Nice shots. I spent a lot of time on and around that block. In fact, I proposed to my wife in Blake Roney's office in the Nu Skin building. Where did you launch and land for the Provo shots? (Unless it's a trade secret.)

I haven't shot any AP lately because I'm still getting vibration on my camera mount. So tonight I made a rubber band mount to see if the result is more or less vibration. I'm operating under the theory that any and all motor vibration has been going down the fuselage and through the bolt that held my old mount on. I put a new prop on after the horrendous video I shot in Heber Valley (so much vibration it looked like double vision at times), and the vibration was a lot less but I was still getting some blurring on full throttle climb out. I'll test the new mount hopefully in the next couple days. Who knows, maybe the vibration will be worse, which will disprove my theory.

Originally Posted by Darth_Elevator

Nice shots. I spent a lot of time on and around that block. In fact, I proposed to my wife in Blake Roney's office in the Nu Skin building. Where did you launch and land for the Provo shots? (Unless it's a trade secret.)

No secret. I flew from the top of the parking car garage at the Health Building. Makes for a really interesting landing if the wind is blowing. If for some reason I cant make it back to the top of the garage there is a parking lot on the main level, an empty lot across the street to the west and another parking lot to the south of the parking garage.

When I got home I hooked up one of those cheap GWS piezo gyros on my rudder channel. It doesnt have heading hold or anything and I wonder if it will even make a difference. If I have a chance today I'll test it and shoot some video.

Thanks for the location Chicken. Will have to check it out some time. Looks interesting, even in Google Earth! By the way, there is a cool evening shot linked through Panoramio in Google Earth with the temple partially lit with evening light behind it.

Originally Posted by Darth_Elevator

Nice shots. I spent a lot of time on and around that block. In fact, I proposed to my wife in Blake Roney's office in the Nu Skin building. Where did you launch and land for the Provo shots? (Unless it's a trade secret.)

I haven't shot any AP lately because I'm still getting vibration on my camera mount. So tonight I made a rubber band mount to see if the result is more or less vibration. I'm operating under the theory that any and all motor vibration has been going down the fuselage and through the bolt that held my old mount on. I put a new prop on after the horrendous video I shot in Heber Valley (so much vibration it looked like double vision at times), and the vibration was a lot less but I was still getting some blurring on full throttle climb out. I'll test the new mount hopefully in the next couple days. Who knows, maybe the vibration will be worse, which will disprove my theory.

Cliff I would love to see how you hookup your camera. My beast has been filming horibly shaky video as well. Ever since I got a new camera (last one lost in trying to make an underwater camera housing). My new camera has the tripod mount off to the side of the body so any vibrations are exagerated. I will be interested to see what you come up with.

Sure, I'll bring it next time we fly so you can look at it. I tested it last night and was glad to see I'm not getting vibration now at full throttle, but I'm still getting what I would describe as camera jerk. It's almost like the cylindrical lens protector is cupping the air and making the camera make this slight back and forth jerking motions. I need to put a cover over it to see if that stops it. Which reminds me, Chris, I still need to send out your polycarbonate. Sorry.

Range Video now has their 900 mHz 500mW downlinks back in stock, so I ordered one. Once I test it out, I'll report the results here. The tx used to be $50, but RV raised the price to $60, probably to cover the cost of modifying the units to comply with the FCC's directive. So the whole thing, with priority mail shipping is $120 with stock antennas. I think the stock antennas will be enough for my purpose, which will be primarily framing AP shots when I'm flying less than 1500 feet away. But it should also be enough range do a little experimenting with short range FPV (under two miles).

tx: http://www.rangevideo.com/index.php?...products_id=24

rx: http://www.rangevideo.com/index.php?...products_id=25

Let me know how that 900mHz system works out for you. I am so tempted to get one but my online store is low on batteries and with Christmas coming up I need to stock up on those instead. BTW what did you end up doing with your old 2.4 system? I know seerspaz was interested in it and I would be too if the price was right. I really only need a transmitter and I’m thinking about just ordering a new one but with the 900mHz system for sale again I’m betting I could pick on up a used for a good price.

I took some pictures yesterday. I was up Payson Canyon with my wife and kids on a Sunday drive and just couldn’t resist. http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.pla...ntrolAirplane#

The leaves in Payson canyon look beautiful. Nice work.

I still have my 2.4Ghz downlink. It was too heavy for seerspaz. It's probably too heavy for most parkflyer applications. The tx is a whopping 4 ounces. That's with the RCA and power connectors still on, so you could trim a little bit off of that. I was thinking of offering to sell it on the car forums, since weight doesn't matter as much in that application. Let me know if you're still interested despite the weight.

Wow, my Range Video order shows that it's shipped out already. Maybe I'll have it in time to test on the weekend.

I don't suppose you have a picture of your 2.4 system?

It ain't much to look at, but I can post a pic. If I ever get down south to fly with the Utah County guys, I can let you borrow it for awhile to see if it'll work for you.

Hummm. The reason I wanted a picture is because I didint have a scale in front of me to see what 4 onces looked like. I know now. I took my camera and weighted it and it came in at 5.5. Wow. That receiver must be a brick. I think I'll have to wait until I get some money together and just get the 900mHz system.

I dont know what I need/want more an OSD or 900mHz system. I do know what I can afford, Nothing.

I fly with the South Utah guys about every other weekend. I missed last and probably wont make it this weekend in the morning but I would like to go fly with Lee in the mountains later if thats when he is going.

Yes, 4 ounces is a brick. The 900mHz is supposed to be about an ounce with the 2dBi antenna and connecting wires.

Thanks for posting those pictures. I went ahead and ordered a new transmitter. I just went with a 2.4 again since I have a receiver already. This will give me 2 planes with video, the slow stick for ap and the easy star for FPV.

I took my family up to Brighton and then over the top of the MT to Park City over the weekend. I wanted to copy seerspaz's shots of the Olimpic ski jump but by the time we did the alpine slide and coaster it was getting too dark.

More great pics! I hope you and seerspaz will keep 'em coming.

Recording at a ground station
I've been looking for something to record video on the ground. At Target today, they had their Aiptek HD camcorder and the MPVR+ both on clearance. The HD was $105 and the MPVR+ was 90. I think original retail on them as $149 and $129, respectively. Anyway, I figured for $15 bucks extra it was worth getting the HD. Unfortunately, when I tried it tonight I found that it stops recording if it loses video signal, even just momentarily. I had read something about it on a thread before but forgot which Aipteks do and do not stop recording when that happens. If I'd have remember this specific post, I could have saved myself the trouble: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...34&postcount=7

Anyway, since the downlink is bound to flicker momentarily, and cause the video to stop recording, that is unacceptable, so I'll take the HD back and hopefully they'll still have an MPVR+ left tomorrow. Both cameras record at the same resolution when recording through the AV-in port, so I'm only out the option to record HD when shooting through the lens. But it would have been somewhat of a waste anyway to have HD on a camera that didn't have a very good zoom. What good is HD if the plane is only a speck on the screen?

The nice thing about recording on the ground is that the onboard equipment will be super light. My 900mHz tx is only 1.4 ounces with all the cables and antenna and the my bullet cam is only 1 ounce. I could even add a separate lipo to run the downlink and bullet cam (something like a little 500mAH 3-cell) and still be quite a bit lighter than with my Optio (5 oz. with mount) onboard (plus the 1.4 ounces of the video tx). Obviously, the video quality won't be as good recording through the downlink as it is recording with an onboard camera, but I still want to try it to give me the option. Eventually, when I build a bigger AP platform (Beast or Slow Stick XL or whatever), I'll still film with onboard camera for highest quality, but it will be nice to have a lightweight FPV and recording setup for smaller planes.

And another option for recording at the ground station is to run an old VCR off a power inverter off your car battery. Unfortunately, I threw out a couple old VCR's about a year ago. Since I'd have to pay cash anyway to get an old VCR, which would be a pain to setup every time, plus having to dub it over to the computer, I figured I might as well put that cash toward a digital recorder.

And yet another option is to capture the video with a video capture card on a laptop. My laptop's such a dinosaur, that option is out for me. I think chickenhawk records with his laptop. That seems overall the superior option if you already have a good laptop.