Cam BOOMin'

With the help of WW, Jeff OB, Dangerous Dave, etc... I have (finally) built a nose-boom camera mount. Once I had the design and materials squared away, it was actually surprisingly straightforward!

For a better look at how it's done, check Jeff OB's blog post where he tells all:
http://www.willswing.com/blogs/PilotBlogs/tabid/38/EntryId/202/CAMERA-MOUNTS.aspx

Building the mount is only half the battle... then we have to counter-balance the mount. Having a camera, even a little GoPro HD, that far out in front of the glider will change the trim speed dramatically. After some weight and balance calculations, I sewed up a bag of leadshot for the cause...

Math and theory are tricky business, because sometimes... just sometimes... your math can all add up, and your theory looks great on paper, but the omission of even a small detail can make all of your planning faulty. There was no way to know for sure if we had done our math right, and that the mount and counter weight would work as planned...

On a strong but smooth South Side day, Dangerous Dave and I set out to test the mount. Conditions were IDEAL for this type of testing. We were both a bit nervous, but proceeded with caution. Once we had everything set up it was go time. It was kind of anti-climactic because everything just WORKED :-) The mount worked, the camera (GoPro HD) worked, the counter-balance weight worked... it all worked...

Here's the quick and dirty edit of the camera boom's first flight:

Nose Boom (teaser) from Ryan Voight on Vimeo.

But we weren't done... now we had tested and flown the GoPro HD... which is cool for video... but if you want photos, 5 Mp's doesn't satiate me. No, for magazine and calendar quality shots, we had to fly something better. Better means more money, and more weight. LOTS more weight. I have a Nikon D300s... and to the best of my knowledge, it's as good or better than ANYTHING people have flown with on a mount like this. Trouble is, it's HEAVY. And my Sigma 10-20 mm lens ain't light neither. Gotta love a good challenge.

More math, more calculations... but we worked it out... just the same way as we did for the mount + GoPro HD, which worked perfectly... so, in theory, this should work perfectly too! While the South Side is the appropriate place to test a mount like this... the forecast was showing an epic day at the Crawfords in Randolph, UT... it was ON!

As we're pulling up to launch, Dave quietly says "we'd might as well just get it over with, and put the big camera on there today"... So we mounted it up. Aimed it. Checked the remote. Triple checked the counter-balance weight placement...

Dave launches. With my thousands of dollars of photo gear hung on a limb off the nose of the glider. MY heart is in my throat... Dave is cool calm and collected. Dave runs easily TWICE as far as usual... I think I've just succeeded in killing Dangerous Dave. But then he flies away. Ok, it flies! I see Dave feeling it out, doing some mild turns, flying faster, flying slower... then he goes into wingovers. WHOA!!!

Well, when all was said and done, it worked out pretty dang well. Dave said we were probably about an inch off on the counter-balance weight... but considering the size of the boom and camera, and the six pound weight on the end of the keel... we didn't do too bad at all!

And the photos? You be the judge...