Tuesday, May 27, 2008

First aerial video!!

While it may have been a bit impulsive, the urge to see what would happen overcame us over the weekend when Ethan and I decided to strap his mini video camera to my plane. It took a little tweaking to get the mount just right, but as you will see in the following video clip, the results were worth it.



The clip is a compilation of 4 or 5 flights with both Ethan and I piloting. We found that the camera's auto exposure setting exposed for the bright sky at the expense of the ground, and we ended up with a lot of the sky (which has little reference points and is thus not very interesting) and a dark ground. (The purplish diamond shape in some of the shots is the center of the sun auto blocked by the camera). The way we mounted the camera simulated an "out the windshield" view. We couldn't use this mounting and get a "down looking" view without more extensive mods (which we weren't going to do at this impulsive moment). I'm sure that much better results will be had with Dean's soon-to-arrive mini cam dedicated to aerial video.

BTW, as you can see in the video, the plane smacked into my daughter April. Ethan was flying (no really, he was!!) and he was making some really low, slow passes, trying to catch shots of us on the ground. The wingtip caught April's outstretched arm. She's fine, as was the plane and the camera. If you pause the video just before impact you'll see a precious "Oh Sh*t!" look on (pilot) Ethan's face who was standing right next to April at the time.

Digger

PS. I would like to propose a nickname for my son Ethan. His family nickname is E-man. In light of his stellar flying (the above clip not withstanding, I'd like to propose Air-man... which I think is his rank in the CAP as well.

1 comment:

Curtis"GorillaGlue"Wood said...

What a weenie!.....Just had to be first with the camera didn't you....well just wait for what I am going to do!

BTW- like I believe it was Ethan piloting, you seem to have issues with flying into people don't you?

Awesome video! Look forward to seeing more.

Brenda says I can buy the camera as well, so very soon we'll have multiple camera's going!