some thin electrical wire and tied it and pulled the gear together. This is a rough sketch.

briansommers

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well i had the tower hobbies trainer 60 and i just sold that to my friend, i just ordered the sig kadet senior arf - that is suppose to be a great hauling plane, so i plan to stick it inside - much better peace of mind for myself

thanks

Fubar-One

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My father and I each have Kadet Senior ARF's for carrying wireless video. Great flying planes. Pretty large inside too.
My father mounted his CCD cam on a servo inside looking thru the windows. I mounted mine under the left wing so it can look forward and to the rear along with all points in between.

elevator_up

I've carried all sorts of items and weighs in my planes and if you have enough power, the key concern is to just be sure that you have the plane properly balanced with the additional weight and fuel. If you think you might be pushing the limits and it's taking longer to take off, increase the throws on the elevator. If you've never done this before you might what to practice with a mach up a weight of similar size before a first flight with a multi hundred camcorder.

briansommers

My Feedback: (2)

a little of my background, ive been flying for 8yrs however ive taken the last two years off and just started again this january of this year, i wanted to start with a trainer and im glad i did - things are coming back very quickly - so im confident of my flying skills. i live up at 8000' msl and the tt 61 pro in the tower trainer 60 was way plenty! i had power to spare - i have it leaned out good and it really makes the tower trainer hum at a pretty good speed - well that wingspan is 69.5" so i think another 10" of wing span shouldn't slow me down to much and the camcorder i bought is a little mini dv weighing at 1.07 lbs. but yet i plan on flying it empty just to get a feel of it and trim it all out and then i plan to build my little compartment for my camcorder and then go down to ace hardware and buy the equivalent in some big bolt nuts or washers or something and then stick that in there and then see how it goes - i figure worse case i destroy the plane i at least have my camcorder but i think it will work, then finally put the camcorder in and go for it

SeacretsOceanCity

Now your giving me some ideas nuts & bolts first mmmmm I have a Kadet arf. post how you make out Im sure you will.

elevator_up

Brian, you have the right idea. Just to extend the fun of it, you can easily slap together a 1 servo small drop box, with the approx dimensions of the camera, and put the nuts bolts, paratrooper GI Joe, etc, into it to give the approx weight (yes - you guessed, this is what I did-my son loved it). If you find you having trouble landing or something isnt right drop the load and recalibrate. [8D]

briansommers

My Feedback: (2)

oooh thats a good idea - to be able to jettision the load if it all goes in the dumper on liftoff - problem is i only have a 4 channel radio, i really dont know why it wouldnt work, i will post pix of my setup once i get it, it should be here this wed. and im hoping to go up either friday or sat. the bad news is i have no way of transfering it to my pooter, i guess i could dub a few vhs tapes off and mail em out to several of ya - depending on how good it came out. i can hardly wait to try this - ive been wanting to do this for over 10 yrs. i tried it almost 10 yrs ago with a fairly large camcorder a hi 8 and i had a hobby lobby senior telemaster arf, problem is i didnt hook it on good enough and lost the whole camcorder!! man what a day that was, my friends still talk about it- the wierd thing is i never saw it go!, i took off and went once around the field and did a slow fly by and i could see it was still there and then went back up and was flying around and i did notice my foam jettison off, well i circled to land, made a greaser of a landing but no camcorder!

TPierce

Heres some pics of my setup. The wire is yellow. The cam sits in that tray right over the wire. It has some of that cabinet liner that has the grip stuff on it. The camera sticks really good.

TPierce

The tail sits a lot higher.