New Side Bizness

Justyn

Justyn

Veteran
Greetings all,

A bro and I have started an aerial RC business. Initially we'll be shooting from the air with my D-SLR and the HV20, but have plans to fly the big boy HVX and also a canon A1. We got the helicopter ready and will have the video mount ready next week. We're going to have full downlink video with robotic 360 degree control over the camera and a darn good pilot to fly the thing. WE have our first client shoot on March 1st so I'll keep you all up to date on this. It's exciting, expensive, and a bit scary.


This is our maden voyage yestereday. Still have a bit to work on with the helicopter but that'll be taken care of with a trip to the hobby store. I can't wait to get the airborne stuff for you guys...

http://www.electriccowtheater.com/SCC/testflight.mov

Please download. 70 meg file.. CHEERS
 
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wow thats exciting. I would love to have a helicopter rig to fly my camera around with... and a pilot to go with it... that opens up lots of new shots that would be hard to pull off otherwise...
 
Hey Justin.. nice. i have a rc control race car... RC's are fun to play with no doubt. i think the darn thing runs 30+mph out of the box. No landing footage.. lol..

if your planning on flying the HVX that helicopter will not fly it due to the weight of the hvx. i would think you need a bigger heli.. my thoughts based on the size of your heli..
 
I'd be really interested to see if you can carry the HVX on that! It'd be awesome (but nerve racking) to see it done!
 
Thanks guys. This Heli could handle the HVX..mount and gyro. It can fly 20 pounds total and the Century Helicopter guy says that it can carry up to 25, they are just conservative on their packaging.


This Heli looks small but it's the biggest model you can get without getting a custom heli. The body from Tip to tail is 60 inches and the rotars are 70 inches in lenght too...


Initially guys, we are going to go with the HV20 for most of our stuff. It's also because that the gyro is 1600 dollars less and also because of a bit of the fear faction. Ideally we're going to shoot the high aerial stuff with the HV20 and then the HVX will be for more of the low-flying stuff.. up to about 25 feet...


we are going to do a test next week when we fly a cynder block around. we do have a lot of testing and stuff and I'm glad I got a great pilot. If you guys need this kind of thing then let me know. It's really exciting and I'm looking forward to the whole thing coming together. It's going to be a bit expensive. Without the camera, I'll have about 7500 invested in this with everything. I'm just happy that it's coming together... and happy to shere with my brothers here at dvxuser... In two weeks we'll have a lot more stuff to show.

cheers everytone...
 
Do the pilots have to be licensed? What is the insurance situation? I have worked with Coptervision before and they were close to $10,000.00 per day but that was including film camera setup with gyro mount, pilot, permits, insurance, etc.

Perhaps you could be a good low cost alternative?

Dan
 
Justyn,
What gyro are you guys using and which one was $1600 less. I've only seen the gyros for the full 35mm cameras and they are massive and about 200k.
 
Hey all,

I found this website. I know its in another language but this remote control helicopter set up is amazing. They also have a video or two on youtube. check it out.

www.helivision.pt
 
puredrifting said:
Do the pilots have to be licensed? What is the insurance situation? I have worked with Coptervision before and they were close to $10,000.00 per day but that was including film camera setup with gyro mount, pilot, permits, insurance, etc.

Perhaps you could be a good low cost alternative?

Dan
Click to expand...


Dan, Thanks for the post and have enjoyed reading your knowledgeable ones in the past. The pilots just have to be a member of the AMA... Not sure what it is but I know my buddy is licensed by them. Not sure how he got it, but it's only 45 for the year and I don't think it's too hard. I can check more on that for you if you'd like. The other thing to consider is the RF radio business and have to get a HAM license and such for the videodownlink. Some of them require it and some dont as far as the kind of wireless we'll be runnin.

The insurance situation is a tricky one. We're going to get a million dollar general liablity through a company in Arizona that's specialization is RC AP/AV stuff. IT's a bit on the pricey side and it doesn't cover equipment. No one covers anything once it lists off the ground so that's a bit scary.


As far as a gyro, initally we are getting the Kenyon Labs (Ken Labs) KS-2 but will be getting th KS-6 when we go to the HVX. It's a really great gyro and everyone seems to love 'em and use them for all kinds of stabilization. The 2 is about 900 bucks and good for camera up to 3 pounds. The 6 is good for a camera up to 8 pounds so perfect for HVX. You can find a bunch of sites selling them...


We do aim to be exactly a lower cost, high quality option. There's plenty of cheap guys out there, but they don't have decent rigs.. and don't have a decent camera and knowledge and all of that. The other guys who do have those set-ups are crazy expensive and not looking to be indi-friendly. We aim to be in the 2000 dollar a day range initiall and then we'll grow and see where we go from there. We have our first job on March 1st so that'll be exciting and should be great footage as it's an adventure race through the Seminole National Forrest here in Central FL.


I've been really working on this hard for a month.. learning more about this than I thought or wanted, but it's coming together very quickly so that's all good. There are a ton of great sites out there already with companies doing this, but it's still very specialized, costly and not for everyone. I personally wouldn't want to fly this helicopter at all.. just way to hard. I'll stick to the RC simulator for a while. Certainly our hope is to fill a void in the production and client area. We are working for another production company in late March as well and we're cool with that. just looking to provide a service at a reasonable price. I appreciate the support and I'll let you guys know how it all turns out and when we get our website up and video page and all of that. Cheers.


To check out some amazing flying.. check this guy out. Simply amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi7G-VzU2r4
 
MB72378,
Thats a great link. has anyone found where they got their green head (camera stabilized gyro?)
thanks.
 
Yeah,
That's the one I've found, but you still need a wireless video transmitter and I'm not sure if this one lets you control the camera by turning it via remote control?
And you probably need a sphere for aerodynamic reasons also.
 
We have the wireless transmitter on order and it'll be in. We'll be able to control pan, tilt and zoom on the camera from a 2nd RC controller. We got it all pretty wired in.

Also, the spherical dome isn't as much of a big deal on these helis as the full sized ones... and in actuality hanging the weight under the skids is what a lot of people prefer to do for stable flight shots and to compensate..

Putting 15 pounds on the nose makes it so out of balance that it's hard to fly... Were're going for simplicity and cost right now and the bottom hung servos based system is what we are doing. I'll send pics and all that when all the gear arrives.


Also.. We are planning on monitoring the downlink via videoglasses. Anyone use those or could recommend a pair? Its the easiest and most portable solution as with RC flying you ahve to move around a lot and position the downlink antenna all the time. From our research we are going with a directional antenna instead of the omni.


cheers all
 
i think its funny that the few links tossed around in these conversations that actually have video samples have a ton of footage OF the cam/copter, but very little (if any) FROM the copter. that $11k copterworks thing might be justifiable if the footage from it were good enough... but there was none shown...
 
Very true. We have our video mount arriving on Wednesday and you'll get to see a bunch of footage from ours. We bought it from Jody at helisolutions. His site is down now but should be back up soon. Our 2nd choice was from here, and they have some good videos up: http://www.airfoilskycam.com. I'm looking forward to showing what we can do. For anyone interested, there is a big RC airshow in Birmingham Alabama on the 14th-18th of March. I should be going with the pilot. This will be one of our first demo shoots. cheers all
 
Curious that your using the hv20 for higher shots and the hvx for lower.. my curiosity comes from the footage of both cameras.. Are you planning on mixing footage together? I'm in the market for a consumer HD camera and have been researching the panny hd modle hs9 which im shocked i could not find any test footage on the net or here. I have seen some good results with the hv20 though. In your opinion would you mind mixing both the hvx and hv20?

Use of the consumer hd camera i end up buying will be to place the cam in a car with car mounts, and other areas inside/outside to give third eye perspective.

Since you own the hv20 i'd be interested to read your opinion about the cam and possible mixing third eye shot with the camera with your hvx footage.
 
I've done a fair bit of nitro powered RC stuff.

What I can't get my head around is how you would do video with all that oil smoke. I know after I've run my nitro 4-wheeler for even a half hour the whole car reeks of the oil. I can't imagine what that oil smoke would do to a camera. :undecided

Clue me in.................... otherwise this cam/copter stuff sounds very interesting.

edit: I see that these bigger rigs are "gas" powered. I'd have to assume that means no oil. ???

JohnG
 
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