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By Colonel Panic
#1786086
Fan-bally-tastic! Thanks for sharing. That is one way to get around Plod towing away your car on the approaches to Snowdon.

Not sure I'd ever be brave (or light) enough to go in one of those things, but it looks huge fun!

Quick question; is the "prop shaft" running across the top of the engine the "bleed" drive back to the top prop?
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By FlyboyStu
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1786146
Colonel Panic wrote:Quick question; is the "prop shaft" running across the top of the engine the "bleed" drive back to the top prop?


It's the pre-rotation drive shaft. Around 20 seconds in you'll hear me say 'pre-rotate engage'; this pulls a belt into tension over a drive wheel just in front of the prop which transfers some of the engine torque up the vertical shaft you'll see begin to move in the video, which in turn drives the rotors up to around 200 rpm. At that point, the pre-rotate mechanism is disengaged, the vertical shaft stops turning and the full engine power drives only the prop. The forward increasing airspeed is what accelerates the rotors up to the 300 rpm or so required for flight.
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By JAFO
#1786147
Miscellaneous wrote:Bloody marvellous. There's a lot to be said and enjoyment had, from leisure flying. :thumright:

Absolutely right up there with the flying I enjoy most. Although I haven't quite ventured that low to the water. :D


Absolutely agree on all points. His cojones must have been cold dangling in the water.
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1790823
Gorgeous video: Mention of the Pyg track and Llanberis reminded me of the day in the 1970s when 'er indoors and I plus a mate and mrs mate climbed the Pyg track from Llanberis pass: Halfway up the fog/cloud came down:
The girls freaked out but we managed to cajole them to the top: They flatly refused to walk back down the Pyg.
We managed to persuade the conductor of the last (and already full) train of the day down to take them down, but mate and I had to walk back down groping from cairn to cairn.(None of us were experienced walkers, but we did have the right gear/boots/cags.)
Molto beero /gin required to steady nerves at the bottom.

Btw what camera do you have (?attached to mast) that gives the sensational moving 360deg views?

Peter :roll:
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By Charles Hunt
#1801212
And I'm even later, what an absolutely stunning film. Simply fabulous.

The GoPro on the mast, at times seemed to hold a constant bearing as the gyro rotated underneath. Is that correct?

Thanks again. Brightened up a grey dim morning today.
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By Paul_Sengupta
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#1801244
Charles Hunt wrote:The GoPro on the mast, at times seemed to hold a constant bearing as the gyro rotated underneath. Is that correct?


Image stabilisation I would imagine.

Way way way back, I put my Sony camcorder on a tripod in the back of the 'dog. It was bizarre when I played it back, watching me taxying out, with the horizon staying still and the aeroplane bobbing around on the lumpy grass around it.
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By FlyboyStu
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#1801519
Charles Hunt wrote:The GoPro on the mast, at times seemed to hold a constant bearing as the gyro rotated underneath. Is that correct?


Yes that is indeed correct; you can make it track a fixed point whilst panning around and zooming in or out. It's an amazing little camera.
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By Charles Hunt
#1803926
Dou you pre-programme it to do that or as well as aviation/navigating/communicating do you have /press the button to hold the go-pro still for a bit?
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By FlyboyStu
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1804059
Charles Hunt wrote:Dou you pre-programme it to do that or as well as aviation/navigating/communicating do you have /press the button to hold the go-pro still for a bit?


Nope; it's way simpler than that - at least it is during filming! The real work is in the editing. The camera records from the moment I press the go button before engine start, and records continuously in 360 degrees until I stop it after landing. So for a flight like this that's around 2 hours of continuous video, in 5.6K - so big files. I need to use a large capacity video card and a battery pack to power the camera.

The views are selected during the editing process. I select which view I would like at any point in time, from all of the 360 video shot all around the gyro, and the transitions between subsequent views. When this is all done I produce a standard 1080p video file which then forms one of my inputs, along with all the other cameras and the radio/intercom recording, into the video editing software. Matching up all the various sequences from all the various cameras is what takes the most time of all.