Big O Flies from the E

Backfilling here. Dave, Owen, and I went out to Elsinore for a late Friday flight in moderate Santa Anas. Owen launched first, Dave second, I third.

Owen had a great flight, Dave and I met Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee Side Rotor, that is. While I was finishing setting up, Dave got spanked down into the bailout below the E. I went ahead and launched and barely made it... and it's only 5:1 from launch. The first portion of the flight was a rodeo ride. I actually looked up to see if my wing was assembled properly. The last third, I skimmed over rooftops, starting at 200' over them down to 50' over the last roof a quarter or third a mile later.

It scared the hell outta me.

But, I landed safely, kissed the ground, was delivered a beer by Spike, and vowed never to launch the E in North winds again.

Here's a video I made of Owen's flight.


Big O Flies from the E from knumbknuts on Vimeo.

Flying with 3 cameras and GPS tracking

The day was pretty murky to begin with (I think I saw Frodo and Sam hiking into San Berdoo), I didn't tweak the saturation on this run of video, and YouTube washed it out a bit more, but...


Camera, Camera, Camera, GPS, Windy Windy Windy from knumbknuts on Vimeo.

Here's my video of the day. Better quality option if you follow the link.

I was experimenting with three cameras. My verdict: it can be done, but it's a pain in the ***, worth doing for the most scenic of sites. The overhead camera records onto to a little portable recorder I got, on which I have to rerender from divx to mpeg to edit, as the divx it records to is too compressed for my edit software and causes it to freeze (Vegas, Pinnacle, & Premier, ugh!).

Having 3 perspectives at once is too much, generally. I like three cameras only for the variety of angles they provide. Two cameras were hi def, one standard, not that you can tell on youtube.

I got some good in air shots of Dave's new Sport 2, Jack holding onto his glider at Crestline, Wisconsin Paul, and one of the Atos boys at Crestline. They look better on the hi def.

This was also a video where I experimented on using my gps track to help tell the tale.

I give myself a B- on it, getting above a C only due to the sheer volume of raw material (I was flying around like a %%(!&! EA-6B Prowler). It's almost too much and the conditions were kinda crappy for vid; it didn't turn out as well as I hoped it would.

As far as the flight itself... holy crap I need a DS glider for days like that. It was w-w-w-windy & gusty. The only reason I was glad I was on a Falcon is I got thrown around by the hand of God a couple of times and was wondering if I'da been tumbled or something on a DS glider. Probably not, but the stability of the Falcon was welcome. But, there were thermals I couldn't follow because they would have taken me back into the trees. I had to leave Crestline while the getting was good.

The landing is amusing. I have to do 3 in a row into that circle, the next one with a right hand approach. I've done two, both just barely reaching it.