Learning to fly a camera ship

[trainorders]

I wandered upon this site while looking for information about RC helicopters capable of capturing high quality video. I am aerial videographer and I own my own gyroscopic camera mount that I shoot from using full sized helicopters. When I am not using my unit I rent it out to various production companies. I have done quite well with it in recent years, but with recent advances in RC helicopter technology and upcoming federal regulation I see my equipment is about to become obsolete. With a few exceptions all my shoots over the years could have been performed with a quality RC equipped ship. Shooting with RC will be much cheaper as full sized helicopters run more than $700 an hour. A fully outfitted RC copter is half the price of my unit. </SPAN>

Now that I have woken up I have concluded that I need to evolve or become obsolete. I was seriously considering an S800 as I was really impressed by the demo videos. However, after wandering upon this site I see that flying these birds is not so easy. I need to learn how to fly first.</SPAN>

I am looking for training copter recommendations before I move up to a production model. I was thinking along the lines of transitioning with two training copters before I move up to the production model whatever that will be when I am ready. I figure I have about a year to get up to speed. Once we can legally do commercial work the door will open to lots of opportunity. </SPAN>Also, does anyone have insight on insurance? </SPAN>

 

[Breezemont]

The best thing you can do is get a sim, practice on that while you build your own small quad.
Not only do you need to know how to fly it, you need to know how it all works so you can repair it.
When you fly into a gravity storm with your $300 trainer you'll be glad you didn't spend big bucks right off the bat.

 

[Tomstoy2]

You are on the right thought path. You need to learn how to fly first.

A good place to start would be the DJI f450 Naza combo. As far as out of the box complete systems go, it's probably the best. You can get it with a WKM, too, which will give you all the features and follow you to your next ship.

When you move up, the flight controller is the key to the kingdom. In my limited opinion, WKM is that key. There are very few flight controllers that actually work. DJI has been very thorough updating firmware for the WKM, something like 15 times or so in a little over a year or so. No other manufacturer has been so thorough and devoted to their system.

The key to buying a DJI system is to buy from a reputable dealer. They are now available at a lot of hobby shops but most don't know a damn thing about them and won't be of help. People like Robert at DJIUSA and AddictiveRC are the type of people you want to deal with, ( these are just examples, there are more ). What you want is to be able to call them and have them help you out on the phone.

Learning to fly isn't all that hard, but it does take commitment and time. However, you do need to learn everything, especially set up and maintenance. Flying is just 1/2 of the equation.

As far as insurance goes, as you are a small business, contact your insurance agent and tell him what you plan, see what he can come up with.

 

[Efliernz]

Welcome... I agree with what Breezemont said

I've been flying rc forever and I've been doing AP for 5 years now. I see new guys spending big money... one local guy spent $15K on a turnkey Droidworx from Photohigher with the dream od doing AP within weeks. When I met him after 6 months, it had been into a tree 3 times and he still didn't have the confidence to turn/yaw it. He had also just started to learn what a milliamp was. Yes - this is the worse-case scenario but it is happening a heap.
Stacky (on the forum here) started rc from scratch nearly 2 years ago and I've been helping him out as needed. He flies a heap. He has built his own copters and read and learnt as he went. Learning how to fix them is everything if you are out on a job. As for flying skill - it was a year before he could place the model where he wanted to do a stills shoot.
Dont rush it and expect that it will take a while to build up your experience. Don't be fooled that buying a gps system will fly the thing. It will help it fly away too! Knowing how to fly well first is needed before you let it make all the descisions with a gps. I still don't have one.

Just my 2c worth

Pete

 

[trainorders]

Thank you for the replies. One more question. How well do these setups fly in the wind? When I am up in a helicopter anything over 10-15mph can be a hinderance. The copter will be pushed around quite a bit in wind. What is it like flying an RC in wind and do the camera gimbal mounts help things?

 

[Efliernz]

Even with big 15lb machine carrying a 5D camera, there isn't much commercial quality video in winds over 10mph. My smaller 8lb octo moves around too much in winds over 5-7mph. It just bounces around - little bumps in the video. I shoot stills in 25mph...

I use the wind to help my video. If I need to do a smooth pass across the subject, I'll fly with the wind and let it smoothly carry my octo with it.

 

[jbdww]

Like everyone here is saying, get lots of sim time in and lots of stick time in. I would also say, try to fly a single rotor like a TRex 450, or TRex 550 to really get used to making stick changes. Make sure you can fly all orientations including both sides, and nose in. I have been flying RC heli now for five years, and have flown a couple of competition, and can tell you it takes lots of stick time to be smooth. Since I fly single rotor, the multi rotor stuff is a peace of cake. The heli can take the wind, but like they said above, it will affect the quality of video when it gets high.

 

[Macsgrafs]

I jumped straight from an RC heli to a octocopter designed for film use (Droidworx SJ8) & I had NEVER flown a multirotor before....it was far easier than my old trex 600 heli.
My advice is firstly find someone local to you...watch them fly & learn all you can from them. Secondly do buy a good simulator ( phoenix RC sim) just google that last one.
Lastly...buy cheap...buy twice!!!!!

PS What Pete said is spot on as well.

Ross

 

[kloner]

where are you at trainorders?

 

[Trike]

If you want to see if flying a multirotor is your "thing". You could get a Blade MQX to learn on. It's a cheap way to see if you'll like it. It's also durable as hell.