The Ups and Downs of Aerial Photography by Keith Whitham
I have longed to take pictures from the air for many years. To be able to see as the birds do in fact. As most people I have viewed the aerial photographs of the countryside with anguish and desire to replicate. You see it on Tomorrow's World - the possibilities of controlled view and all the flight simulators offer in cockpit views, but will it really happen. There are a number of planes I have considered building with the sole aim of mounting a camera of some description, but something held me back. I have recognised this feeling before and it means "not the real solution". Of course this is all retrospective. At the time I felt I was just procrastinating - although I never do it in public, without a paying audience!
I have bought quite a few things from Mike at Radiocontrolmodels.co.uk and when I checked his website for more goodies I found a reference to www.raidentech.com this promised 'spy video camera' for £79. At last I realised this is where I really wanted to be. I checked the site out and to my amazement found that it was actually $79 and at an exchange rate of 1.83 that was pretty cheap. I ordered my camera and receiver with $20 shipping the total cost of £56 on my card.
The box arrived within 10 days - it was like Christmas. It contained a small video camera and transmitter which is about the size of a large dice 1.5 cm sides. A stylish receiver box the size of a small paperback, two power adapters and two battery connectors, including battery.
I had initially decided that I would buy a Wot4 from Mike, which just happened to be fitted with a Saito 45 and use this as my vehicle for aerial video. Again things didn't feel right and I realised that I didn't just want to fly a particular plane to take pictures, what a waste. I have rather a nice Wot4 already with an OS Ultimate 70 so why not use that and also make the camera removable so that I could mount it on any plane at all. I decided to mount the camera on an aluminium plate and provide a rechargeable battery and switch as per the standard receiver or onboard glow batteries. The question was how to mount the camera. To provide the maximum flexibility in picture creation I opted for a universal joint. This was epoxied on and goodness knows what else and all seemed well. The next job was to fix the battery and switch. Not too many traumas just a bit of soldering. I selected a 7 cell 300mah battery which is equivalent to a standard PP3 as supplied. To fix this to the Wot4 I decided to use dowels on to which to slot the camera plate - perfect.
Test flight #1
Got the system to the field found the plate was too thick to go on the body of the Wot4 - needed some balsa bashing to cut a recess out - why hadn't I though of that before? Was it going to be too heavy - what with a lightened Wot4 and a slightly large engine upfront - perhaps not. I was using my 'pigeon' field box to drive the receiver linked to my video camera and started things up. Reception and everything ok. Reviewing the footage afterwards, well it was a success, but very disappointing. The camera had moved almost pointing straight down, it was very jittery and it blacked out for the majority of the session. I decided that as the signal is targeted at 1,000 feet - line of sight. That something was interfering with this. I undid the camera and turned the back half through 180 degrees so that the aerial was pointing down rather than up. The mount had to go too. I moved to a solid rubber mount angled and the camera angled to 35 degrees permanently. So I now have two choices pointing forwards or backwards.
Test Flight #2
I placed the receiver setup at the side of the flight line and repeated the exercise. This time the pictures were amazing. Much better clarity, no jittering and much more continuous transmission. I was chuffed! It provided the first ever (I believe) on board view of a model landing at Dewsbury MAC.
Club Open Day
This was the acid test - in front of everyone and lots of visibility. As was to be expected I pressed the wrong button on the first flight with the camera pointing backwards. Good views of Al's crotch carrying the plane out to the flight line - if you're in to that sort of thing. Then a fairly short recording because it was on the memory stick not the tape. So the results were poorer quality too. The second flight with the camera turned to face the front and recording to tape was a success with the audience being treated to viewing onboard my wonderful acrobatic skills. Buckets were not provided. With the camera facing front the prop is slightly in view and the engine note is included on the sound track. It does vary very occasionally. This was the first opportunity to record other planes in flight when I was joined by Robert and Dave. Another first, aerial pictures of model planes in flight.
What Next?
I have bought another camera directly from Hong Kong, but the price has come down now - it actually cost me £20.94 including shipping. http://www.sznewway.com/ is where I got it from - great service. Superb quality and absolutely incredible for the price. It has it's own mount too so this may be a transfer to the Wot4 setup. I have also grabbed a separate transmitter which provides a signal range of 800 metres. My intention is to mount this directly into the canopy of my Phase 6 glider with the camera facing forwards.
I have also bought a second receiver with a built-in screen. I am thinking of mounting this on a transmitter tray to have alongside the transmitter for in-flight views, obviously only at safe height and for momentary glances.
This is the receiver and the other camera with a close-up of the engine bay on my Corsair. I also want to mount the camera in my Raptor - when I can fly the thing properly - so lots more to come.
It's been a steep trial and error learning curve, so if anyone wants any help or comments please get in touch. keith@kwit.org.uk