Black Friday was a perfect November day. It was 55 degrees, the air was buttery smooth, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky (or a bubble of lift). I got up early and drove past the hordes of shoppers out to eastern Colorado. Jim, Tim, JT, Sparky and bunch of others were aerotowing at Flight Farm. I wanted to try out a new dangle mount for the Hero Cam and test fly JT's Falcon 225.
Flight Farm
Tim got his refurbished Dragonfly back and it is spectacular. Jim and Tim painted a red starburst on the white wings and tail. It's a beast of an ultralight with a burly exhaust note and a 5 bladed propeller. The contrasting colors make it stand out brilliantly against the rocky mountains and plains. There was another ultralight flying around that compared to the Dragonfly looked like a go cart with wings.
The New Dragonfly
The Go Cart with Wings
I took the first tow on the Talon. A dangle mount drops below the glider and films vertically from below. The problem is that with the Hero Cam above the mount the center of gravity is above the pivot point causing it to flip upside down. This also causes oscillations that distort the footage. I tried making mine out of slipstream downtube and used eye bolts to raise the pivot point. This was an over-engineered solution that could have easily been solved by bending the tips of the downtube up. The other problem was storing the lines so I don't get tangled up and trip on landing. I used two professional grade plumb bob inertia reels to retract the lines, the problem was that the springs in the lines were too strong so I had to weigh down the dangle mount with D batteries. Velcro holds the mount on the base bar when it's not deployed. Here's the finished product.
The Dangle Mount
After I pinned off I dropped the dangle mount and did a few wing overs. It was the perfect length, but the occsilations were still bad. At 700 feet I pulled up the mount and the string retracted neatly in the reels. With the eye hooks and batteries there wasn't enough clearance to avoid hitting the camera foot and at 500 feet it broke. I watched as the Hero Cam plummeted to earth, the second time I've watched a camera fall from my glider this year. I pulled in and dove down with it, but people on the ground saw it fall and marked the impact spot. After I landed I checked it out. The Hero Cam was fine, but it ejected the SD card on impact corrupting the footage. It's a shame because the footage would have been amazing. Instead, here's a less amazing clip of the Hero Cam mounted on the right downtube from October.
October Aerotow
I flew JT's Falcon 225 next. It was a pleasure to fly in the smooth air. When I pinned off at 7500 feet I could see all the way to the wind turbine farms in Scott's Bluff, Nebraska. I enjoyed a boaty ride down and explored the limits of the Falcon. It'll be a perfect glider to fly in light conditions and when the ridge site in South Boulder opens.
The Dogs
After the Falcon I went for a "ride" in the Dragonfly. It was good fun, I'll have more on that in a later post. The dogs watched from the back of the truck as the sun set over the distant mountains. It was a perfect way to spend Black Friday!
Sunset
Flight Farm
Tim got his refurbished Dragonfly back and it is spectacular. Jim and Tim painted a red starburst on the white wings and tail. It's a beast of an ultralight with a burly exhaust note and a 5 bladed propeller. The contrasting colors make it stand out brilliantly against the rocky mountains and plains. There was another ultralight flying around that compared to the Dragonfly looked like a go cart with wings.
The New Dragonfly
The Go Cart with Wings
I took the first tow on the Talon. A dangle mount drops below the glider and films vertically from below. The problem is that with the Hero Cam above the mount the center of gravity is above the pivot point causing it to flip upside down. This also causes oscillations that distort the footage. I tried making mine out of slipstream downtube and used eye bolts to raise the pivot point. This was an over-engineered solution that could have easily been solved by bending the tips of the downtube up. The other problem was storing the lines so I don't get tangled up and trip on landing. I used two professional grade plumb bob inertia reels to retract the lines, the problem was that the springs in the lines were too strong so I had to weigh down the dangle mount with D batteries. Velcro holds the mount on the base bar when it's not deployed. Here's the finished product.
The Dangle Mount
After I pinned off I dropped the dangle mount and did a few wing overs. It was the perfect length, but the occsilations were still bad. At 700 feet I pulled up the mount and the string retracted neatly in the reels. With the eye hooks and batteries there wasn't enough clearance to avoid hitting the camera foot and at 500 feet it broke. I watched as the Hero Cam plummeted to earth, the second time I've watched a camera fall from my glider this year. I pulled in and dove down with it, but people on the ground saw it fall and marked the impact spot. After I landed I checked it out. The Hero Cam was fine, but it ejected the SD card on impact corrupting the footage. It's a shame because the footage would have been amazing. Instead, here's a less amazing clip of the Hero Cam mounted on the right downtube from October.
October Aerotow
I flew JT's Falcon 225 next. It was a pleasure to fly in the smooth air. When I pinned off at 7500 feet I could see all the way to the wind turbine farms in Scott's Bluff, Nebraska. I enjoyed a boaty ride down and explored the limits of the Falcon. It'll be a perfect glider to fly in light conditions and when the ridge site in South Boulder opens.
The Dogs
After the Falcon I went for a "ride" in the Dragonfly. It was good fun, I'll have more on that in a later post. The dogs watched from the back of the truck as the sun set over the distant mountains. It was a perfect way to spend Black Friday!
Sunset
No comments:
Post a Comment