Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

I have a Nextstar trainer. A buddy an I want to put one of those tiny little cameras on it that has its own little tx an rx that is hooked to a TV. The reason for this is the trees are starting to change,an my buddy is a big time areial video guy. Most of the time he straps a video camera to the top of his plane pushes play an tales off. Well the set up he now transmits in real time to a T.V. He was saying the transmiter will work up to two miles.My question is How far will a Futaba 9CAPS an R149DP work before it starts going nuts?.....Also...Would the freq that the camera uses break up the link between my radio an reciver?..............Thanks...

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

If you fly beyond visual range, you're in conflict with the law.
The plane has to be in visual contact with the pilot.

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

You would be in conflict with AMA safety standards, but there is no law involved.

It's not a good idea, I don't think, but it's not illegal.

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

stay in visual range...be safe...flying by camera isn't as easy as you think.....I was operating just a camera under a helo a few years ago...if the pilot made a hard manuver it was very difficult for me to find a target on the ground again....

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

I know its aginst ama rules, not the law. I'm not planing on going out of sight. I don't fly my models that far out. Would it be good for a half mile maybe 3/4. I don't see me ever going more than a mile, cause it would just look like a dot. You could not tell what it was doing anyway. I'm not going to be flyin with the camera. Everyone at the field will be watching it on the T.V. I will be flying with a hard hat on that has a reciver screwed to it which has to be pointed with my head at the airplane the hole time...So no camera for me..... Just going to try an get some long straight flights looking down on the foliage. Not alot of turning which makes the veiwers sick

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

If you get so far out that you can't see the attitude of the airplane you can't fly it

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

No kidding. So flat here you can see for miles

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

Not so. If it's being controlled while it's out of sight, it's a UAV, and the Federal government regulates those. It's illegal to fly one without their permission, and you won't get that permission. This makes some sense, as UAVs could potentially be a useful thing for terrorists to play with and also a hazard to full-scale aviation. Whether flying it from a camera-based viewpoint even when it's within visual range makes it a UAV is something I don't know; best to check before doing it.

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

There is a large, active and growing market for video equipment to allow first person video flight. To the best of my knowledge it's not illegal to fly a model airplane beyond line of sight using this equipment. It's not a good idea, IMO, though.

Can you point me to the specifics of the federal statutes that make this illegal....at least for now?

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

He's talking about using a real time video link that will give hm a pilot's seat point of view. It's very controllable beyond visual range, if less than a good idea.

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

I'm still wondering about the range of my RX AN TX. We break laws everyday. I have never heard of a law aginst it. We all break laws everyday. 80% of us when we see that red sign on every corner that says "STOP" most of us creep threw it. We know for sure thats not lawful.But we do it knowing its wrong.

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

Their use to be an ad that had a trainer with a normal radio go over 3000 ft in alt. The problem is across the ground you loose range so it wont be as good going away. You will have to gain alt to stay in contact. Someone had one, at my club a couple of years ago, cool to watch but the field of view is limited; kind of like looking through a 4 in dia. tube. There is a video of a guy chasing a seaplane with another model and the camera is able to pan which made it not so disorientating.

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

All aircraft, manned or unmanned, need an airworthiness certificate from the FAA to fly in US airspace unless the FAA exempts them. The FAA regulations exclude "models" from this requirement. There's an FAA notice that seems to say that a "model" has to be flown lower than 400 feet and within the operator's line of sight to fall within the exclusion. I say "seems to say" because it's more an illustration than a definition. (All this is from memory, so details may be off.) The FAA has occasionally given permission for a particular UAV to be flown (I think it was for a police department or some such).

Now, an FAA "notice" isn't a statute, and it's possible, I suppose, that operating a UAV beyond line of sight might be held to fall within the exception for "models," especially if it doesn't go over 400 feet up, which it normally wouldn't. Personally, I wouldn't count on it, and I wouldn't want to foot the bills for the legal fees, either.

One more thing worth mentioning, maybe. Lots of people (besides the military, which is exempt) are interested in developing and/or using UAVs for things like police work, crop dusting, and patrolling borders. I believe the FAA is studying this area and it's surely only a matter of time until some new regime for regulating UAVs gets set up; they're just too useful to ban. The whole matter ought to be clarified then. Let's hope modeling doesn't get shafted in the process.

RE: Nexstar + Real Time Camera =Crash?
 

I am at work now and don't have the issue in front of me, but the Nov issue of MA talks about this in the very first article from the editor. The FAA is changing the acronym to include other vehicles, and studying the necessary regulations of them.
Curtis