ZION IN THE SNOW (And the nicest NPS people who have ever busted me)

[JONBOYLEMON]

Went to a RC plane fly in in St George last weekend and on the way home we went through Snow Canyon & ZIONS (Spelled that way just for the ZNP Bogley police)

Well anyways we had planes with us and there was NO ONE in the park on Sunday so we had no choice but to strap cameras to the planes and fly around. This would have gone better if my buddy did not put up his 100 mph wing that you could have heard back in St George from the park.

Well anyways when I saw the park people w/ guns show up I thought we were dead. NOPE, she was super cool about it and actually helpful on how to get a permit to actually do it again, of course with silent planes. Well anyways I did not get the names of the park cops, but all I can say is they were very professional and very understanding that we weren't trying to be breaking the law, we were just messing around.

Anyways heres a few pics from the day.

[bbennett]

:2thumbs: Very cool! Too bad about the mid-air. Is (was) that a P51?

[JONBOYLEMON]

WAS a F4U Corsair.................... A particular model that is no longer made, and its a shame because it flew VERY nicely. 60" planes make a mess when they crash.

Also there is a pic of my buddy shooting a pic with his 10k camera on a tripod. 2 seconds after the pic his mount gave way and the camera dented the roadway, dented 3 parts of the camera, but did not break a thing...... Lucky...............

It was awesome to see Zion in sooo much snow.

[blueeyes]

:2thumbs::clap: love it!

We were rock climbing at the Gap a couple weeks back. My friend Robin was on the wall almost to the top, Sandy was belaying her and I was putting on my harness when all of a sudden out of no where this plane shoots over the top of us from above! Scared the daylights out of the three of us!!! He kept flying right by us until Robin asked him to stop. He was good but it rattled our nerves, felt like he was going to crash the thing into the rock wall we were climbing on. It was fun watching it fly. Wish I would have known about the event I would have taken the kids to see the planes fly.

[tanya]

nice :2thumbs:

[Deadeye008]

Nice pics :clap:

[JONBOYLEMON]

We kept hoping the sun would POP and we would get some blue skies and some better light. Never happened. Oh well.

[Sombeech]

how was your camera mounted to the aircraft, what kind of camera?

[JONBOYLEMON]

We were just using little crappy keychain cams. Its all we had in the car.

On the nice setups we have 20 mile range w/ video downlink to a laptop and goggles, and a go pro mounted on the nose of the plane on a pan and tilt.

You can just imagine some of the stuff we want to do here in Utah......

Here is some video of how it looks when done VERY WELL!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiePU9JhmWs

Needless to say I cant do that well....... YET.....

But I am not real happy with this guy after his stunt @ the Statue of Liberty.

[Sombeech]

I'd love to do that with an RC helicopter

[JP]

You had a midair collision with your Sikorsky Corsair :eek2: Always liked the bent wings. Fold them up and put them below deck :haha: I don't understand why Sikorsky cut their plane program, their helicopters do well for our military.

[accadacca]

Busted by the Zions Cops. That's classic! :lol8:

Nice pix too. :popcorn:

[JONBOYLEMON]

I'd love to do that with an RC helicopter

Even better is a tri coptor or hex copter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrvAMyobsAw

I just aint comfortable yet putting an expensive camera and hundreds of dollars of gear on a tricopter ..... yet...... Its un nerving enough with a stable rc plane as it flies out of site and you hope the downlink stays solid and that you get it all back!!!!

The Corsair was mine, now I am running a special on toothpicks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are planning a flight to the timp summit shack this summer from the valley. Should be great!!!! With any luck we dont loose a plane on the face. We can also do GPS waypoints and the plane flies that route hands free. That would allow us to go up and over the peak!!!!!!!!

Ok enough nerdy rc stuff. Back to topic........

[Win]

Looks like you had a really fun day, glad the rangers were so understanding. The technology your describing is amazing, looking forward to what you come up with.

Win

[Sombeech]

Even better is a tri coptor or hex copter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrvAMyobsAw

Yeah, I've been looking into that. I'm looking into which type of helicopter would be able to carry the weight of my GoPro camera. I'd love to get some waterskiing footage, just hovering over the boat as it passes, mtn biking footage next to a drop off, stuff like that. :cool2:

[theking648]

give this a try... :haha:


http://vimeo.com/13691562

[Felicia]

Oh man - I have been avoiding this thread.....................dang it!!!!!! Now I want to go see the snow in Zion!!!!

Beautiful pictures! :clap:

[Shan]

I'm glad the rangers were super cool and let you take photos of them!:cool2:

Hey I never shared this on here, but RC and UAVs are part of my job!

42180
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA46MUX1LaQ&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIKIeS5511M&feature=related


We have an RGB and a NIR camera on board (they point nadir) as well as a IMU. It's completely autonomous with manual as an option.

[JONBOYLEMON]

Who is cutting your wings???? EPP Blue Core? Looks awesome. I have actually seen a few of your videos. Cool stuff.

Also my friend who was with me in "Zions":mrgreen: got his pic in the finals from a trip just a while ago.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/8th-annual/8th-americana-5.html#IMAGES

[JONBOYLEMON]

Beech if you are really interested I could point you in the right direction. Have you flown helis??? If not set aside 10k now, that way you can afford to crash.

[Shan]

Nice photo! The colors are amazing.

My group AggieAir does all the planes and electronics in house with some basic hobby styrofoam.

http://aggieair.usu.edu/

[Iceaxe]

Sweet.... I love the F4U Corsair.... my favorite plane on the planet...

Here are a couple pictures I took of the real thing from the Reno Air Races last year.

This is a picture of an F4U passing a Mustang for the lead in the Unlimted B-main.
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