FoamieBeater Airacobra mountain flying & hand launch stupidity/miracle !?

[Rengine]

Took the landing gear off my Airacobra for this flight.

I put together a new video of my big Airacobra FB model flying about 36 miles north of where I live in Fort Collins. An old ghost town called "Virginia Dale", Colorado. Nice place - real pretty location for some flying footage.

My launch was a novice disaster encouraged by gusty winds ( :mad: ) but worked out and things went well despite indicators otherwise :D

Enjoy the video! And be sure to watch in "High Quality"! MUCH better.




llll---- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yPDMdI_YHo ---|||

[Jim Petro]

An exceptional video! Please share some information....
1 What camera are you useing?
2 Is the focus set on auto ...infinity...what?
3 What technique is used to keep the plane in the viewer?

Way back when, I did a review for Model Builder magazine of the Sureflite P-39 with the MEC geared War Emergency Power brushed motor and solderless battery pack. The landing gear was left off and the paint scheme was orange post war racing. The 50K rpm geared system really howled :eek: .....so much that everybody who tried it was afraid to give more than 50% throttle. The maiden flight was a beautiful straight away and curving climb-out :) ....then I looked at the throttle and realized it was only 1/2 way.....pushed up to 100% and pulling the nose vertical and she went straight up!!! :p
A nib Sureflite is in the shop for a future building project. I know that a brushless motor will have the same power, but I will miss the noise. :rolleyes:

[Rengine]

Hey Jim,

That brushed 'cobra must have been fun! The noise would have been awesome :) I'm sure you'll love your Sureflite when you get around to it.

My camera is a Canon SD1000 with a 2 meg card, shooting 640x480 (it's max resolution). I've got it mounted to my baseball cap. I made a mount for it out of FFF foam. Sits on the bill facing straight ahead, real simple. The focus is not set to infinity (although that is an option...) but defaults to "AUTO" mode and i've had good luck leaving it there.

But wait - I just remembered - I don't think it uses auto-focus while in camcorder mode...so - yes I believe it is more or less on infinity. :) when I was shooting a smaller plane I would zoom in a little before I started filming - to try and get closer to the subject. This plane is big enough to not need any zooming in. ;)

As long as you stay close - and since I love watching my plane fly, it's easy to stay close while shooting. The closer my plane is the more I enjoy it! (also probably why I tend to fly in a 360 degree area around myself)

What also helps is that while you shoot more videos you get better at anticipating where the plane is headed and what you want to include in the shot. Just practice.

Just a good ole' HatCam - they ought sell these things....