NZ Auckland, Any experienced multicopter hobbists/pilots?

[DanFozzy]

Hi there guys,

My name is Dan, bit of a newbie to both UAV's and this Multi Rotor forum. :nevreness:

I just wanted to ask whether there are any experienced multicopter owner/pilots on here that are based in Auckland, New Zealand?

During the day I work for a travel company that produces a bit of online video content, and I am dead keen on filming some stable, high quality fly overs of some of the cruise ships we film.

Basically, I've spent a while looking into purchasing my own multicopter parts, reading on here about building and testing and piloting, BUT am quickly conceding to the idea that this may well take

a lot longer than I have to do this & it might just be safer and a lot faster partnering with someone who has a lot more experience in aerial filming and piloting than I do.

There's a couple of larger companies that are offering services for top of the range multicopter aerial filming for bigger cinema cameras (Red Cam) - which are unfortunately out of my price range.

I have watched many different videos from lots of the lower end quadcopters and the footage just looks terrible to me Really after something really smooth & stable that could handle a DSLR nicely.

Hopefully this isn't against any of the forum rules, but just wanted to reach out and ask if there was anyone out there who has some experience piloting something that could handle a DSLR and would like a bit of a Job?


Thanks for your time :tennis:

 

[RyanMcCrae]

Hi Dan, my names Ryan from Wellington; good to see another Kiwi on here. Talk to Efliernz. Peter is from Hamilton, im sure he could help or send you in the right direction.

 

[Efliernz]

Hey... that's me

Welcome.

There are a few of us on the forum from NZ. Stacky (an Aucklander but still relatively normal) jumps on here often.
I don't fly models commercially any more as CAA really do require people to have "authorization"... just google it in NZ and start reading. I only fly for fun now, as well as built trainers for others.

Pete

 

[DanFozzy]

Thanks Efliernz & for the heads up on CAA authorization! Will try get in touch with Stacky too, much appreciated

 

[koolkiwikat]

Dan it will be interesting how far you get on this one, I see a big functioning ship as the Mt Everest of shoots....Radar/RF bombardment not to mention you will need to be on the cruise liner to get the shot as its one big *** RF shield to fly around!, Goodluck bud

 

[Efliernz]

Dan

I finally get time to type while watching us lose the yachting...
I'm not sure how much r/c experience you have but the learning curve is big. Many here have started from scratch... I started with 25 years of r/c under me... and I'm a techie by trade. No matter what your background, everything takes time. When carrying a dslr and trying to produce what others (not you) regard as commercial quality aerial video, expect at minimum 6-12 months flying and learning.

This is how I see it...

A trainer has you up and flying without a large expense but you need to learn not just how to fly but battery management, how to program a radio and how to tune a flight-controller just for a start. Once you are flying more than crashing, then it's time to look at what is required to carry a large camera.
I get really nervous when you can simply go out and buy a 7Kg multi with camera mount for around $10k and the sales-pitch goes something like "we recommend the NAZA / DJI as the gps is great and it flies itself". There are many threads here about the lack of awareness / ignorance by shops that people actually need to learn / walk before they can fly. NAZA's appear to have an intermittent issue where (in stabilized/gps mode) they suddenly go unstable and oscillate/crash. The solution is to switch to "manual mode"... great unless you can't fly and are expecting it to fly itself like the shop said!

OK... now you have a 7Kg machine, you will need to learn how to program a gimbal controller, setup the servos in the gimbal and wire it up for video downlinks with a ground station - that your 2nd person/operator will control.

None of this deals with CAA. The moment you look at charging for your services, you become a commercial operator.
CAA require at minimum: PPL Law exam, 5 hours of flight time (so you become aware of full-size radio procedures and zones) as well as an operation manual and logbook. Insurance companies I suspect will have "CAA UAS Authorisation" a requirement soon - if I had an insurance company, I would.


It is much easier to get up and running now than when I flew my first camera commercially 7 years ago (build photos of the first Hamilton V8 track for the council). You had to build everything yourself back then! I wrote the osh book for the council to fly 4.5Kg of rc electric heli down town... they were exciting times! I am too busy now with my full-time job to chase r/c photography but instead I have several contracts with road construction companies shooting monthly for the next 3 years hanging out of a Cessna. For the record... it too is commercial aerial photography and I am required to use a commercially rated aircraft and a commercial charter pilot (not a mates microlight). It is a lot easier to get $5 million 3rd party using a full-size than a model! For large construction projects, it is also the quickest way to cover multiple sites/intersections across 16 Km of worksite.

Pete