Sunset Gyro Flight... with a chauffeur!

[jtresfon]

For the last two weeks I've sat at home nursing a badly injured neck & shoulder with my arm in a sling. Unable to enjoy any of my usual activities (including flying) I have had time to ponder various ideas. As a professional photographer I have always considered video to be the "dark side" and have never really felt an urge to try it. I was recently shown a video clip of small helicopters flying around some stunning scenery in New Zealand and afterwards thought that it would be possible to make an awesome video of flying in Cape Town with the mountains and the beaches. With nothing else going on I did some research, bought some small mountable cameras and yesterday, after some disappointing rugby, I took a drive out to the airfield at Morningstar. I spent an hour working out which angles and positions might work for the cameras and then got them mounted. Learjet was working on his gyro when Mark B arrived for a sunset flip and suggested we join him. Learjet very kindly offered to fly my gyro so I could test the cameras and this was the result:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmprkj5I70Q

I was very impressed with the results, given that the ambient light was very poor, and this was a first attempt at placement. The camera on the horizontal stabiliser was not very stable, and shook quite a bit being right in the propwash, but still gave a nice angle and I have been able to pull some great stills from the clip. The camera on the mast was dead stable and is also a great angle, but was mounted in a portrait format while the other was mounted horizontally. I'm not sure that mixing the two formats into one clip really works, need some feedback from someone with more experience...Flynote??? My video editing learning curve is very steep, having only started yesterday and needs plenty of work. But there is some potential here. I should state that the objective is not to obtain broadcast quality aerial footage for publication, but rather to showcase gyro flying and create some great memories.

Any ideas or criticism would be much appreciated. Thanks Learjet for the chauffeuring services...

[Jabbanaught]

Awesome !!!

Now get them Synchronized and have the footage side by side ! Should look great .

But all in All very good , see mr Lehr can still land softly

[jtresfon]

Ja, he did a good job after I reminded him that if the "Airman Of The Year" messed up, it would be beautifully rendered in full HD for all to appreciate!!!

[Jabbanaught]

Ja, he did a good job after I reminded him that if the "Airman Of The Year" messed up, it would be beautifully rendered in full HD for all to appreciate!!!

Like a typical backseat driver (Lol)

[Learjet]

and can the bloke backseat drive or what I tried switching off the intercom for some peace and quiet, but he's got it wired through the master switch. You know, before he got his pilot's license he was pleasure to have in the back seat. Clearly ignorance was bliss!

And heaven knows what he's had done to my poor old gyro - because Jean is 7 foor something and a half he's had the rudder pedals extended by what feels like sevel feet. Jislaaik, I could only just get my tippy toes to the pedals. Did warn him though that if he saw me sliding down the seat it's because we're landing into a crosswind

[Grumpy]

Hmmmm good stuff....... exactly why we yearn to go up and look down. Great test attempt Jean.

[mak]

Jean

Perhaps just a bit, sorry quite a bit of photo shop for that pilot, that brief moment that he looked back was very scary, well, at least he can fly. For the rest I think it looked great. You can also have a look at some of Centugyro's videos on youtube (a link below) to get some ideas and perhaps he can comment on what works for him and what doesn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK1_Jq-k ... er&list=UL

[iWazzuu]

Great video, although I haven't taken any footage on a gyro, I have in other vehicles and one thing I learnt (other people's advice, I'm just passing it on) was that adding short clips of the faces of the occupants makes for a more interesting video, if you can mount a camera on the nose and to one side looking at the mast/rotor and capturing the pilot's (and passenger's) faces, that could give you some cool shots, you can then mix them in your video (also so far nobody has done it) I will when I get my gyro (hopefully soon), maybe you can beat me to it

[Tribal Croc]

Very cool movie I like the deferent angles

Thanks for sharing

[jtresfon]

You can also have a look at some of Centugyro's videos on youtube (a link below) to get some ideas

Thanks Mak, hadn't see this before, all helps with the ideas... he seemed to have quite a bit of shaking on his mast mount compared to mine...

Jean.

[jtresfon]

adding short clips of the faces of the occupants makes for a more interesting video

Thanks iWazzuu, that's a great idea, wouldn't have thought of that myself! The mounting might be a little tricky, but will give it some thought. If I put any more cameras on the plane it might not fly anymore!!!

Jean.

[jtresfon]

Quick footnote: Although the tailplane mounted camera shakes a bit, it does allow for some cool stills...



Jean.

[Learjet]

wow...that frame grab looks nice. I'm super impressed with those little cameras!

[Gyronaut]

Stunning Jean and Dave!

National Geographic used GoPro's for a Seal Island sortie they asked me to do in a gyro a year ago.
This is one of the striking photo's they sent me afterwards.

[Learjet]

That's also a great pic Len. We confess to having seen where you had your GoPro fitted for the Nat geo shoot and shamelessly copied your camera mounting position on the tail