Quick someone give teddy a camera !!!!!!!!

tIANCi, yes just a bit of lighthearted fun on a Thursday afternoon and no offense meant !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Beats work doesn't it but if the wind drops off I'll be dissapearing to get another couple of batteries in on the way home ?????

See you're from KL, only ever visited your airport as so many do passing through on the way back from Singapore and Langkawi, bet you get bettre flying weather than over here most of the time !!!!!!!!!

But that's exactly the point...

Often people come in here with things like this where all of the details have not been thought through.

Telling them from the start, that they don't know what they are doing and that they should set their sights lower doesn't work, so discussing the actual requirements MAY let them "see the light".

You have the scenario exactly right, this is NOT a project for anyone without experience.

The best a relative newbie will do is with a slow small platform and say a FlyCamOne ver 2, which I don't think he had in mind...

It's not "irresponsible" to help someone realize what they are getting into by telling them what they ACTUALLY may need to accomplish what they want.

opjose,
Does that reply even warrant an answer - which part of he's going to need a BIG plane 28 Lb + might possibly pursuade him to even consider he may be biting off a bit more than he can chew or even vaguely contemplate erring on the side of caution ????????

I would ordinarily hope not, as this should have been obvious from the onset...


Isn't that self evident?

What he needs to do what he wants, is simply not going to fill his initial criteria, e.g. "small", etc.

In other words, "unrealistic expectations"...

A simple guy asks a simple question, some other simple guys gave a simple answer ... now there is some issue about being irresponsible. Makes me wonder why forums have a tendency to go this way. Sigh ... Still we can guide the forumer on his way, guide him to ensure that he does not hurt himself or someone else. Guiding is good rather than freaking out and saying someone will be unable to this and that. I got some pals who can solo on his 1st flight and land safely. My 1st tie on a heli I could hover a 500 sized EP heli by my 3rd pack of battery. Let's try to guide someone ...

Witterings ... I read law in London/Coventry. That was a while back. KL is nice, we fly EVERYDAY. Its 1 am now, bedtime! I contacted the company to ask about how much Teddy costs. I am keen on that one.

Exactly!

Better to get someone focused on the realities of an undertaking instead of telling them, no you can't do it...

Eventually they may come to the realization that they've bitten off too much, OR they may commit to what it really may take...

Either way more thought and care is put into it.

Brokeback mountain---------- part2--------------- pub

Sounds like the OP should look into a big balloon instead...

1.) approach a nearby RC club and find a pilot willing to join your project. Give him the money that you would have spent. You are in business very quickly.

2.) don't expect a model to carry high resolution film making grade equipement, they don't.

3.)understand that flying an RC airplane and filming a mountain biker is like threading a needle while holding out of a car window.

That was an incredible video, even though I am not a big fan of some of the video's, the ones with the loud obnoxious and inappropriate music, this one was very pleasant to watch and listen to. Thanks for posting the link.

Next question would be how he managed to do that? I had all sorts of thoughs while watching it, but the shots from the front, looking rearward made me curious because the view from the rear did not show a camera up front but the shots from the front looking rearward clearly showed a camera over the 'bear's' left shoulder. Pretty neat stuff.

Now, someone will say that it was all 'dubbed' in or whatever you call it.. but it looked fairly real to me!!

But, to get back to the topic of this thread, this obviously was being flown by an experienced pilot. I liked the tilt capabilities of the front-looking camera, however, try to focus on a moving object on the ground (mountain bikes) and zoom in on them so you can really see them, then try to keep the camera/aircraft movement coordinated with that of the mountain bike riders.. so that they stay in the view of the camera lens.. you have one major obstacle to cover. Not impossible, but difficult at best for an experienced pilot. And the weight issue, drag, power consumption, and so on, would not be something I think you would want to attempt with electrical power.

CGr.

There are some very good, lightweight cameras now available on the market that could be well suited to the application. Go look at the Aerial Photography forum for much more informative advice. I'm waiting for my sample video to finish processing on You tube, and I'll come back and provide a link.

These small lightweight cameras are ideally suited to being flown on a 40 or 60 size trainer. Using a trainer for video is an excellent match due to the slow flight and stable platform.

Now couple the plane with an experienced pilot on a buddy box with a set of video goggles. The buddy box allows the pilot to fly FPV while the instructor box maintains the safety of the plane.

Add a second pair of video goggles and you (OP) can watch and direct the pilot, just like you were both sitting in the plane.

It didn't sound to me like the OP was looking for action tracking shots pursuing the mountain bikers, but more aerial shots (ala the final flyaway scene in Easy Rider). A few months ago, my son (who was taking a film class) wanted an action shot of a man running across a field, and he asked if I could use the plane to do this. I told him no, as it wasn't safe to chace a person with a plane, but if he wanted more aerial shots of the field, it would be easy to do.

As soon as I get the video processed, I'll post a link.

Brad

I was under the impression that he wanted to track the bikers. Perhaps wrong, I don't know, but the OP will have to clarify what he really wants to do here. Obviously, what you suggest is the way to go, using "virtual reality" goggles to control where the plane flys.

Having the camera on gimbals or a swivel of some sort, servo controlled for pan and tilt, would also work, but adds weight for servo, mount, and batteries. Then tracking the movement on the ground with a moving aircraft will require coordination. Again, not easy. Do-able, I guess, but not easy.

Your video would be nice to see. Looking forward to seeing it.

CGr.

g day
please please get your self properley trainded up before you even think about taking off with $2000.00 worth of stuff that could hurt someone very badley or even kill someone if it was crashed into them especialy scince you are going to be flying over people
good luck with this project sounds like fun post a vidio of it.
happy flying

simmo

CG - go to the website of the manufacturer and you can see how it works. I could not find the front cam too, actually I emailed the manufacturer, would be a fun item to own. BTW ... how old are you? I guess old enough not to like the loud sound tracked videos! Hehehehe ...

Old enough not to like the sound of LOUD and OBNOXIOUS tracked video's I'm sure you know the ones.. those that have music that has absolutely nothing to do with the video, does not match.. that sort of thing. Please, don't restart the controversy of the sound tracks in videos.. that became a tad bit overboard. Suffice to say that we all have our limits.

CGr.

What if he used a 1/4 scale piper cub, they're known for carrying cargo and flying at like 5 mph aren't they?

What we don't really know is how far he has to transport this thing or if he even has a runway to take off and land on, proximity of the bikers to the runway, and of course, the experience level of the pilot.

Did someone catch on this comment: He said "50 mph bikers". Hmm.. I've ridden my Cannondale road bike at about 42 mph and that was straight down a hill from the top of a bridge and that was pushing it. Mountain bikes going 50 mph? Unless he is referring to gas powerd off-road motor-cycles as 'bikes', well, 50 mph on a mountain bicycle.. I don't quite think so. Not that a bicycle can do that, but a mountain bike on trails? Ummm...

CGr.

BTW: if you go directly to the Cue-Air web site you can download the HD version of Teddy's flight.

Of interest is that you can see that gyros were used to stabilize the plane...

A great idea, but it also shows that this is not trivial.

I understand that this will be a very challenging project to do, and I will definately get myself trained up before flying with an expensive plane and camera.

The shots will not involve actually tracking the bikers, but flying over them at a high altitude to get a view of the field and the bikers going through the trail on it (i.e. ariel shots).

I mentioned in my first post that a wireless video sender will send the video from the camera to a monitor on the ground, so the second person that is controlling the pan and tilt (if I decide to go that route now) can see exactly what the camera is seeing.

The rig will have to be transported between 3 countries (Germany, Switzerland, and France), but I assume the wings can be removed for transport and in all cases we will take a train or car to get from country to country. Once in the area we will take cable cars up to the top of the mountain, and my plan was then to re-assemble the plane (wings, etc.) and get shooting. There will be runways (flat patches of land) to take off from.

CGRetired, we're talking about downhill mountain biking (bicycle) here, where speeds of up to 50mph are quite easily reachable. It's going flat out down a mountain for a few kilometers and with a few hundred metres elevation difference between the start and finish points. Hard to believe, but very real.

Some of you have been mentioning that electric power would not be the best option for this project. Wouldn't using nitro make it much more complicated though (wÃ*th the tuning, fuel I need to carry around, maintenance, etc.)? I've never used petrol / gas before so I can't really comment on that, but I have heard that it's easier to tune and maintain...

here is a video useing a fly cam 1 and a hobby zone super cub.....you will see i had a very ruff landing but i picked it right back up and started filming and flying again! this might be a good test set up for you !http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBJatLH6nNs

sorry i couldnt get the video to post(if someone could tell me how i would appreciate it) you can go to you tube and type in super cub ruff landing to see it if you want!

If you have a chance go to this web site and check out his HD videos.

This includes the HD version of the Teddy Bear video.

[link=http://homepage1.nifty.com/CUE/]Click me![/link]

He did pretty much what you are talking about using a glow or gas engined plane and gyros all around for stabilization.

It looks like he did this with a 1lb HD video camera mounted to a remotely controlled gimbal, with it's own battery pack.

The videos show two entire sequences spliced together to make it seem as if at times you are looking back upon the whole flying setup.

At other times the head panning is used to move the camera around, and it seems as if he even had enough capacity to add a servo for the bear.

It looks like he did this with a .60 sized plane or larger.

By selecting a lightly loaded plane, with a small camera setup, he was able to do it with a smaller model airplane than would normally be required to haul all of the support equipment around.

With the gyro stabilization this may prove to be exactly what you want to replicate.

Here's the link to my video sample. This is a SPAD Debonair with the FutureHobbies 1 W system. The YouTube rendering does not do it justice. Powerplant is a Thunder Tiger Pro 46 with an 11x5 prop, and the plane will probably easily reach 50 MPH. The wings are 60 inches long, and attached with rubberbands. This system is easily transportable by car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jd6JRepyGU

I think it would be ideally suited to what the OP has described, as long as he has the place to take off and land.

Brad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBJatLH6nNs gonna try to post my hobby zone super cub again this may not be what you want in the end but its a pretty cheap set up to practice with starting out !