FPV crash into fence!

I was doing some FPV flying today with the Wicked Witch 3 when I was glitched at low level and crashed into a fence. Luckily I had the recorder running and captured it all on video! The foam wings and fuse will need to be replaced and it will fly again.

Introducing the Flying Monkey Mini Camera Gimbal!

I've been messing around with video on the Blade 400 for some time, and through several iterations I now have a completely custom gyro stabilized pan + tilt wireless camera. This design allows for the flexibility of our larger heli but with the expendibility and saftey of our wicked witch planes
This is the camera itself. Mounting it on the front of the heli allows for a good range of motion. It can even point upwards without begin obstructed!
Here is the control box. The whole assembly is very lightweight and designed to stay well out of the way of the helicopter mechanics.
The battery is mounted underneath the main rotor. It can power both the camera and the rc system.

The entire assembly. Two people are required to operate the heli and camera. Thankfully, the VR goggle video downlink system from our large camera system is also compatible with this system.

Video coming soon!

More Flying Monkey HD video grabs

We revisited alot of our original locations, this time armed with a new battery that let us get higher and closer than before.

A shot of us as we come in for landing.

A radar dome
A fake windmill for a housing development. This was a fun one to shoot.

A couple watched our heli circle the windmill, and later came to talk to us.

Flying Monkeys Sample Video

Check out the shots Eric and I got this morning on the eastern plains of Colorado. The Flying Monkeys RC Helicam is now fully operational!

HD grabs from the Flying Monkey photo heli!

I'm working on getting an acceptable method for converting our video for editing, but I was able to pull of a few high res pictures.

Lightning over Longmont, CO!

Lightning Net netted a decent half dozen shots for me tonight from a brief lived but intense cell over Longmont, CO tonight!