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[March 15, 2014]


The local formation group, "Dragon Flight" put together a formation micro clinic today. There was a very respectable amount of attendees - I'd guess about 20 in total. Every type of RV person and Formation Flying rating was present - from builders, to flyers and from FFI wingmen, to lead's to examiners. We spent about 3 hours going over the FFI manual and learning about all of the safety and signaling that goes into formation flight. After the classroom, we headed up into 2-ship formation flights. All students rode with FFI qualified pilots. I lucked out and rode in Gary "Condor" Sobek's RV-6. We flew #2 off of "Chef's" RV-4's lead. It was quite bumpy out today. The winds were gusting to 30 kts on the ground at KFDK. The original plan was for us students to fly our own planes with FFI pilots int he passenger seats after lunch, but because of the intense winds, everyone decided this was not such a great idea.


There was a fair number of RV's at KFDK. I believe 10 in total.






Mark's RV-9A



Chef's RV-4



Mugsy's RV-8


"Popeye's" RV-8


Dan's RV-6




The skies were clear and the visibility was amazing on the short flight back to KDMW.




Since the formation clinic ended early, I had some time to work on the GoPro camera mount. My theory is the base of the GoPro isn't strong enough to hold the camera stable as the vortex of air the propeller generates hits it side to side. I needed to figure out a more secure way to attach the camera to the vertical stabilizer. I came up with the idea over the last week to use a piece of oak cut to the proper angle. 15 degrees was the angle I determined gave the best view.


I used two #8 screws to attach the oak to the vertical stabilizer.



I bought some extra used GoPro camera housings off of Ebay for $10 each including shipping. These cases are usually $40 new, so it was a great deal. The cases were in fantastic shape too! Not real scratches on them.



And what the final mount looks like.


This thing is on really solid. Time to go fly and see if it works any better.


The results are fantastic! I am thrilled with the mount. If I need to be picky, the airplane isn't perfectly centered in the view of the lens, and you can slightly see the vertical stabilizer tip in the lower portion of the view. However, the "Jello" effect is almost non-existent!




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Last Modified: October 5, 2024