What an RC plane sees when you shoot fireworks at it.
December 26, 2009 8:14 AM   Subscribe

Planes, fireworks, and....AC/DC! An expensive RC plane and a crapload of fireworks is a great way to spend a late afternoon. (SLGM)
posted by shockingbluamp (24 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab felt the same way.
posted by gman at 8:19 AM on December 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Thanks. That was awesome!
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:25 AM on December 26, 2009


Chalk this up on the list of things my parents would never have let me do.

And curse you gman for stealing the topical joke that I was planning.
posted by Think_Long at 8:26 AM on December 26, 2009


During college I worked summers at a steel mill. After you see the guys in aluminum raincoats do their thing with 80 tons to molten steel without the benefit of a slide gate (the little valve in the bottom of the ladle that lets you stop the flow of the aforementioned 80 tons of molten steel as they go from mold to mold), fireworks sort of loose their awe. (Plus you always kind of expect a foreman to show up and ask why you're just standing there and not working.)

For me, this just pulled a handful awesome out of an empty hat.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:49 AM on December 26, 2009


would love to know how they manage to fly that thing and apparently pan the onboard camera at the same time.
posted by marvin at 9:03 AM on December 26, 2009


Aw man, this makes me want to pull out all my RC stuff again. If only I was better at flying it.

marvin: the onboard camera is called a FPV system. The nicer FPV kits have one or two servos attached, for panning L/R and up/down. Often, you pilot with a pair of video goggles and a head tracking system: when you look left, the servo pans the camera left. When you look right, pan right, etc.
posted by aaronbeekay at 9:34 AM on December 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Ha ha!! I can't stop laughing with glee. Yes, GLEE! Now, that is my idea of fun! Why don't more people do shit with planes and cameras and AC/DC and exploding shit anyway? I especially loved the dive bombing and the kids scrambling to get out of the way. Video cams on RC planes are just the fuckin' bomb...especially when there's bombs flying through the air. 4 stars!! Excellent! Please sign me up to your newsletter!! Make more movies, actually perhaps arm the RC plane with a BB gun or M-80s or somethin it can use to defend itself....ho ho ho!! Some of those visuals were stunning even...I have a feeling this is all going to get a bit more complicated and even more fun, if possible, in short order...
posted by Skygazer at 9:38 AM on December 26, 2009


This is weirdly awesome.

The Sabre Warrior drone from the sidebar is pretty interesting too.
posted by Artw at 10:08 AM on December 26, 2009




A wishlist:
a) no superimposed text & blinkies;
b) more varied/attractive terrain;
c) lose the fireworks;
d) Bon Scott not Brian Johnson.
Thanks, -squ.
posted by squalor at 11:44 AM on December 26, 2009


More like DEVASTATINGLY AWESOME, Daddy-O.
posted by dr_dank at 12:06 PM on December 26, 2009


That is some good ole' fashioned fun, dammit. Awesome! I think that over the winter I have my project...

Oh, and I'll reiterate the safety thing. I have several RC planes that are glow-powered and while I am decently good, I still will not fly at the local school ball fields if there are people meandering around/playing. Far too dangerous if things go awry - and they do. To wit:

1. Once had the throttle jam at full open and had to fly the thing full out until she ran out of fuel, then glide in with no opportunity to setup a proper landing. The landing was successful, but close.

2. Once had a kids soccer team show up out of nowhere when I was lining up for a final and landing forcing a last second go around and landing in tall grass away from the crowds.

3. Brand new, beautiful P-51 mustang with a .91 motor took off, torque rolled hard to the right and veered horribly out of control, crashing two feet from a car with a sound that can only be described as like a small bomb.

There are lots of things that can and do go wrong when you're flying, so it's no joke when someone says "safety first".
posted by tgrundke at 1:05 PM on December 26, 2009


One July 4th, I lashed two electrically-fired aircraft parachute flares - about 3 ft long, 3 in diameter - to the landing gear of my Cessna 140. Wired em up, took off about 9pm and headed for the river valley where a bunch of friends were having a hog roast.

Lit up the valley. Turned the nav lights off and skedaddled for home.

What? You say somebody did what??? Yeah, I wondered what was up- I was on my out to this hogroast, and man, the sky really lit up! Aliens or sumpin.
posted by drhydro at 1:15 PM on December 26, 2009 [4 favorites]


That was great...I lived vicariously through those diving kids!
posted by salishsea at 1:25 PM on December 26, 2009


tgrundke, others voicing safety concerns:

Those are pretty reasonable concerns for glow-powered planes, which are much harder, much heavier, and often run wooden propellers. But it said at the beginning of the video that he was flying an EasyStar: that's an electric plane with a plastic prop, foam wings, and a pusher prop. Even with the FPV kit attached, it's not a deadly force. Unless you nailed someone exactly in the eye, I wouldn't expect anything more than bruises.
posted by aaronbeekay at 2:50 PM on December 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


That looks like a Queen's Measured Shit-Ton of fun.

I'm guessing there's a separate channel for controlling the video shooting angle; wonder if you could do it with a single operator? Whoever was behind the controls of the plane looked like they knew what they were doing.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:29 PM on December 26, 2009


Thanks to the GPS coordinates in the guy's "here's where I wired up rockets TO the plane" video, we also know EXACTLY where he lives.
posted by mrbill at 3:34 PM on December 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


The EasyStar plane is very light: it weights 24.13 oz = 684 gr without camera.

Pictures of a very customized EasyStar with camera and 2 props.
posted by flif at 5:05 PM on December 26, 2009


Yep. Looks like fun.
posted by Drasher at 5:19 PM on December 26, 2009


ack-ack!
posted by Tube at 6:27 PM on December 26, 2009


Although this already falls squarely into he awesome category, did anybody ever put *two* camera's on the plane to get some depth perception while doing this?
posted by DreamerFi at 1:05 AM on December 27, 2009


this looks like wicked fun. I wished I had a remote-controlled helo like the draganflyer x6 that could carry more payload - I'm thinking of my 7D (ca 820g) with a fairly heavy lens on it, let's say an 85mm f1.2 (ca. 1kg). man, the things I could do with that...

this is the fast track to guantanamo, right?
posted by krautland at 11:14 AM on December 28, 2009


this is the fast track to guantanamo, right?

Yeah, it seems like all the fun stuff is these days, I'm afraid. See like I used to enjoy walking around with high-explosives sewn in crotch of my underwear, or you know, high-er explosives than are already naturally there...heh ..heh..heh..., but now I can't even go down the mall to get some Taco Bell dogs sniffing around your privates and trying to attack you. and bite your nuts off!!

Pfft....life is getting so boring.
posted by Skygazer at 11:02 AM on December 29, 2009


corrrection: without dogs sniffing around your privates
posted by Skygazer at 11:04 AM on December 29, 2009


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