Onboard PiP

Okay, here's another fun video. It's been months since I've last posted a video but then it has almost been months since I've done any RC-ing. So here's this one.
Since I'm in Fort Smith about once a month, I decided to look for a track and found a nice little one to run on. They have races weekly and other than during the race, the track is open for anyone (for free even). It was a ton of fun to actually race on a track. I remember people running on an indoor track at RC/RC when I was really young and wanted to try it sometime. Now about 15 years later, I finally got to.
I didn't enter the races because of some other things but the people at River Valley were really nice and very fun to talk to and race with. I won't go into detail about it since most of the banter on here is usually about the video.
This video is something I have always wanted to do and finally got around to. I had to have the right software (Norrkross Movie did it for me) and the video capability to do it. I finally got around to finding the right software in a nice little package from MacUpdate and also finally got around to getting the right "equipment" to take the other video. Here's a picture of the setup for the not onboard video.

Pretty interesting huh? It's call the hat cam, kind of like referees in the NFL I guess but less sophisticated. I got the idea from a guy on an r/c airplane forum where they do some aerial video.
The video turned out well. I had only run about 5 laps before I felt confident enough to run around without ruining the camera on the VXL so I headed out. I took it a little easy and didn't go as fast as I could run to protect the camera. That didn't stop me from accidents but I had some protection as well to save the camera. I didn't get any video of me or others racing afterwards because I ran out of battery on my hat cam but maybe next time we are out in Fort Smith. One interesting note is the $80 camera on my head takes video in HD. Amazing huh? I lose a little quality because I convert the initial video from an avi to mp4 because of some silly header file that causes me grief and then there's a little compression when I export the video and then once more, there is a little compression when it's uploaded but surprisingly, it's not that bad even online.
Anyway, the video was shortened to not take your whole life.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/bFYmtfQsAOo

Length: 2:49

Quick Update

Okay, so I've been slacking off a bit on the hobby stuff but I have a good reason...my master's research. Anyway, I did make two recent changes. First I changed the template but more importantly, I changed my videos over from Google Video to Vimeo and that has made quite a difference. The videos are much better quality and less compressed so you can see it almost as if it was the actual file loaded on your computer.
I also have a new camera I've been wanting to try out for months now and I may get a chance soon so when I get my good video I have been planning for months, I'll definitely post it soon. Stay tuned!

Skate Park Bashed

Well, here's another video taken fairly recently. A friend and I went out to the skate park early in the morning to have some fun before we had to leave for work. We had a blast playing around. We had some good races and then I had the silly idea of putting my VXL in the regular sport mode. Last time I did that, I broke a bearing carrier. Not bad but still, I broke something.
Anyway, I put it in sport mode and had a little too much fun jumping around. As you can see, it got up about 10 feet or maybe a little higher. It was a lot of fun. There's a shot where I lose a wheel but it wasn't the impact that caused it. The nut fell off mid air and it spun off itself. I think that one landing might have done in one of the cells of my 2S2P LiPo battery.
So, we jumped around a bit and then I saw that my Tx (transmitter) batteries were low. Generally, it's not good to drive it like that and I had bad glitching problems before but this time, everything was still great so being dumb, I took it out for a few more jumps...four to be exact. The last four you see are the ones. I was about to finish playing around but then as you will see on the last jump, I landed kind of funny. I tried to turn up the sound some over the music so you could get an idea of what happened.
The music on this one is a little more well known. Maybe you can guess that as well.
I thought my battery was gone because it got all banged up after the crash. So, I called around to see if anyone would be able to take it apart and most of the companies don't work with Li-ion or LiPo so I thought I was out of luck. I considered doing it myself but knowing that if there was even a small accidental short while I tried to unsolder and solder it back up, the whole pack would be dead and in the worst case, it would possibly explode (not likely but they can blow up in certain cases).
Luckily, I got online and posted on one of my forums I read and someone said they would fix it for really cheap. I sent it off to them and now it just needs to be tested out to make sure the remaining three cells work and then I'll have it back in an even better configuration, three cells in series. It'll only be a 3200mAh pack but since it's a 15C rating, that's 48A continuous and about 72A burst which is pretty good as I have it geared down some. I doubt it will be a problem since I'm usually in training mode to limit the amount of things I break.
The ESC (electronic speed control) will definitely need replacing and I actually have a Mamba Max on order. I'm excited to get it as it shouldn't keep coming apart like the other three VXL-3S ESCs I have had to send it for servicing.
Alright, there's the story behind the video.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/Y9cW2YqmRII

Length: 3:55

VXL Rustler Fun

Alright, it's been a while since I took these videos but I finally got them all put together. It's from two different takes but they're pretty good nonetheless. I tried to do a couple of different effects this time to make things a little more interesting. I also added a little music to it as well. 5 points for whoever guesses correct on who the band is.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/PM2sAUvXZHQ

Length: 3:10

Two-Way Stryker View

Well, I finally got around to getting this video made. I took the two videos and put them together. I really like the second view I got and it shows the propeller and the elevon moving. It's the first of this kind of view for me. I'm sure I'll be doing it some more from now on. Until I find another good location, this may be the last video for a little as it's kind of the same with the videos now. If there's something really interesting though, I'll post it. I have another cool idea which the picture before gives a little hint as to what it may be. I even got an illuminator to try and help out with the camera.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/6RZRZILVdS0

Length: 3:13

Stay Tuned...

Okay, this isn't much and it's not even a good picture but it's what's in store for the near future. Since the wind is an issue here in Oklahoma during the day, sometimes you have to resort to other means to fly. Enjoy!

First Flight with the e-Logger

This is the last old one that I have so be ready for new ones and they come! Hopefully, I can get one out every week or two but who knows. You might use that atom thing at the bottom of the blog to get updates if you're really interested. It's fun to see that people have been checking the blog periodically.

This is with the logger that I got for Christmas. You can't see the logger on it in the video but it allows me to keep track of various parameters like the voltage on my battery, the current pulled, a few parameters based on the two, two different temperature sensors, and the altitude. I had an air speed sensor but I thought it wasn't really worth it and never tried it before I returned it.

The video is pretty boring. I even missed getting the landing on video so that makes it even more boring. If you don't want to watch it, I understand. It is interesting to see though the altitude I was flying at so you can check that out. While the video was going, I only got up to about 140 feet. After I took the camera off, I got to about 420 feet though.

Here's a shot of what the logger said my flight was like. I'll just show the elevation as that's the only one that will make sense to most people. Here it is.

I would say enjoy this time like most others but I don't think many would really enjoy this video. The take-off was probably my best one yet as there was almost no wind though which was really nice.

http://youtu.be/lH8N8DgVoI8

Length: 5:12

In the Institute

Again, an older video since it's too windy to really fly right now.

This is inside the institute after I did a little presentation that involved using my helicopter. It's the first video I've taken from the heli so I was interested to see how it turned out. Luckily, everything went well, even after my little mishap. I got turned around and lost orientation in the small area I was in.

Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/QhPMURnGmSY

Length: 2:22

Cowpies in Missouri

This is a video I took over Thanksgiving while at my in-laws home. It was really cold outside but a lot of fun. I had so much space to fly around in!
It's not the most interesting video so I cut it down a little and put something new into it that's never been done in any of my videos! If you get bored, I don't blame you.

Here are the pictures I also took while I flew around. Some were from separate flights. I tried to get up pretty high and did an okay job I suppose.
Enjoy!

http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/healthyfatboy/Missouri%20Shots/?albumview=slideshow



http://youtu.be/rsJigAeDqWY

Length: 3:10

Football from Above

Here's another older video. It was taken at the marching band practice fields while some people from church were playing football. The flying area wasn't too big so I didn't get nice shots like I had hoped but it still turned out well. It was fun flying around and then anticipation what the video and pictures would look like. It wasn't quite like I had hoped but they still turned out to be pretty good.
The pictures I took from a separate camera can be found here.

http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/healthyfatboy/Aerial%20PIctures%20of%20Football/?albumview=slideshow

Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/LUOFQpWLLFU

Length: 5:31

High Flying

Here's another older one from November when we had great weather. I got way up high while I was flying around. It was a lot of fun. I didn't get quite as high as another time I went flying where the altimeter said I was close to 1000 feet but it's still pretty high. Hopefully I can get a chart of my altitude on another post I do later. We'll see.
Here's what a picture from my flight when I went up close to 1000 feet.


And here's another.


Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/89X7oiRtSD4

Length: 3:26

Parachuters Again

Okay, this is another old one but it's pretty good. I actually had the ability to get commentary on this to overlay with it. Pretty neat huh?
There's nothing too much to explain except that after the parachutes drop and we go to the guys, it's pretty shaky. Too bad the hacked CVS cameras don't have an anti-vibration setting. Oh well.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/uBjD8TPoXGw

Length: 2:55

Flying at Dusk

Okay, now here's a string of older clips I have that I never had a chance to edit to post up but with most of my finals over, I have some time! Here' s a clip of my flying around the apartment around dusk. It's kind of a nice and relaxing flight. I cut out some of the jerky clips to make it easier to watch.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/faIJGN6w0K4

Length: 2:51

Skate Park 1

Okay, here's another video for you all. This was filmed at the skate park in town. It's a fun little place if you can get it without skaters there. We were there around 7:00 a.m. so no one was there. Good fun.

I did about three laps of our little course on this one. Near the end, Dave flipped his car and then I got adventurous and went for a big jump. I probably got about 6 feet but only after my first attempt was thwarted by a metal bar.

I'll post pictures of my camera setup sometime. Acutally, I'll just put it here.



That's without the body. Here it is with the body.



The camera was actually really stable. I was really surprised. Even on landings on the jumps, it didn't shake as much as I thought.

So, watch the video, and leave any comments if you have any.

Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/KDHnzbqEemE

Length: 2:52

VXL FPV with an XL-5

This was taken from my own truck. It's pretty quick and I had some fun doing this. I was out there with my friend and we had a good time running around. You can see his truck in some of the shots as well.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/N0fKllyTChs

Length: 1:54

Traxxas Rustler Onboard Video

This video is the first I took from a truck. I took the body off, taped the camera onto the truck, and headed off on our little track from the previous video. This again is in my brother's truck. It's really pretty shaky because I'm on dirt so be warned if you get motion sickness easily! It gives you an idea of what things look like from the truck's perspective when going around the whole course. Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/YM6cDqpCkLE

Length: 3:57

Running with Dave

This was posted by a friend who took this video with his camera. It's not a first person view from the truck but it gives you a good idea of the area we like to run in. This was using my brother's truck until I got mine.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/RyaAR0RCsi8

Length: 5:38

First Slow Stick with 'Chute

This is my first video with my Slow Stick. I had taken all my previous videos with my Stryker. For more information, you can check out the equipment section.

This is a very slow plane hence the name Slow Stick. The Stryker can get up to 80mph but the SS is closer to about 25mph or so. I don't know the exact speed but it's probably even slower that that.

I put this plane together after we got back from Tucson to start school and had a fun time putting it together. I didn't want to just fly though and wanted to be able to do things with it, even for kids and other events so I put together a little contraption and was able to drop things from it. It had to be pretty light so I could take it up without folding the wings together so I mainly take up army men with parachutes. That's where the 'chute came from in the title.

Around 0:45, you should see two little army men parachuting to the ground. It made for a fun video. I hope to one day take some plastic Easter eggs up with some flour it in and get video of my little bombs exploding on impact. My sister said that people might think it's anthrax or something so I shouldn't do it but I doubt people are that paranoid. I'll definitely get it up as soon so I do it though.

I have about 5 or 6 more aerial videos to edit and eventually get posted but I haven't gotten around to it with school. It just takes time to get it just right. Maybe I'll put some music to it as well and see how people like it although I prefer hearing the motor and wind instead.

Remember, your comments and ideas will be taken into account for a future video!

Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/BNAJTKZMFn0

Length: 3:05

Front Without Crashing

This was my last video in Tucson. Pretty standard. Starting with this video, I cut out boring parts and anything too repetitive to make the videos shorter and more enjoyable. I really like sitting there and watching the videos but most people don't want to sit around for 6 minutes watching something from the air. Hopefully we'll end up back in Tucson once I finish with school. It was a great place and they love r/c planes there. Maybe one of these days, I'll get video of other planes flying around. We'll see.

Enjoy!

.

http://youtu.be/kmC2GDPGo1w

Length: 3:10

Many Firsts

Well, this is called many firsts for a reason which you'll see at the title screen. It's the first time I was able to get the camera pointed in the forward facing direction. It made for more stable videos that don't make you quite as sick as the other videos. It was great to see what it would be like if I was actually flying the plane from inside. It made things really fun.

This was also the first video that I realized I was flying out so far. On my approaches for my landings, I would fly over the school and come in from the West to the soccer fields as I touched down. Well, it was with this video that I realized I wasn't over the school when I would make my final turn for my landing approach. I was way past the school. So, it helped me realize that I was flying a lot further than I realized and that I needed to keep it in closer.

The other first was my first crash with this plane. Watch and then I'll explain.

Yeah, I crashed hard. I was coming in for my landing because I wanted to make sure I caught it on video. I was obviously a lot farther out that I realized and lost my orientation. I thought I was banking left but it looked like I was going right so I went to correct it. Then I was so low that I lost it behind the school and couldn't see. In desperation, I tried to pull up because I thought I was close to being upside down and throttled it up so I wouldn't stall if I was going up. Well, as you saw, I throttled myself right into someone's roof.

I'm all worried now because I thought my plane was in 100 pieces and I didn't know where it was. I thought I had hit the top of the school and was stuck there or possibly in an open area inside the school so I searched there for about 5 minutes. I couldn't see it so I decided to throttle it up knowing that I would probably ruin my speed control in the process, especially if the propellor was stuck on something.

I hit the throttle and heard it behind me and went looking for it. I thought it might have just hit in a ditch because I heard it hit quite hard. I went looking and started moving the elevons to try and hear it and sure enough, I heard it and found it in the tree you saw in the video.

Now was the scary part. It was about 6:15 a.m. and I had to either jump the fence and grab it or wake someone up to get it. I decided to knock on the door, apologize over and over again, and hope they didn't get mad and decide to keep my plane.

I knocked and some older guy in his late 50's came to the door and it seemed like he had been awake for a little. That didn't surprise me too much because people in Tucson tend to wake up earlier because you can get more done in the morning before it heats up.

I proceeded to tell him what happened and apologized and he said he would go look for it. It took him quite a while to get it so I was worried that there were several pieces that had to be picked up or something but he eventually came back and said he had a hard time finding it since it was in the tree. I thanked him and apologized again and then left.

I went to look at the plane and surprisingly, the nose was a little scraped up and the camera had a few small scratches where it hit the roof but other than that, everything was still in great condition. I wasn't expecting that at all.

Then I got really excited because I might have gotten it all on video. I waited to see it happen and was blown away that it was all recorded. Kendall was surprised that I was so happy even though I had crashed my plane. There wasn't much damage done so I really didn't care. I got great footage so all was good.

http://youtu.be/MeeZohG3KhE

Length: 3:44

Semi-Front View

This is my first attempt at getting a forward view from the plane. It wasn't faced all the way forward but enough to get a better FPV from the plane. I did barrel roll in the middle of it. Just be careful, you might get sick. I also didn't catch the landing on this one. I hate it when I misjudge how long I've been up and miss the end. There are quite a few videos though so there are many others.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/HZkN_asPNtk

Length: 4:17

Aerial Video Part III

This is part 3 of the set. It's nothing amazing but still an interesting video to watch. Nothing to explain in this video. It's pretty normal and nothing out of the ordinary.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/3juJZmACugM

Length: 5:46

Aerial Video Part II

Here is part 2 of the set. The most interesting part of this video was that there are some birds that I got on video as we were flying past each other. Pretty exciting that something like that happened! It's not quite like some others who had a hawk attack their plane on video but it's almost as good.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/J4pAkpFe-Xk

Length: 5:52

Aerial Video Part I

This is the first of a three part set of videos. It was orignally four videos but the fourth file got corrupted somehow and I couldn't recover the video. If I remember correctly, it was the one I looked forward to the most. Oh well, you can't have it all I suppose.
Again, this video was taken in Tucson, AZ. Most of the videos were all taken early in the morning around 5:00 or 5:30. We woke up really early since we stayed on an Oklahoma schedule. Also, it wasn't 115 degrees outside then either but more like 80 so it was quite nice to fly. It also helped keep the temperatures down on the speed control, motor, and battery so was less taxing on the electronics onboard the plane.
This was the first video with a view from the side. I turned the camera sideways to get the view because I still didn't know what to do to get a good forward facing view. The same applies for the other two in this set. It was a pretty standard flight. I did get so high that I couldn't figure out which way I was going so there's a spot where I lose control a bit.
When I was taking the videos, I really enjoyed flying but I looked forward to the videos I got afterwards. It's always interesting to see what you get when you finally get the video on the computer.
Enjoy!



http://youtu.be/qmItfXtmzYs

Length: 5:06

My Very First Aerial Video

This is my very first aerial video I took with the camera. I got the idea from some various forums online with people doing the exact same thing.
The video was taken in Tucson, Arizona while we were out there as I did an internship with a company for the summer. This was my first attempt and I hadn't figured out how to mount the camera to get a view out the front so the camera is just pointed down. I will warn you though that you may get sick watching this video as the plane is not very stable because of winds and my mediocre flying abilities.
Kendall did some work as commentator during the video taken from the ground. I need to figure out a way to overlay her comments with the flying video. That would make for some good videos that familiy will like watching.



http://youtu.be/cLZ85C6ZMfs

Length: 6:30

About This Blog

If you've come to this site, it's most likely because you read our other blog. This is just a compilation of all the videos I have taken from my plane, helicopter, or truck. It's a lot of fun to do and watch. Some are edited and shortened to be easy to watch and some are just as they were taken from the vehicle. Beware that some of the videos can make you sick if you get motion sickness easily. Enjoy the videos and post any possible ideas you may have for a good video that won't be too risky to try out. Enjoy!