Aerial Photography


Pictures -- August 1999

Pictures - June 2000

Pictures - November 2000

I saw a link on the web for R/C aerial photography. It caught my interest. I had tried aerial photography before -- I strapped a cheapie 35mm camera to the fuselage of my Jouster. Sketchy results. One of the first problems was that I got one shot with the camera, and it required full down flaps for actuation. Not so great.

When I saw the availability of a controller for a Kodak DC20 digital camera -- running off an unused servo channel -- I was all over it. First, the DC20. I guess that's what E-Bay is for, as that's where I found it. Bought the controller kit (a PIC and few other things) put it together, hooked it to the plane, and it works flawlessly.

The camera is mounted atop the center of the sailplane wing on a 1/64 ply plate which attaches via music wire to the wing bolts. This configuration does dampen the rudder response quite a bit. And no, there is no room to mount it under the wing. It sticks out below (!) the fuselage. I really don't want to land the plane directly on the camera lens.

Pictures -- August 1999

Pictures - June 2000

Pictures - November 2000

What's next? I am toying with installing this camera in the canopy on my super sportster. If I can handle the extra weight on the Tropic Bird, I think I can deal with it on a powered aircraft. I'm not sure if the canopy is clear enough and/or if I want to break the currently fuel-proof seal that's holding it on.

Update: I no longer need break the fuel (fool?) proof seal on my canopy. I used a common inertial method of removing some parts from the plane. It's no longer a problem to remove the canopy, sevos, firewall...

This page last modified: Fri Sep 8 14:52:13 CDT 2000 by timc!