touch107fm Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 (edited) Last weekend me and my mate where doing some coastal flying, some of the best flying we have done so far. We where about flying at around 900 feet when my mate came over the radio and said his go pro camera was no more!! What happened was he was adjusting his Go Pro HD which was mounted on his helmet and it somehow managed to come free. It fell from his head rolled down his back straight into the prop which was doing a couple of thousand RPM.He said it just exploded into bits in mirco seconds. Luckily he was OK just a little shaken. The prop was cracked. He does have a net but the go pro went through it. He managed to land near launch site, he was happy to be on the ground. We went to the area to see if there was anything left of the camera. I found the first piece which was the tiny piece of plastic from the case over the next 20 min we managed to find most of the case all in bits!! Just as we where about to leave I spotted the actual camera at the foot of a bush. The camera was intact infact there wasn't even a mark. We could not believe it, mate was very happy to say the least. The camera managed to survive betting whacked by a prop spinning at a couple of thousand RPM then managed to survive a drop of around 900 feet. Big thumbs up to the Go Pro HD. Edited May 12, 2011 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Link sent to Go-Pro. They will love this one SW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dede2008 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 A quick advise for your friend and anyone using cameras: 1) do not play around the camera while wearing the helmet in flight. Better to get it off for few seconds, do what you have to do and put it back again. 2) Never fully trust the 3M tape nor the clips. Use a backup line going from the camera to the helmet or whatever you are attaching the camera to. I use an old glider line in a loop. 3) The camera went through the net? This shouldnt happen. Consider changing the net to a better one! Nice to know the camera survived and everything went reasonably well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coggie49 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Now put the cream on the cake and tell us "IT STILL WORKS" That would be truly amazing. About 20 years ago my mate dropped his Icom radio whilst changing a battery, it dropped from about 1500 feet and it landed in the mud of the Solent, he followed it down and waded out into the mud to retrieve it, after a quick clean and putting the charged battery on it worked fine. When we got home a couple a of days later he wrote to Icom to tell them but never even had a reply to his letter, ha ho. you would think they would have been interested. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
touch107fm Posted May 12, 2011 Author Share Posted May 12, 2011 (edited) Camera 100% still works!! When we found it I thought no chance its game over for that camera. As I said we found piece after piece of the case then found the camera. I was hoping that the camera would have been running and we could have seen the final moments. It turns out my mate was turning the camera on to record when it feel from his helmet. Noted with regards attaching the camera with a backup cable or something to stop if falling from the sky should the 3m tape fail. I was going to email Go Pro with a FEATURE REQUEST to be able to set a video recording in either setting (r1, r2etc) to record 1min clip or 3min clip or 5min clip etc The reasoning behind this is because when we go for a flight, after a safely check I normally switch on the camera and just let it roll. On average a normal flight for us would noramlly take just under a hour. When we go to edit the movie becomes very time consuming editing a 8 gig file is not fun especially on poor little macbook. If the movie was recorded in short 1, 3, 5 min sections over and over again it would make life allot easier when I go to edit. I know you can cut extracts from clips pending on the software you are using. My macbook using Imovie takes for ever when editing. I cant be the only only who would prefer the movies records in sections rather than one massive movie clip. Getting back to my mate I suspect he was turning the camera mounted on his head on and off trying to record short clips instead of having a the one hour clip. I love the camera I think I was one of the first people to buy one when they first came out in the states, I like them so much I bought two!!! Edited May 12, 2011 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 If your filming one long clip... and you want to separate the clips for edit... Just put your hand over the lense for a second or two between shots. (the dark screen bits are easy to find in the raw footage) Not perfect but it helps. SW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I have had a reply from Go-Pro.. " Wow, AWESOME story! Our PR team wil be in touch" So as soon as they contact me, I will pass them on to you. SW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
touch107fm Posted May 12, 2011 Author Share Posted May 12, 2011 Cool its a good testament to the camera, Anything thats survives getting whacked by a prop doing a over 4000rpm and then falling around 900 feet to the ground gets my thumbs up. Only problem now he needs a new case!!!. For other go pro users may I recommend you save yourself some stress and get some of these for your treasured GoPro http://www.mytuffstuff.com/ Its basically on cover for the lens which if you managed to scratch you just peel off the protective cover no damage to the lens!!! Very simple idea but works. Only $15 including shipping not bad!! Hey Simon With regards your reply: If your filming one long clip... and you want to separate the clips for edit... Just put your hand over the lense for a second or two between shots. (the dark screen bits are easy to find in the raw footage) Not perfect but it helps. The idea behind the feature request is make editing for me allot quicker. Trying to edit a 4gig file on the average pc/mac is not fun if the source material/clip is lets say 15 min = 800mb 10min = 500mb 7min = 400mb The file sizes vary pending on setting used by your camera etc Editing a a 400mb file is much quicker than a 8 gig file!! What I would love to see as a feature request to the GoPro makers would be a new setting where I could get the camera to record a clip for example 5 minutes. stop record for another 5 minutes stop record for another 5 minutes and so on you get the idea. When I am up there in air I would prob use about 10% of the footage the rest gets dumped.. If i am being a numpty head and there is indeed a way to do this please let me know. Anyways just my input.. Darragh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardc Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Darragh In skydiving we use a lot of camera mounts and I use a Cameye for remote switching and indication. Have a look at this website for some ideas. http://www.paragear.com/templates/parac ... 55&level=1 regards Eddie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neders Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 When flying I tend to switch the gopro on and off at various times but this is not easily done when wearing gloves because sometimes you cant tell if the button was pressed or not,then I get muddled as to weather it is on or off.I was wondering if gopro could produce a bluetooth plugin for the camera so you could switch it on and off remotely,maybe attached to a LCD screen on your wrist....or this too Joe 90 Neders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerlord Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 First set goPro to start recording when switched on. Then you just need to hold front button down for 5 secs to start or stop. Second I just use the wee mirror I have for checking fuel if I need to confirm it is recOrding - LCD and light flashing Or build a headup display then you see it recording and format etc on the screen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
touch107fm Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Hey Powerlord I just saw your clip on you tube [youtubevideo] [/youtubevideo]Very impressive to say the least. Yes turning the camera on and off will have to do. Putting in the feature request to the go pro team can do no harm!! As most of my mates think I am bonkers putting on a large fan on my back and flying with the birds, I want to show them the most awesome footage. I am getting there not quite at your level yet.. Darragh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.