Passenger on my AP Heli

[dreslism]

I just got a replacement motor last night for one that went poof.

Went out for a flight test today to check everything out. Everything checked out Ok, so I strapped the mount on and took it up for a few picts.

My tilt is on a continuous turn servo and when I fly solo, that tilt is controlled via a slider. If I don't have the slider trimmed right, or I bump it, guess what the camera does. It slowly rotates up or down in the direction I bumped the slider.

Guess what I did right after takeoff? Bumped the tilt up. I then went up to about 200 feet and took a few minutes of pictures. Upon coming down I could see my camera rotated all the way up and almost backwards shooting the bottom of my heli.

Upon reviewing the images after landing, I noticed something in the pictures.

I turned 48 consecutive images into a .mov and let them play. Once the camera rotates all the way up, keep your eye on the top center of the picture.

http://greatlakesap.com/recent/passenger/passenger.mov


I had a passenger. These images were taken about 200 feet up!

[dreslism]

Here is what happened. I was in a grassy field getting ready to fly.

kneeling down by the heli plugging in the batteries.

I felt something on my ear. I swiped at my ear and I see this thing fall and land on my Tx.

It's a "walking stick".

I try to pick it up off my Tx and it won't come as it appears to have sticky hands and feet and is stuck real good on my Tx.

I flick it and it flies off my Tx and towards the grass.

I look for it but can't see it. I remember thinking man that thing is camoflauged good.
It must have landed on my camera mount and that is why I could not see it in the grass.

So this thing went for a ride about 200 feet up today.

[Tonystott]

Scott, I trust you are aware that you need a commercial pilot's licence to carry passengers!

[MarkWebber]

I hope you charged airfare or we'll all be dealing with 'customers' want a free ride. :wink:

[dreslism]

Actually it was all part of my testing out my new I can fly forever feature.

There is a small treadmill on there he was suppose to stay on, its hooked up to a generator to recharge the batteries as I fly.

[flyinfool]

I thought you only need a commercial licence if it was a paying passenger.
I think this one just wanted to get high.

[MLaBoyteaux]

He needs a set of googles and a scarf!

[AeroMattics]

Originally Posted by dreslism

Actually it was all part of my testing out my new I can fly forever feature.

There is a small treadmill on there he was suppose to stay on, its hooked up to a generator to recharge the batteries as I fly.

You might want to find a creature without sticky feet for that to work better! :wink:

Matt