daggit
Elite Veteran
Location: Waseca MN
| An R/C cameraship pilot and his camera"person" are in constant close communication during a shoot. The following is a transcript of an actual conversation during a shoot today.
Here's the setup...
Arrived on a location, surveyed for best spot to base operations, set up equipment, did range check, checked to be sure controls are functioning properly. Started up gasser and took off.
Went up about 300 ft. Wife (aka cameraperson) snaps a half a dozen pictures but I notice heli is wagging some (unusual I think).
Here is the following conversation...
Me: " I'm bringing it down!"
cameraperson: "Ok."
I start ascent ... at about 150 ft motor shuts completly off.
cameraperson: "Whatta you doin?!?!"
me:" Crashing!!"
cameraperson: "Why?"
me: "because the motor shut off!"
Intelligent conversation don't you think?
Well, I managed to auto in safely. Not easy with an 18lb + heli! Somewhere on the way down I realized my mistake. I had forgotten to fill the gas tank!! Well, at least I know my clunk line works good, tank was BONE DRY.
Only damage was a short circuited downlink battery pack (it's a pack that gets 12volts out of 4 AA batteries) and stripped pan/tilt servos from the camera tray striking the ground. (cameraperson didn't think to put cam in "landing" position... she thought it was a gonner!)
I filled the tank, detached the camera, flight tested the heli, then put the camera back on and took 'er back up. My camerawoman had to "shoot from the hip" with the downlink not working... but we got some nice pics anyway 
Here's me teasing my wife on the next flight... notice she's not looking at the monitor in the car...she nearly had a heart attack during the "crash"
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