REFLECTOR: GoPro mounted on the nose gear

[Richard J. Gentil]

I was worried about the broken camera parts jamming the nose gear and grinding the nose off on landing. 

Richard

Sent from my iPhone 4 Classic

On Sep 16, 2012, at 10:29 AM, Dave T Nelson <dtnelson at us.ibm.com> wrote:

> Geoff, you are an extremely lucky man... What would have happened if that camera had gone through your prop?  
> 
> NEVER have anything on your airplane that isn't completely safety'd
> ALWAYS think about anything and everything on your airplane as something that's trying to come loose.... every part of that airplane and (certainly) everything in your engine compartment... consider every part of that airplane as doing everything it can to shake itself off and go through the prop... and make sure it can't.
> 
> Watching your video, I got chills looking at the hill and trees on the approach end of your runway 33 and thinking about what could have happened.  You had an expensive event - the loss of your camera - it could have been so much worse.
> 
> Safety first!
> 
> Sorry if this sounds too preachy... after 20+ years of flying canard pushers, we have lost pilots and friends over less. 
> 
> Dave
> 
> To:
> Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
> Subject:
> REFLECTOR: Expensive (but cool) video
> Guys,
> 
> How cool would it be to strap a gopro video camera to my nose gear so it retracts/deploys with the gear, right?  I found a spot to mount it and made it a secure as possible.  After mounting it, I put the plane up on jacks and exercised the gear - yep, still retracts/deploys fine.  Time to try it.  I have the "wifi backpack" for my gopro, so I can control it from the cockpit (turn it on/off, start/stop recording).  Once I got clearance to take off, I started recording.  Did a  couple takeoffs and landings, flew around for a half hour or so, then headed back to the hangar.  Once I got out, I noticed that while the camera case was still nicely attached to the nose gear, the camera case had opened up, and there was no camera inside it.  Apparently one of my landings wasn't smooth enough and it jarred the case open.  I called airport operations (ORH is class D) and told them to do a runway sweep.  A few minutes later, one of the airport ops guys came by my hanger with the camera in several pieces.
> 
> You can see how I had it mounted here. 
> http://thegerhardts.com/velocity/?p=573
> 
> Here's the video I was able to retrieve from the SD card.  You can see where the camera case popped open and the camera is just jiggling loose inside.  On the next landing, the case must have opened up all the way and the camera popped out.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE78J4ahlJ4 
> 
> I love the whoosh sound the camera made when the nose gear dropped down. 
> 
> So, if you use a gopro - probably best to put a zip-tie around the case to make sure it stays closed - particularly if you mount it in a high-vibration place.  I've never had a problem with a gopro mount coming loose.
> 
> I sent the video to gopro's support folks - they gave me 20% off a new camera - better than a kick in the teeth.
> 
> Geoff
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