The Bi-plane from Parkzone S.E.5a had been sitting in the workshop for some time. Instead of collecting dust, I decided to mount a pan/tilt camera to the cockpit. (Actually I modded this plane once, it was a disaster and crashed badly due to tail heavy. Learning from previous incident, I added weight at the front as well higher C rate battery to balance the plane).
This morning, it wasn't a good day to test with wind up to 16km/h, cross wind from the west and cloudy. Oh well... :P
I didn't test the tilt because I found it's no use. PAN servo is hooked to the knob switch. It's manually dial while flying the plane (it's quite a challenge) It turns out it quite scale and realistic (playback feels I am at the cockpit).
Side note: I wasn't intend of doing knife edge flying. The strong cross wind from the west kept pushing me. ;)
Overall experiment is quite positive. :D
Note: Muted if you dislike the music
https://youtu.be/Jtp3hyIdtUw
Wow. Great video.
What a great effect to switch to black and white. I watched the aileron deflection for the whole video and it is so slight. The view of the right wing on take-off was great with the effect of the ribs showing on the bottom wing.
Thanks for posting it.
Frank
Oscar, you should get an an Oscar. Another great video. I enjoyed it more than once.
That was really cool Alex!
Thank you everyone. :D
Here is the another flight. A music can change the whole theme. This time I pick 'Childhood dream to fly'. I have so much fun that I forgot Lipo batteries performance needs to cut short for cold weather. When I landed, I don't even have enough power to taxi back. (it's not sound effect for the last 5 seconds of the video. It's LVC. :P )
https://youtu.be/lNmX2I0O_iE
That is perhaps the best of all the videos you have done. Made me feel like I was flying it!
Good Job
WOW Oscar
That was just awesome man
I think that was me flying in that plane the way you set that up
Great job.
I so now want to get mine in the air as well
Number of members were asking whether I was flying in FPV. Sorry I should have clarify. It's LOS flying. Mobius camera attached to the pan/tilt servo which mapped to my knob switch of my radio. The Fatshark vtx did mount at the front of the plane but there was no cable attach to the power. It was just for the CG balance. (Eventually when I am ready for FPV, I will have the HAM license personnel and a spotter with me) When making turns, I manually dial the knob to simulate like a pilot looking at the turn (it's quite a challenge to do while doing the turn).
Wow, great video Oscar! Really enjoyable! Thanks for sharing.
See you in the Spring.
Nice job Oscar! Found myself pushing imaginary rudder pedals as I watched...especially turning final in your second video! Good fun!
Hey Oscar, why don't you program a mix from your ailerons to the "knob channel" (camera pan/tilt). Then the camera will always look in the direction of your turn, and you won't have to fiddle with the knob while trying to fly. :D
Andy
Thanks Andy for the tip. I do have some questions on that settings. If I do mix the pan with the ailerons (or the rudders), won't I have problem if I want to pan the camera while flying straight? Also, I won't able to do opposite pan (ie left ailerons but right pan). I need to give some thoughts on how to do that. :P
Hay Oscar, why not just strap your head tracker to your hip. This allows full head movement to follow the plane while flying LOS. I think with a couple of minutes of practice, you should be able to precisely control camera movement with hip gyrations.
.....and I'd like to see a film of that! Awesome idea. Hip tracker!
I think I go back with the knob switch. :P
Quite often I come across questions about FPV. What's the experience are like when flying FPV? Will it be the same as flying a real plane? Can I control the camera movement so it looks like I am at the cockpit? Will I get dizzy when flying FPV?
I think it's a good idea to demonstrate what's it feel like when flying FPV. I decided to enhance the Se5a with FPV capable. I attached the camera to the video T/X. The video signal then transmit back to the FPV goggles. To make it more realistic, instead of using my radio slider to control the pan movement, I hooked it to a head tracker device which mounted onto the goggles. That way, the camera will turn when your head moves. The setup is like the buddy box system, except I am only passing the pan servo channel for you to control. When you look on the left/right, it controls the camera movement.
While I am flying LOS, I let the passenger ride along. That way, I can enjoy flying while they can enjoy the view.
Here are the footages I took during the ride. (please excuse the mess of the wiring of the goggles. It's not pretty since it's still in prototype)
Passenger Ride with Graham
https://youtu.be/3v6JpMlURp8
Passenger Ride with Greg H and Malcolm C
https://youtu.be/f-RNl02l1MA
thanks for the ride!! it was a blast!!
Greg
This would be an awesome introductory flight for people wanting to get into the hobby
or for getting into FPV