My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Mail and other feedback from listeners.

My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Postby MerlinFAC on Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:47 pm

Heya,

Just thought you might get a kick out of my "Oshkosh experience" this year. For most of the show, I've had ALL the live streaming media going, often all at once (quite a feat on my slow computer)... switching between 3 runway webcams, 3 channels of LiveATC going at once, and EAA Radio (couldn't miss UCAP 200 Live, of course!). And of course, reading the various news sources, listening to Podcasts, etc. each day as well. It stinks to not be able to be there, but this is a lot better than nothing!

Just curious, how many other folks are attending EAA "remotely"?

-Mike

oshkosh_2010_mikes_multimediapalooza_960x540.jpg
Mikes Multimediapalooza
oshkosh_2010_mikes_multimediapalooza_960x540.jpg (143.72 KB) Viewed 245 times
MerlinFAC
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:44 am

Re: My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Postby MerlinFAC on Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:09 pm

Another amusing sight... watching the Runway 9-27 cam on Thursday evening right after the airport closed, guess what floated by?

Sorry for the poor quality, WMP won't capture streaming images so I had to pull out the cellphone...
Attachments
screencap_2010-07-29_cluster_balloon_01_cropped.jpg
Mr. Trappe's cluster balloon, heading right for Lake Winnebago!
screencap_2010-07-29_cluster_balloon_01_cropped.jpg (24.96 KB) Viewed 224 times
MerlinFAC
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:44 am

Re: My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Postby jackhodgson on Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:11 pm

some of us have been wondering if anyone captured the video off of this runway cam at the time of the premier jet crash a couple nights ago.

???

// Jack
User avatar
jackhodgson
Site Admin
 
Posts: 645
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:07 pm
Location: Dover, NH / Sanford Muni Airport (SFM)

Re: My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Postby MerlinFAC on Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:15 am

some of us have been wondering if anyone captured the video off of this runway cam at the time of the premier jet crash a couple nights ago.

???


I didn't. I looked as soon as I heard about it, but I think the Runway 18-36 cam was actually looking at a wall by then. It's surprising that it seems that nobody caught a video of the actual crash, only still pics. There was a video from a Spanish-speaking guy made RIGHT after the crash that was posted on YouTube, showing the engines running, the crash crews arriving, and the occupants exiting the plane, but I can't find it now... virtually everything posted there now about the incident is really just from spammers.

I'm not sure how much you could have seen on the 18-36 webcam anyway. It was difficult to see much detail near the runway due to the wide-angle and low-resolution settings used. The 9-27 cam was better in that regard. It seemed that the cams had an uncanny knack for panning away right when you were looking at something interesting, or not moving when you knew something worth seeing was at the other position! There were some shaking issues on the 18-36 cam, apparently it's mounted on a wobbly mast?

Another issue I've found is that the only way I currently know of to capture video from Windows Media Player is to take a photo of the screen (I haven't researched computer-based methods to do this, though). I even had to Photoshop a cellphone pic into my first screen capture above to show what I was watching.

What I would love to see next time would be more cams, and a way to watch multiple cams simultaneously. I'd like two cams pointed towards both ends of each active runway, and maybe one in the middle (show center) and have the images (preferably) either be automatically combined into one really wide image, or at the least, have the whole runway be able to be viewed at once.

I saw the V-22 coming in today, and thought of you guys :)
MerlinFAC
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:44 am

Re: My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Postby MerlinFAC on Sat Jul 31, 2010 9:34 pm

I did just watch the Sikorsky S-38 landing gear collapse on the 18-36 webcam. It really wasn't much to see... little more than a fuzzy line where the wing was, at a less-than-level angle to the runway... only reason I knew what happened was seeing it fly by a couple times right before. They had it back on the gear within 5 minutes and it taxied in under it's own power shortly thereafter, so hopefully it didn't do any real damage.
MerlinFAC
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:44 am

Re: My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Postby TheChartLady on Sat Aug 07, 2010 10:05 pm

MerlinFAC wrote:Another amusing sight... watching the Runway 9-27 cam on Thursday evening right after the airport closed, guess what floated by?

Sorry for the poor quality, WMP won't capture streaming images so I had to pull out the cellphone...


Jonathan Trappe has been doing cluster balloon flights from the open field next to my flying club. He did his first overnight flight in April this year.
Shortly after he took off, I got a phone call from a Raleigh NC TV station (it was my turn to "man" the front desk)

Report -- "A lady just called from near the Sanford airport (TTA) and said that a guy just took off under a clump of balloons. There's no way that could be correct, right?"
Me -- No, she was not on something, that is correct.

http://clusterballoon.com/SpiritCluster.asp

Jonathan R. Trappe is a credit to General Aviation. So he likes unconventional air vehicles... Aren't we all a *bit* unconventional?

I'm glad Jack finally saw the light. Get Jonathan on the Podcast. You'd *love* to talk to him. I can provide a phone number if you need it.

Jan
TheChartLady
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:35 am

Re: My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Postby PilotBillFromTexas on Sun Aug 15, 2010 5:49 pm

He would be an awesome podcast guest. I'd like to hear what is going through is mind!

To be honest, when I see a guy strapped to a bunch of party balloons, the word "cluster" comes to mind but probably not in the same context as Jonathan.
If it's stupid but it works then it ain't stupid.

States I have flown in:

Image
User avatar
PilotBillFromTexas
 
Posts: 739
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:10 pm
Location: KGPM Grand Prairie, Texas

Re: My UAV Experience (Unusual Airshow Viewing)

Postby champguy on Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:37 pm

I wand my "clusters" to be in a comfortable chair in a comittee room not in a lawn chair out over Lake Michigan.
We may be slow, but we get there.

Image
User avatar
champguy
 
Posts: 807
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2008 2:37 am
Location: Florence, (Coastal) Oregon


Return to Listener Mail

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Yahoo [Bot] and 1 guest