The Gyrn tonight, straight from work to Take off, set up and launched in
light conditions but once out by the bowls it was working nicely.
Nothing great, max 400ft ATO but nice and easy - and warm, it was just like a
summers evening soaring for the four of us.
I flew for an hour before top landing because today special... I had just clocked my 400th hour airtime and today was going to be the very
first test of the Chase Cam - for more info, scroll down below the photos...
The Chase Cam
Inspired by a design that Johan (JJ's Bar - Algodonales) showed to us earlier in
the year, I had created the structure but never got conditions to test it -
tonight was going to be the night :-)
The Chase Cam is a GoPro HD Cam attached to the end of a fiber glass tent pole
via a GoPro mount held on the end of the pole with a woodscrew.
The other end of the pole has a shuttlecock screwed into it to stabilise the
assembly in flight and keep it pointing forwards. The pole is then
suspended on some fine line similar to Paraglider lines and its C of G
found. From the C of G point - two lines run to the trailing edge of the Paraglider
itself so the Chase Cam will 'fly' behind the Paraglider in flight.
As you can imagine, setting this up isn't easy, getting line lengths right etc
needs some work, so this evening was the evening with mild benign wind.
So, with help form Eddie we guessed the line lengths and attached the cam - and
inflated the glider, and took off, the cam was around 6ft too high so I slope
landed and walked back to Launch.
We increased the line length and re-launched... Below is a video generated from
the Chase Cam - the very 1st attempt.
Important Note: This type of camera set up can cause serious problems should the Paraglider collapse, there is a very good chance that the Glider will not recovers should the camera lines get wrapped around the Paraglider lines - Please do not attempt this without researching ALL of the risks involved
