Andy Harris

Still trying to document the illicit indoor combat scene. Here's some winter sports I've captured in the meantime:

Tim I use HD Fury with my Barco 909, Extra Double Awesome. Over the years I've been rather keen on home cinema. Andy

This is a rather expensive DJI S800 EVO, so in general I'm very careful with it. Here are the results of focusing on one aspect and forgetting what seems like a simple thing. Whilst going back and forth from my bench working on the gimbal, I was lowering the aerial each time to avoid damage from going through doorways. The gimbal has been a piggy to set up! On this flight I forgot to raise the aerial (which contains the GPS and compass). Within seconds I knew something was wrong, and seconds later a fairly hefty repair bill. It seemed as if all the corrections I put in resulted in movement 90 degrees from what I expected. I've made myself a pre-flight checklist to the laminated and kept in the flightcase!   Edited By Andy Harris on 24/11/2013 14:40:38

Now I heard from a bloke, who knew another bloke you said you can get the kit from RobotBirds .. http://robotbirds.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=7939 However, I've seen evidence of the scratch built versions, and certain modifications, these involve 0.5 x 2mm CF on the leading edge, pinning the motor to the mount and using UHU POR on all the leads to protect them from impact. A researcher has told me of a 30% larger curve wing version with an over-clocked motor. I'll try to sneak a camera or two into a session that rumour has it will be in December

This year we thought we'd tackle elicit indoor combat. Here's the trailer: Got the embed right this time Edited By Andy Harris on 27/10/2013 22:21:51

I'd like to have two RX's bound to a single TX. All the flight controls would be normal, in the first 10 channels. I'd like to use a second RX for camera/servo control. Is there any way of shifting the starting channel of either a Spektrum RX or a third party version (for example Lemon RX's for futaba can do this). For my application I can't get cables from a 12-14 channel RX to the camera and the camera can continously rotate. Therefore than system is independant with its own batteries and RX etc. Any ideas please ? Regards Andy

Here's a video I made this weekend because its just too wet and windy to go flying. I took the incredibly cheap Durafly Cessna 310 twin, split the motor controls and then set about programming into a Spektrum DX18 with a pile of features. Hope someone finds it useful! Edited By Pete B - Moderator on 23/06/2013 22:45:49

Tony and his team did a great job of keeping the show going. I grabbed some video of the model boats during the flying suspensions as the squalls were going through. No shots of Panics flying - because I was busy flying with the team

Thanks Gents. The flying footage was taken from one of these: http://robotbirds.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2025 Which I've been campaigning for 3 years now, which, with the way my colleagues fly is something of a miracle. If RCME ever do an indoor event -- I'd love to video it.

I've had a few goes at capturing indoor flying. I made a new bit of kit that helps me track the models up and down the hall. Hope you like it:   Edited By David Ashby - RCME on 23/11/2012 05:28:55

Here's a quick video of the action for Reading MAC's float plane fly-in. People came from all over the place, there were around 20 pilots with a wide variety of models - quite a bit of scale. The valley meant that the wind wasn't quite as bad as forecast but we got some fair hefty gusts across the lake.       Edited By Steve Hargreaves - Moderator on 01/10/2012 20:07:16

Nice !! How much to invest?

Thanks @BEB - I did follow the embedding tutorial. My theory is that I have the larger size set by default on my channel. I may test this next time I'm posting. @posters -- thanks for the comments, I forgot to mention that for many weeks now Pete has got himself to the field only to find that the IC engine doesn't quite have the power. He seems to have cracked the problem because the flight I videoed was good, and he was up again Sunday and had a full 20 mins (dead stick again - flew till fuel out). I'll have to find out more about Pete, I noticed that he has some very old Rover badges on his coat so he may have been a member of our club since the Rover Sports and Social days.

Here's a different video from my usual fare. Between flights I captured Pete getting ready for his flight - as he does so virtually every weekend:     Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 01/04/2012 00:31:03

That is really good chase plane work. I've had many goes at this and not got it as good - something to aspire to!

This session was a bit more relaxed time-wise but just as active in the air. I've now sorted decent settings on a HD Hero2 which was mounted inside a Foamy Freebee nicknamed the Dinglebus because not much will knock from the air. Of course there may be elements of prop-hanging and even tight circuits around a bit of prop-hanging. Andy

Hmm, youtube has changed the embed code ... couldn't find the old option.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Ql8NdK2GoaAManaged to fly for all the hour with no more than 30 secs to change panes or batteries. The better half had a simple video camera and I editted the results:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Ql8NdK2GoaA     Edited By Andy Harris on 05/03/2012 09:59:52 Edited By Andy Harris on 05/03/2012 10:04:06

Martin  It wasn't very stressful, Adam builds helis with real diligence and is very safety aware.  There was something special about the 3 axis gyro and receiver set-up that he mentioned, he said it was very locked in and stable. I'd like to get an informal 'interview' because I reckon it'll be interesting for Heli pilots to see the set-up.

Thanks for the replies chaps.  For the HD stuff I'm using a combination of two cameras.   The on-board camera is a stock Contour HD1080P but set for 720p/60 frames per second.  The 'ground' camera is more interesting in that it is a Panasonic GH2, however a Russian chap has managed to hack into the firmware and create a modified version that ups both the frame rate and the data rate. Mine is running at 42Mb/s.   The other mod is that I use lovely old Canon FD lenses that I buy from ebay for next to nothing.   Then I use Final Cut 'X' to pull the two video sources together, this one took about 4 hours mainly because I was using a lot of colour analysis.   Just like model flying I still have a lot to learn, to get decent footage from a camera means being able to get the right place then flying gently. For Adam it was the first time we'd strapped a camera to his heli. He is an awesome pilot and gave the thing a serious thrashing.  When I asked if he could come close in to the camera position, it was a case of inverted 30cm of the ground and about 2m in front of us -- that'll do then!  Andy

@import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css); @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css); Been working on my video technique to make it more 'film' like.   Choppers and Fixed Wing from the field today - best viewed in 1080P     The Chopper uses 2 x 6S x 4400mAh, the lens are very wide angle so actually everything is very close up on the flying scenes.   It takes a fair bit of practice to get the air to air stuff good!    @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css); Edited By Andy Harris on 12/11/2011 22:13:50 Edited By Andy Harris on 12/11/2011 22:40:04

Tim  Try VLC from videolan.org its a more lightweight better media player than you have in windows.  Here the url http://www.videolansoftware.com/   Its free and really rather good. Cheers Andy

Nice!  What is it? where can one get it ?

There's a fairly lively club scene in Oxford.  I've put together some videos: Field Videos Cheers   Andy Edited By Andy Harris on 03/10/2011 12:34:08

Sounds like awesome fun! I'd be there in a flash, but I don't get back until the 1st of August. I reckon a Panic would make a more challenging target.