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Post by vance on Dec 9, 2020 19:03:01 GMT -8
Since this has been decided, in the past, to be a general topic area, I'd like to open it up to another subject: model airplanes. I don't want it to take over, but it seems that at least two of us major contributors play(ed) around with them.
Mostly, my interest was in slope soaring gliders. I used to fly them off the cliffs near San Francisco. An interesting note: I used to fly with a guy named Jef Raskin, who turned out to be the originator of the Macintosh computer. I had no idea until years later.
My last foray into radio controlled aircraft was an "old timer" design (a 1/2A Miss America) that I built as electric powered in the 70s. It had a belt drive geared brushed motor and a 6 pack of Nicad batteries for power. Pretty heavy, but the wing loading handled it fine. I converted it recently to a modern lithium battery/geared brushless motor setup which is much lighter. I put a small camera on it and flew it nearby, over San Francisco Bay. Pretty tame, but fun. I got some interesting video.
This was much more like my original experiences with single channel (rudder only) airplanes back in the 60s than the drones I built a couple of years ago. They are interesting, but the laws have gone crazy and there are simply too many problems associated with them to bother with fooling around with them. I gave it up pretty quickly.
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Post by SeaRat on Dec 9, 2020 19:41:24 GMT -8
Okay, I'm going to take this topic in a slightly different direction. You will note that I posted a new topic about a shark attack just off the Oregon Coast, probably from a Great White Shark. It was a surfer that got bitten.
Years ago, in 1970, I was jumpmastering a parascuba jump from a HC-130 aircraft. This was a planned jump onto an Apollo mockup capsule. We needed these jumps on a quarterly basis to continue to be on alert for an Apollo launch. We were flying out of McCoy Air Force Base, Florida near Orlando), and the capsule was just off Cape Kennedy (now, again, Cape Canaveral). Well, we were flying over the area and as we approached the capsule, I started seeing sharks. I dropped a flare directly over the capsule, then we circled to line up to fly dpfrom the flare directly toward the capsule to get my count to jump the Pararescueman. I saw more sharks, big sharks, a few were hammerheads. I'll let this story go here, and post my chapter of my book about this jump below.
My point is that these radio controlled model airplanes with a camera such as a GoPro could do surveillance of a dive site, looking for sharks. Any comments?
John
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Post by nikeajax on Dec 10, 2020 10:19:26 GMT -8
PY, I don't know if you've ever heard of John J. Montgomery, but you should! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Joseph_MontgomeryWhat makes him so very special? For one thing he was the first person in the U.S. to make a controlled flight in Otay Mesa, San Diego! He was so influential in flight that the Wright Brothers stole his ideas and then covered it all up very neatly with law suits. They even went so far as to make sure everyone forgot him: they were both really cr@ppy and petty people. Anyone doubting this should look what happened with Glenn Curtis: they went around suing anyone who didn't suck up to them and respect their "patents"... Thankfully everyone in Europe laughed at their audacity. Anyway, Montgomery used to build model gliders before he built actual aircraft, and yes, a glider is a real airplane!!!! He flew his plane the "Santa Clara" at Santa Clara University in 1905 by lifting it into the sky with a balloon and piloted by Daniel Maloney, this was the world's first high altitude flight!!!!!!!!. There's a special area outside of San Jose called Evergreen, very hilly and windy where he flew his aircraft, it's called, "Montgomery Hill". I'm quite fascinated by aircraft  JB |
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Post by SeaRat on Dec 10, 2020 13:28:05 GMT -8
JB,
I went to the Wiki site, and found out about the production of the film, Gallent Journey. Guess what? YouTube has the movie, the whole thing.
John
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Post by nikeajax on Dec 10, 2020 14:01:56 GMT -8
John, we watched that a few weeks ago: it was OK, but not great. They condensed so much of it and glossed over so much of the things he achieved  And evidently the (expletive deleted)-ing Wright Bros. meddled in the production of the film even leaving out crucial details. We did like his wife in the film, she was really cool, not an icky-girl  These two guys are the real heroes of aviation! John J. Montgomery Glen Curtiss Jaybird |
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Post by vance on Dec 10, 2020 14:37:05 GMT -8
My point is that these radio controlled model airplanes with a camera such as a GoPro could do surveillance of a dive site, looking for sharks. Any comments? Multirotor and fixed wing drones are being used extensively in video productions of all kinds, surveillance, and for many other purposes that require aerial observation. One interesting (fun) use of multi rotor model aircraft is POV flight. The operator uses googles that receive real time video from a camera mounted on the craft. It's a lot like being in the cockpit. Some people race them through intricate obstacle courses, like inside a parking garage, or in a forest. That takes a lot of skill. Here's a video from the perspective of one of the racers: ; |
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Post by nikeajax on Dec 11, 2020 13:10:57 GMT -8
My point is that these radio controlled model airplanes with a camera such as a GoPro could do surveillance of a dive site, looking for sharks. Any comments? John That is a really great idea, especially on this coast   I wonder if you could see much though, as our water has such low visibility. Great White Sharks breed off the coast here, and up in Charlies neck of the woods they refer to them as "the landlords": I'm pretty sure a drone would be very helpful up there as the water is quite clear. JB PS I think John and PY will enjoy this, at least the first half, from an engineering standpoint: |
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Post by cnotthoff on Dec 11, 2020 14:09:38 GMT -8
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Post by rikdog7 on Dec 21, 2020 5:49:33 GMT -8
Reading this post gave me a few ideas of why I might need to invest in a better drone someday. I have been printing better detailed charts of our local lake. I wanted to pinpoint some of our underwater attractions when doing a site familiarization briefing with divers new to the site. I was also going to put a key on the side with compass headings. We have low viz for half of the year and always have to improve/keep navigation honed.
I also belong to an RC flying club and one of the guys had a good deal on a gps camera drone last month, but I didn't see a need for one.
Our lake is a water control lake so the depth changes year round so your visual markers on the shoreline change so a drone hovering over a known spot would be a good visual.
And probably the most fun thing to do would be to send the drone out with an object that is brightly colored and drop it at a known location and have people go find it. If you don't have the camera onboard you get more payload.
We have to rely on someone taking the object out right now and placing it. We could launch the drone from the boat and drop it at a precise location.
Just another excuse for a new toy...
Rick
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Post by greenwater on Jan 16, 2021 6:40:16 GMT -8
Just found this group. Great threads. I have been in r/c everything since the eighties, started diving in 78.
Mostly lake diving in Berkshire county (western Mass.). Opened a hobby shop in 89. Started out mostly planes then
got hooked on helicopters, Wow. Went every were, saw it all did it great times. This is were I met
Frank Gondar who became a dear friend. We flew planes together none stop, I mean almost every day year round, rain or shine, wind and snow. That was Frank. Ski,bike,boat,jet ski,hike,collage professor,and yes diver. He was the biggest kid I new. Korean war vet retired NYPD. He did it his way. Started diving for the NYPD. Way back when ,with instruction from none other than Cousteau and son. I always asked him about them. How great. The great part was I got him back into diving in 1992. He dove all over the world,bringing back video,great stuff he did himself. O yea another hobby of his. Lost Frank in 2016. When we first started diving he gave me his old double hose and tank set up (a double or triple,don't remember). Awesome
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Post by SeaRat on Jan 16, 2021 17:49:32 GMT -8
Greenwater,
I was a USAF Pararescueman in the 1960s and 1970s, and crewed a lot of different USAF helicopters. I also flew on an HC-130 from Florida to DaNang, Vietnam, refueling two helicopters the whole way, for the First Trans-Pacific Flight of Helicopters. I took Super-8 film of that, had it digitized, and posted it without editing on YouTube. Here is that footage. The first part has to do with picking up drones out of Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida in a HH-3E Jolly Green Giant helicopter. Then it goes to Alexander Springs State Park in Florida for canoeing, and finally, at about 8.5 minutes into the video for the HC-130/helicopter footage.
Good to see you here.
John
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And evidently the (expletive deleted)-ing Wright Bros. meddled in the production of the film even leaving out crucial details. We did like his wife in the film, she was really cool, not an icky-girl 
I wonder if you could see much though, as our water has such low visibility. Great White Sharks breed off the coast here, and up in Charlies neck of the woods they refer to them as "the landlords": I'm pretty sure a drone would be very helpful up there as the water is quite clear.
