Got 7 minutes? Come fly with me.
Here’s the video mentioned in this post.
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An Eclectic Mind
Web site and blog for Maria Langer, helicopter pilot, content creator, jewelry artist, boater, and serious amateur photographer.
Wow! Thanks for the tour, Maria.
You’re welcome! I really do think that with the exception of a few dawn flights at Lake Powell, this might have been the most beautiful flight I’ve ever done.
Maria, I don’t know how you keep the vibration down. The footage is superb. Nice selection of music too. If that is the GoPro, do they include software for editing? How bout a vibration dampner? Anyway must have been a most enjoyable trip. Too bad you didn’t have a ride-along to share expenses. (Or did you?) I take it the 100 hour inspection went alright. Now back to those cherries! :)
Thank you. The trick to keeping the vibration down is to minimize the distance between the camera and the airframe. That means using as short a mount as possible and mounting it directly to the airframe. The mount I use is an “Ultra Clamp” that I customized to remove some of its length. I then use a wad of electrical tape wrapped backwards on itself to create a sticky ball and wedge that between the camera and the airframe to provide additional support and padding. I think this might also act as a “dampener.” It took a long time to work out the system I have and I’m very happy with it.
I should mention here that I processed this video with iMovie, which does have some built-in stabilization. The original footage was pretty solid, though.
The music was created with MelodyLoops.com, which has affordable customizable music loops. Stretching it out to 7 minutes was pushing it, I think, but it seems okay.
As for the 100-hour, it went like a charm. My pitch change links for the main rotor blades will likely need replacement at my next major maintenance, but they’re within tolerance limits now. The folks at Hillsboro had it ready PDQ, which is exactly what I needed.
There’s no rain in the forecast and the cherry market is suffering from an overabundance of smallish fruit. One of my clients, with 40 acres ready to pick now, has decided NOT to pick because he can’t get enough money for his cherries to cover the cost of picking. I feel terrible about this; we dried his orchard numerous times and he paid me a lot of money for that service. I’m hoping his crop insurance covers all of his expenses.
Thanks for this video. It’s views like this that are why I’m training to be a pilot.
It’s a great reason to fly: to see the world from an entirely different perspective.
You live in a wonderful location. Have you considered doing a voice over as you fly? It would be nice to hear what you are doing with the helicopter as well as a bit of a commentary on the areas you are flying over.
Thanks! The problem I have with my current setup is that there’s no audio in connection on my GoPro, which is generally mounted on the outside of the aircraft.