I need to mount a camera underneath a helicopter

Chris Santucci said:
This was shot with a Hero3 Black GoPro stuck onto the underside of the aircraft. No special mount and no stabilization whatsoever.

https://youtu.be/A9JQBrC-1To
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Wow, what a spectacle! Looks great! I'm glad she had a safety line.

I did my shoot and it went unbelievably well. Had a GoPro Hero Black 8 on a specialty mount (no electronics) and the footage was just beautiful. No discernible shake at all. The only issue was that video stream kept choking in the app, so a lot of the time I couldn't see what I was capturing. No biggie, since I mostly just left it running (except for grabbing a few stills). I will post the finished video once it's been officially released.
 
She eventually had a safety line, clipped up and not tested before the lift. It looked too like she had a simple belt on. You'd not get away with that in the UK. I've just finished a job here with actors on the end of flying wires. The installation and sign off sheets, the harness inspections, and the sizing of safety cables where there could be a drop really upsizes the components. Karibeners need shock load capability, and hers clipped on very simply. I'm assuming the person on the ring was a dancer? She had two wrist straps, and two safeties with karibeners. She went up with one attached. If she had slipped off with the safeties in the position they were they would probably have taken her leg off! She then pops her hand through the wrist strap and doesn't pull down the strop to narrow the opening.

I am totally gobsmacked. I cannot imagine what I'd have put on the risk assessment. Nothing appears to have been made safe at all. If she had slipped off the ring - and looking at her stance, that would not have been hard, she would have dropped to below the ring as the safeties were miles too long, she would have been too low to grab the ring, and would be dangling -probably in no danger of slipping out, due to her waisit/hip ratio - but would she have been able to breath? How long before the helicopter could get down to a space where she could be detached if unconscious? She would also appear to be hanging by one side, not good if unconscious. A full body harness, worn by people who work aloft, is considered dangerous after 30 minutes of hanging. I'm really glad it went so well, but the risk from what I saw scares me. The professional people flying companies have amazingly tight rules. I suspect the US are much more lenient in their rules for this kind of thing. Glad it wasn't me on the ring!
 
paulears said:
She eventually had a safety line, clipped up and not tested before the lift. It looked too like she had a simple belt on. You'd not get away with that in the UK. I've just finished a job here with actors on the end of flying wires. The installation and sign off sheets, the harness inspections, and the sizing of safety cables where there could be a drop really upsizes the components. Karibeners need shock load capability, and hers clipped on very simply. I'm assuming the person on the ring was a dancer? She had two wrist straps, and two safeties with karibeners. She went up with one attached. If she had slipped off with the safeties in the position they were they would probably have taken her leg off! She then pops her hand through the wrist strap and doesn't pull down the strop to narrow the opening.

I am totally gobsmacked. I cannot imagine what I'd have put on the risk assessment. Nothing appears to have been made safe at all. If she had slipped off the ring - and looking at her stance, that would not have been hard, she would have dropped to below the ring as the safeties were miles too long, she would have been too low to grab the ring, and would be dangling -probably in no danger of slipping out, due to her waisit/hip ratio - but would she have been able to breath? How long before the helicopter could get down to a space where she could be detached if unconscious? She would also appear to be hanging by one side, not good if unconscious. A full body harness, worn by people who work aloft, is considered dangerous after 30 minutes of hanging. I'm really glad it went so well, but the risk from what I saw scares me. The professional people flying companies have amazingly tight rules. I suspect the US are much more lenient in their rules for this kind of thing. Glad it wasn't me on the ring!
Click to expand...

I've seen these people (The Wallenda's) before and that's their "thing", doing very dangerous aerial/high-wire acts with no safeties. Besides the fact that they could fall on people or property below and cause harm/death, to me there is little difference between that and walking a tight-rope with no net. You fall, you're dead.
 
paulears said:
I'm assuming the person on the ring was a dancer?
Click to expand...

I believe she's primarily an aerialist. I was in another helicopter trying to keep a steady frame with another camera. As far as safety goes, our aircraft wouldn't get anywhere near enough for me to get a decent frame with a 100mm lens, so there's that at least, haha.

As for the Wallenda's, they are high wire artists. They get paid to do dangerous high wire stunts so they don't use safeties:

https://youtu.be/S90DnKM_j4Q
 
She's quite a famous aerialist and no doubt competent to do what she's doing - I think my concerns are more at the people who are running the stunt. In circus, most of their work is rigged and operated by close team members/family, but the pilot of the aircraft takes on a huge responsibility by doing this. Foolish, even?
 
I wanted to close the loop on this. Here's the final, publicly-released video: https://youtu.be/9arNBbGK8Hs

I worked with the helicopter mechanic to install a special shock-absorbent mount for a GoPro 8 Black, and then had the pilot sign off on it. The resulting stabilization between the mount and the helicopter was really good.
 
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