Airborne Video almost ready to ship..

This probably belongs in the Classified section but it is a first so put it where the most people will see it.

We have finally created what we believe is one of the most unique videos ever produced in Control Line Modeling. We mounted a wireless video camera to a couple of control line airplanes and recorded the AMA stunt pattern from the airplanes perspective. We thought it would be pretty cool to have a flight with the camera pointed backwards looking at the control surfaces showing exactly how much elevator movement is used while flying the pattern. We also thought it might be pretty exciting to mount the camera on a profile and see exactly what the fuel load in a plastic clunk does during the flight.

The idea is to put all this together on one tape and sell copies with the profit going to the Gluedobbers club for flying field improvements. I will be the first to admit that the video is not the greatest quality, we have some noise issues that we were not able to get completely worked out, and the video is by no means professionally produced. However, it is very watchable and extremely informative. Here are the flights that are going to be on the tape...

1. Magnum, Stalker .61 with the camera pointed forward.
2. TwistMaster Profile, Saito .40 with the camera looking at the control surfaces.
3. TwistMaster Profile with the camera looking at the plastic clunk tank.
4. Magnum, camera forward, first try, flying the pattern at 6+ second laps.
5. Magnum, camera pointed at the control surfaces, the sun created a problem.
6. A short segment of the Magnum in flight shot with a camcorder by Gluedobber Elwin Aud.

The tape will be 30 minutes long and sell for $20.00 shipped to the US. Payment can be made by personal check, money order, or PayPal. Overseas orders will be handled as best we can using PayPal with a slight increase for shipping. If interested in pre-ordering please contact me via email [email protected] , we expect to start shipping within two weeks.

For a preview I created an AVI video of the reverse wingover from the fuel tank video. Please realize this is a 10 meg file and it took almost an hour for me to upload it with a dial up connection. AVI files, even compressed, are big for what you get... This file shows the reverse wingover and only plays for just over 13 seconds.

If you have a fast connection it won't be a big problem but if you are on dial-up even at 56k be prepared for a long download. The easiest way to get the file is to Right Click on the link and select <Save Target As> and make a mental note of where on your hard drive you saved it to. After the download you should be able to use Windows Explorer to navigate to the file. A double click on the file should bring up Windows Media Player and play the AVI.

http://www.eaglextra.com/images/WINGOVER.AVI

Also here is a picture Elwin shot as I was getting the TwistMaster ready for the fuel tank flight.. With the Video stuff, this is a 47 ounce Twister, not a problem for the Saito 40.

I ws wondering when someone was going to do this, too bad it can't be seen at an IMAX theater, barf bags would be necessary!
How much for shipping to Canada?

Ya the Tulsa Gluedobbers are pretty forward thinking and it doesn't hurt that we have allot of technical talent in the club. As far as the video making you woozy, I haven't really noticed it, thinking it is because you are watching so many things at once.

Send me an email with your address and I will see if I can figure out the shipping..

It made me a little woozy when I finally saw it on a good sized screen! Especially the turns where the ground is rushing up at you. That last vertical leg of the inside square sure doesn't take long!

If you really want a video that could make you woozy, I guess you could try mounting the camera in a Bi-Slob. Getting enough power to haul the extra weight while retaining the unique Bi-Slob flying qualities might be a problem though.

Bob,
Check your e-mail.
Roger V.

Hey, what's working for you guys with the Saito 40 on a profile.
Tank, fuel, prop???
Allan Perret

Wow, that is wild! What, no sound?

Tim,
Ya no sound... I would have had to add a microphone and impedance matching electronics to the airborne pack with it's corresponding additional weight. Believe me I thought about it but we are already adding 6.5 ounces of camera, battery and electronics. This was mainly done to answer a few questions that come up now and then, like how much elevator do you really use in a square corner, or does the fuel actually go to the front of the tank when the nose is pointed down. Considering the price in weight and additional complexity, sound would not have added that much to the videos.

Allan,
Do a search for "Saito 40", you should find a recent thread with info on the TwistMaster setup plus a few other comments on the engine. Briefly, I am using a RevUp 11-4 with a standard clunk tank and 10-22 GMA Power Master fuel.

It took me 45 minutes to download the video at home which was no real problem. After watching the video several times you start to notice different things like little droplets of fuel blowing back occasionally. Looked like none of the droplets hit the lens though. I kept seeing something dark blinking on and off near the center and quickly realized it was the nuts on the backside of the spinner going by.

>Wow, that is wild! What, no sound?

Tim;

Sound would also add signifgantly to the size of the file.

Bob R.;

This is cool as can be. What interested me was watching the the prop change speeds as the Twistmaster went through the reverse wingover.

It just dawned on me you could do a screen capture or whatever you call it, so here's a couple of shots from the video with the plane at the top of the circle and inverted. On the inverted shot you can see a couple of droplets of fuel blowing back from the dark area just beneath where the fuel line connects to the carb. It looks a whole lot neater in motion!

Neat shots, good advertisment.
Should help increase sales, I ordered mine yesterday prior to seeing them.
Roger V.

Bob,

Wait until you see the actual video, the prop does all sorts of speed changing, up wind, down wind and especially in the maneuvers. While putting together the master tape I have watched all the flights several times and every time I watch a flight I notice some little thing that I had never thought about before, very enlightening.

THAT IS SO COOL!

We will sincerely appreciate any support we get from our CL friends. All the money earned is going into our field including a club house that we really need.

I'm up for getting the video. Only took me about 30 seconds to download the sample. While the computers at work are mostly junk, we do have a T-1 connection.

DA BUBBA, he likes... nice to see someone has picked up on my idea (those pesky pop-ups for mini video cameras sparked it). I wonder what a Fox Burrp looks like? Got to love that TwistMaster! Great work guys, maybe for X-Mas...

Very interesting video - I almost noticed the wing / root flexing some in the pullouts. Makes me wonder if you could capture the amount of wing tip flex during an abrupt change in direction like the bottom of a wingover! Very cool idea. What kind of camera did you employ?

It is pretty amazing the things you notice while watching the video, as I said I see some interesting little item every I watch one of the flights.

The camera, transmitter and receiver came from Super Circuits http://www.scx.com/ (Item #: AVX900S9-V) 900 MHz wireless Color video system $349.95. We chose this system because it had the highest resolution camera and the best transmitter range of any we could find. This transmitter is on the Amateur HAM radio band and to be legal you should have someone in the group with the minimum of a Technician class FCC license.

Do not expect to get any instructions or help from Super Circuits, if you don't know something about Video and RF you are wasting your time and money. The system as shipped, weighs over 13 ounces. I was able to get it down to just over 6 ounces by eliminating a few big connectors, replacing the camera housing with one made out of balsa and ordering a small 370 mAH 12 volt battery pack. We had a few technical issues with the video levels, noise and the cameras automatic electronic iris. Super Circuits was no help but we managed to work out most of the bugs on our own.

Having no electricity at the field provided a small challenge on how to power the VCR. The receiver runs on 12 volts and I had a 12 volt video monitor so the only problem was the VCR. I didn't want to buy an inverter so I converted an old computer UPS to an inverter by removing the battery and bringing heavy gauge wire outside the case with battery clips. When we were recording the flights I would pull my van up to the canopy and run all the fixed end equipment off the van battery.

This was a pretty extensive project that ran over several months of tinkering and flying but we had a ball and the results were well worth the investment.

This is a picture of the bottom of the balsa camera housing with all the foam pieces that held the camera in place plus a picture of the TwistMaster in flight.

Very cool, Bob.

I've got to have a copy of the tape.

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"An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh."

Just an update, The videos are ready to ship, the first group of orders went out yesterday.

If you haven't ordered yours yet...

Send a check or money order for $20.00 made out to "Tulsa Gluedobbers" to.....

Bob Reeves
6602 E. 574 Road #222
Catoosa, OK 74015

or PayPal $20.00 to [email protected]

Please Email me your address so I can have the shipping label ready. We sure appreciate the orders we have received and hope you enjoy the video.

How much for UK shipping?

What media types is it avalable on?

Don't know about the shipping to the UK but the current media is VHS tape. Bob is working on a DVD format that hopefully will be available soon. The dvd will allow you to view frame by frame.

Bob really likes playing with this kind of stuff and has done a very good job. Look for the whole story in a future issue of Stunt News .

Tony,

According to the post office rate calculator, shipping to the UK is $12.00. Shipping inside the US is $3.85 which is covered in the $20.00 so if my calculator is right the video would cost you $28.15.

Bob

Edit: Don't get too anxious or excited over the DVD, I have a steep learning curve on this video editing stuff and many things have to happen before we are ready to digitally record the flights. Maybe for the second release but probably not before next summer. We are going to offer the second release at cost of the media and shipping to those that buy the first release.

Tony,

Does the UK use the NTSC format or the PAL format? This might be germane when thinking of ordering the tape. I would assume that the tape is NTSC or it won't play in most VCR's in the USA.

I thought it was Betamax!

Most recent UK vcr's play American tapes - the last two I've had do!

Watching video as we speak, and trying not to throw up!

Cool watching the prop load up and unload.

OOO OOO OOO Really cool watching the exposed plastic clunk tank. Ever wonder exactly what the fuel looks lke when it's sloshing around? Here it is man. Guess where the clunk spends most of it's time. Just Guess cuzz I ain't gonna tell ya, you gotta buy the tape.

Ever wonder exactly what the fuel looks lke when it's
>sloshing around? Here it is man. Guess where the clunk
>spends most of it's time. Just Guess cuzz I ain't gonna
>tell ya, you gotta buy the tape. >
>From somewhere near Parkville, Mo.
>William Crane
>AMA 6733

I wont tell either, you have to buy it.
See my comments under Product Reviews
Roger V.

Thanks guys,

My greatest fear is someone receiving the tape and thinking they didn't get their monies worth. Your comments give me a warm and fuzzy feeling

Mayhaps before the next one you could dub something into the background, music, mancow, Rush, I listened to Yahoo Launch while watching. Naration would be good too.

I agree, we do not have the equipment to dub sound and trying to edit with home VCR's is a real pain. The next go around will be recorded direct to digital. Then we will be able to dub sound, clean up some of the trashy frames and generally produce a higher quality tape.

It is going to take a while to get all the pieces in place, the first thing that needs to happen is getting a flying site with electricity. My personal site should be ready sometime next summer. I am planning on putting an out-building next to the flying circle with heat and air. The building will have a networked capture computer so I can transfer the recordings direct to a production computer in my office. Once all this is in place it will be real easy to record flights and produce tapes. The current set up is a real pain, we started planning and working on this project way back in March, it took almost 8 months from inception to delivery of the first tape.