Looking at the Corvette from from the air - playing with a Video Drone
 

It's Winter Depression Season over here
So what's a guy to do when he can't drive his Corvette? He Looks for other toys. But what?
- Other cars? Nope, have to ask the wife for permisson to drive it (yeah, the SRT8 is hers)
- Model cars? Naah, got the real thing.
- Model planes? Nada, interesting, but not really
- How about a Drone then? Well now... that sounds interesting. Let's see..., oh, got one as a Christmas present, what a coincidence, let's try it out.:D
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps3593aa41.jpg

What intrigued me was the idea of having an HD camera on board. The one I got was the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0. It's a quadrocopter and really more of a toy than a professional device. But man, is it fun. You steer this gizmo with an iPhone or iPAD and the camera transmits live to the screen. So in a way, I feel like I'm sitting in it and watch myself from above. Kind of a cheapo out of body experience.
It took me a few tries to get the hang of it and I crashed it into a tree and broke off a propellor and other parts. But thankfully, spare parts are cheap. Once I had it halfway decently under control, I tried to film and photograph the Corvette from an elevated view. Here's the first result:

Be kind with comments about my video skills. I'm still learning and I need to balance the drone properly to get the "wobble" out of the video sequences. I just pushed the Corvette out of the Garage for this test and filmed the surroundings.
My plan is to take it along in spring for my tour with friends through Italy (Tuscany) and film the C2s and C3s driving on the race track in Modena. It's of course utterly impossible to fly at high speeds, but some nice footage should still be possible. And you don't see Corvettes from the air all that often. Just for comparison: Here's the short clip I posted a few weeks ago on this Forum, shot with a regular camera. Imagine the things you can do with a drone filming the action.
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...lasspacks2.jpg

Have any of you tried something similar?

Martin

Never tried it, but it looks like fun. The car looks great from any angle. :thumbs:

Whoa! Now that looks like fun. Have a neighbor who likes to sunbathe on her roof. Will have to look into the cost of that unit. :rofl:
Duane

Excellent vids :thumbs:

When you're comfortable with how the machine flies, take the styrofoam bumpers off. It'll fly better but will increase the possibility that you'll be buying a replacement.

For Duane. Don't do it dude. Word.

awesome!:thumbs:

Very cool!

very nice.when you get sick of it fly it into the the high tension wires and see what happens.

Thats cool! I want one now. Thanks for sharing. :thumbs:

that is cool!!! I want one!!!

Hi guys

Thanks for the comments. As for this:

When I got it first and it took off to about 50 feet, two of my neighbors leanded out of their windows and watched suspicously, probably with the same thought. Protecting ones privacy is big where I live and if I ever tried a stunt like that, they would chase me over the corn fields with pitch forks and torches and kill the dog.
Even if I wanted to do it: This Thing has no stealth flying mode. It sounds like a buzzing fly, amplified by 100x. You can hear it coming from half a mile away.

Another thing I learned: In Switzerland I need to be insured for possible damage coverage of up to 1.5 Mio. Dollars. Otherwise I'm not allowed to fly it at all. I may also not use it near airports, military institutions, etc.

And last but not least: There's always the fear of crash landing it on a car or a person. I therefore only fly it when there is no wind at all and I ask permisson first before I fly directly over a group of cars or people. Sounds maybe over careful but better safe than sorry. On the up side: The AR.Drone is really light and the actual damage it could do should be minor. But still...

Anyway, I'm addicted and one day will probably upgrade to a more professional Octocopter which can carry my real camera. I'll be posting more videos in spring.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Martin