How much $$ would it cost to build a cam plane?

Debi -

Hello and welcome to the Clark County Barnstormers web page! We are a small club that flies off of a private grass runway a few minutes outside of Winchester. If you would like to stop out one weekend when we're flying, you are more than welcome to coordinate with me via email at dcg_aerialphotos@hotmail.com. Lots of different types of planes, and a couple of the members have planes that carry either video or still cameras.

Now, to get on to your question - Bob has mentioned the EZStar, and it is probably the most common plane to toss a camera into. It is very simple to fly and can payload quite a bit of weight at the same time. With the motor and prop in the rear, the front cockpit has good space to rubber band a camera. You can check prices of the EZStar at www.hobby-lobby.com, as there are a couple of different options for how complete it is purchased (we can help you with decisions here as well).

As far as a camera goes, most people start out using a relatively light (4-6oz) *old* digital camera laying around the house. If you don't have one, you can ebay a two-three year old tech camera (like a 5 megapixel instead of today's 10+) for relatively little money (less than $100 for sure). A small servo is either glued/velcroed/rubber banded onto the camera in order to press the shutter button by using a switch/spare channel on the transmitter radio.

Once you learn how the plane acts with a dead weight that equals the camera's weight, then you put the camera in. After you feel "crash proof" with the older camera, then you can start thinking about investing in a more expensive camera. I fly a Pentax Optio S5i (old, 5mpx, cheap) as well as a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 (about a $400 cam, brand new on the market). I also have some cheaper Aiptek Go-HD type cameras that can do HD video recording for about $100 each, but has poor still quality. Least money for new - you can find "spy cams" and similar items blister packed at Walmart, Target, etc in electronics. These can be had for less than $20, are very light, but have pretty much the worst picture quality/resolution. This is how I started out, and it teased me enough (and let me bang it around and work out the bugs) until I bought the Optio S5i.

So I'd start asking around the family/friends if they have a digi cam they have updated with a newer one, that they don't mind giving/selling to you. This would be my first move.

As far as the plane goes, you can come out to the field and fly my EZStar on what we call a "Buddy Box" where we both have radios connected with a cable, and you can be given control once up in the air. I am the club president and do this often for new members and interested spectators.

This Saturday (May 9) we are doing this for a small group of local boy scouts at the field. Please consider coming out (we'll be there from 10am until well into the afternoon, sometimes dark). Directions can be found on this web site, or you may email me as well to clear up any confusion.

Thank you again for finding our local flying club's webpage and participating in this forum - we'd love to hear from you again!

David Giles

Edited by Dave - 06 May 2009 at 3:16pm