More Video Tinkering....

[Ironflight]

Well, I think I have this little waterproof, rugged video camera figured out. On my previous flights, I developed the under wing mount that attaches to the tie-down point, but was having trouble with it shutting off in flight. I did a little research (that means I finally read the manual!), and discovered that they recommend Lithium, batteries rather than alkalines. I had figured that a "AA" was a "AA", right? Wrong! The fresh out of the box voltage on a Lithium cell was 1.76 volts, whereas the cheap bulk alkalines I was using only measured 1.4 when I opened the package. So, my theory is that the camera is really marginal on 3 volts, and shuts down when the voltage sags a bit, the Lithiums give you more margin, and today I had two flights and it recorded full time for both of them!

You can see the results here. It's still not as cool as Doug's video of Danny in trail!

This was a little gentle acro done with an IFR block clearance to keep it legal. It's a lot of fun, and frankly, the video still doesn't do it justice. You have to be able to crane your neck under that big bubble canopy to get the full effect as you roll over the top of a cumulus....but those you are flying can go and do it, and those that are building....maybe this will motivate you some more!

Once again... IFR clearance required!

Paul

[n5lp]

Originally Posted by Ironflight

...You have to be able to crane your neck under that big bubble canopy to get the full effect as you roll over the top of a cumulus....but those you are flying can go and do it, and those that are building....maybe this will motivate you some more!...

Having ridden on a flight with you and later seen the video, I understand that the flight is much more than it appears on "You Tube". Still, this video has some of the ballet that must be a significant part of the feel of the real flight.

Glad you are ironing out the techical glitches.

[frankh]

I really must give this IFR block clearance thing a go sometime!

Good job Paul...

Frank

[arffguy]

Awww, man! Everytime I have myself convinced to make a light VFR only plane stuff like this pops up.

Neat video, Paul.

[frankh]

IFR aerobatics, who would have thought...

Wonder if ATC can see my mode C when upside down?..

Frank

[Paul Tuttle]

Paul, I wish I had the video before I did the painting of your airplane.
Looks like there's a lot of fun to be had.

[Ironflight]

I am lookign at your painting here in my study right now Mr. Tuttle, and it still captures the moment perfectly! You have both an excellent eye, and a fabulous vision!

Paul

[cawmd82]

Paul: Did your lithium batteries solve the shut off problem? If not, it may be a problem with the batteries overheating in the high vibration environment. We have seen this repetitively with gps devices on our off road motorcycles--about 20-30 minutes, sometimes less and they are toast on batteries but work without fail if wired into 12v circuit.

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by cawmd82

Paul: Did your lithium batteries solve the shut off problem?

It appears the the Lithium batteries made the difference Chuck - recorded for the full hour I had avaiable on the SD card with no hiccups the other day - that's a good sign!

Paul

[n5lp]

Ok, while all this video tinkering was going on I was frustrated by my lack of an airplane, as mine was down for repair and maintenance. I rode along with Paul Dye on one of these missions and although he ended up with a nice video, especially considering the rain and camera shut-off problems, I was certain I could way improve on it.

It looked to me like it could be improved, in one way, by aiming the camera a little lower. When Paul would be in steep banks, with the attendant high angles of attach, the camera would tend to be pointed at the sky too much. I would also aim the camera a little bit left, for my side by side airplane, for more of the pilot's view.

Another way I could improve it would be by a firmer mounting. Paul's video, done while I was on board, had a waveriness to it. Not terrible, but it was distracting. I had a cursory look at his mounting system, without really understanding it, but I figured it just need to be mounted more firmly.

Then the real trump card; I know the country and had a good map in my mind of just where I would go and in what order. I was already picking sound track music that would best complement the incredible Guadalupe Mountain scenery!

Today I had the chance to try it and under favorable conditions. The reality is that I got a piece of ugly unusable junk.

I decided to use the mount that is built for a helmet or something similar, where a strap threads through slots. I would wire this to the tie-down ring and then I could turn on the camera and just snap it in place. It seemed pretty rigid.

I don't know if it was the mount or my engine (freshly propeller balanced), but I got such incredible movement that the only watchable parts of the video were where I was throttled way back in a descent. I would say the waveriness in my video was about 10 times or worse than what it was in Paul's. A portion of the bottom of my wing is visible, and you can actually see by the seams how the camera is buffeting or vibrating back and forth. One of my best scenes of a roll facing the Guadalupe escarpment was where this was the very worst.

I used the lithium ion batteries but still had a bit of trouble with the Oregon Scientific beast. I ended up with two videos, the first one about the first 40 minutes, then it shut down for a while, then I got the approach and landing on a separate video. This actually wouldn't have been a problem, if the video would have been decent as nothing important was missed.

So all you folks that got entertaining stuff, my hat is off to you. I have done professional videography and editing but I can't do it near as well as you.

Oh, and my soundtrack was going to be some choral Russian folk songs from the B side of Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms." I swear it would have been inspiring.