Sky Fly video experiment
After many flights with my
Hobbico Flyzone SkyFly, I decided to push the envelope a bit and see if it could carry a
small video camera. To do this I first found the center of gravity (CG) of the plane by installing
a battery and finding the balance point on the wing. In this case it was about 2" from the leading
edge of the wing, as measured at the root (where the wing is 5.5" wide). Below the CG I installed two
mounting "hard points" on the fuselage: two strips of adhesive-backed velcro tape, one on each
side of the airplane. These were the hook part of the velcro tape, the loop part went
on my
Audiovox DC400 camcorder. The velcro added almost no weight to the plane and allowed the
mounting angle of the camera to be varied. The camcorder itself weighs 4.3 ounces as configured
for flight (battery, memory stick, velcro). Here's the plane with the camera pointed straight down:
On June 10, 2007 I flew the airplane/camera combination in four different configurations:
Note: these files are big (~45MB each) mpeg video files. They play nicely with
VLC media player, which is free.
Camera pointed forward.
Camera pointed forward and down about 45 degrees.
Camera pointed straight down.
Camera pointed back towards the tail of the plane.
These flights were made on a sunny, 82F day with winds around 12 mph and gusty. The added weight
and drag of the camcorder was noticable but managable, though it did make the plane stall at
a higher speed and descend more quickly. That and the wind made for some of the less textbook
landings I've ever done, but at least there was no damage to any of the equipment.
Two more videos from June 16, 2007, camera forward:
20070616a.mpg (~86MB), 20070616b.mpg (~50MB, and
FINALLY includes a decent landing, but the camcorder overexposed the whole flight)