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This is my videoplane project, a BalsaUSA.com Force One delta with a top-mounted camera in a 180 degree "turret". The plane is going an estimated 125mph.

Thanks go to Tim Key, President of County Line RC for his help making these videos and taking these pics. Tim also flew his Turbo Floyd as my "target plane" for me to chase. Those videos that have Tim's name in the title. Thanks to John for aiming the receiver antenna at the plane through several flights. Thanks to Steve Helander for being my sounding board for 2 years regarding this project. Thanks to Mr. RC-Cam at RC-CAM.com for the tips and ideas I have gleaned in his forum.

I have acquired a 100mw transmitter and dual-output receiver on 2.4ghz from http://www.BlackWidowAV.com . The Videoplane is also getting a new camera, a Panasonic GP-CX171 with an 87 degree lens. This 1/4" CCD camera has 480 lines of resolution.

I got a Seniorita from Jerry Brown and boy is it gorgeous. I ran across an inexpensive camera system on Ebay for about $70 shipped. It's supposedly 200mw so I installed it on a 180 deg servo in the Pilot's position in the Seniorita cockpit. It worked great. The camera position facing forward looks through the windshield, which is amazingly smooth but still not optically clear for looking great distances. It is necessary for this implementation though because the engine is right in front of the camera and spews oil. When the camera pans to the side you can see the difference. The day I went out there was still snow on the ground from the huge ice storm that rocked North Carolina last week, but it was soft and so I put some Coroplast ski's on the Seniorita. They worked great because the material is very slippery. Ski's are a lot of fun! I think I have the first VideoSkiPlane!

There is no audio on this video system so don't turn up your volume on these two MPG's.

Here’s another montage of the Seniorita piloted by Tim Key. These clips were taken with the MPEG feature directly onto a Memory Stick. The frame rate is a little slower but it’s still fun to watch!

I installed the 480 line CCD camera and a 100mw Tx/Rx from BlackWidowAV.com and got the best results so far.

I compressed these at a 2.1mb rate at 640x480 so they're large wmv's, but worth downloading. I use Microsoft Movie Maker v2.0 beta to compress and edit the clips.
Caution you must have a strong stomach for the two videos, the rolls and spins are insanely fast.

480LineCamMontage

There's an old saying in R/C. "If you don't want to break it, leave it at home hanging in the shop. I was flying the Seniorita video plane and unfortunately at about 150ft hight, the receiver went south on me. Fortunately, it didn't hit anything important, but unfortunately it was shattered. Fortunately the video camera was on and I was recording it, but unfortunately my friend Van Covington was watching the video intently and didn't know what was happening until it went in. The psychological damage was great, I don't think I'll ever get him up in a videoplane again :)

I was flying the plane inverted and the engine didn't like the negative G attempt at an outside pushover so it sputtered. I flipped it right side up and worked the throttle, which you can even see in the video, but I couldn't keep it running. No problem though, this is a Seniorita at 150ft high right? So I make two turns to set up for a downwind leg and then nothing. The elevator servo went slack, and it rolled over every so slowly until it was pointing straight down. Everything from the firewall to the trailing edge was just bits and pieces. You can see some of the debris outline after the crash but the video signal is usually bad on the ground. The camera survived just fine and is flying in another plane. It's tempting to think the 1.2 Ghz video transmitter had something to do with that mishap but all logical reasoning rules it out. I had flown the plane to 1000ft height on the flight before. The receiver battery had good voltage and was still connected to the switch . The switch tested good. The receiver still worked after the crash but will not be used again. I've used the camera with even GWS receivers with no problems. Sorry Jerry, I know you put a lot of time into that Seniorita for me.
Here's the clip:

If you have problems seeing the video, you might want to download the new Windows Media Player 9. These videos are specifically designed to be played in Windows Media Player, and version 9 is the latest.

I took a lot of video on 1/3/02 but none of it came out any good because the video transmitter's antenna connection was loose inside the plane and as soon as the engine went to full throttle there were huge lines and bands across the screen. Hopefully I'll have a lot more video starting on 1/16/03 when I return from my vacation to the Bahamas.

I took some video at RCWingers field with my new friend Chris (Pinhead159) from RCU. Here's three of the clips:

The aerial footage I got that day was definitely the best video so far. I just need a little larger patch antenna and an extension cable to mount it on my hat.

I've been practicing prophanging and torque rolls for at least a year, and today I finally met my goal of doing TR's on the deck, less than 5 feet high. It was thrilling and satisfying to finally do it, and I captured it on tape for posterity.