Martin's flying stuff

[MartinCowley]

Rhossili 2009-10-10

A great day's flying in mostly strong conditions - brilliant sunshine all day. Got loads of video footage of a number of fliers launching, landing and playing in the smooth sea air. Met Dan Sidoli and let him have a go on my acro wing, then got bits of footage of him soaring the top landing area on his Bobcat, while tiny parachutes of various colours had sled rides to the beach (most of them making it all the way down).

Was disappointed that Stevie G was working, but chuffed when he finally turned up to entertain everyone with SATs and huge, bouncy wingovers, some of which will be on the forthcoming video. Taking a leaf out of Stevie's book, I tried a little more outside brake to make my own wingovers more bouncy and less flat - great fun. Reasonable height gains at times meant I could do several SAT rotations and still pull out higher than the top launch.

There were many comical moments, mostly centred around pilots getting intimate with gorse bushes. The bidding for each clip starts at £250 (I have to make a living somehow).

Top marks to Nasher for helping to get so many pilots airborne (and sometimes just back on their feet).

Nice to finally meet Nick Roberts in the pub after - shame I have such a long drive, as I could have settled in for the evening otherwise. I'm gradually putting faces to names I know from this website.

Loving Rhossili.

And here is the video. It drags on a bit as I didn't want to leave anybody out (some of you won't thank me for that) but there is some great footage of Stevie G in the second half.

Free-flying at Rhossili 2009-10-10

[MartinCowley]

Another video of Rhossili last Friday, this time from Tim Carr:

A Rhosilli Acro Day

[MartinCowley]

Some footage of last Friday. Vimeo has squashed it to 4:3 again, so most of the wings look like parachutes, but the original WMV file is downloadable for a week in full HD (200MB though).

Paragliding at Rhossili 2009-09-25

[MartinCowley]

Cheers Stevie! My camcorder is a Sony HCR-HC3. I've had it about 2.5 years now, so there's better kit available, but it suits me ('cos I've already paid for it). I'll have to get my arse in gear next time and we'll get some better footage. Everywhere I went yesterday there was something to point the camera at - so may mates, so little time. That kestrel was beautiful too - that's partly why I couldn't keep up with you most of the time. While you were gaining height, I was wandering off to catch other people doing wingovers and SATs. Must get myself sorted with a radio and headset too.

[Stevie G]

Good to catch up with you Martin and your mates... hopefully you all will be down again to catch an epic day and we can do some more footage too...I'm happy to fly close and I must get some of you doing your stuff? what was the camera you use again? let me know when you think its gonna be real good your way, it would be nice to try some new sites.... luv your wing man... awesome... do you think the Morpheus is a comp wing too?.. you got me going now....
be safe and keep up your blog...your movies are great... catch you again soon as...

the guy on the blue and white hook is our Chris Williams

[MartinCowley]

Rhossili 2009-09-25 - not an epic day for The Shrine, but good fun with good people. Great to meet up with Stevie G and Nasher at last. Good to hear that Nasher got to fly after spending most of the afternoon looking after everyone else.

Due to technical difficulties, some potentially good video footage wasn't usable (or didn't get recorded in the first place), but some good sequences survived my ineptitude and will make it onto Vimeo (yes, I know that's not how you spell 'video'). For the sake of titleing (that looks wrong, but titling looks worse) could anyone identify the following pilots by their wings. If you let me know soon enough, you/they could be (in)famous.

Blue/white/black Niviuk (Hook maybe?)
Orange/white/blue Gin (low end, I think)
Yellow/red Sky Atis (good acro pilot)

Unfortunately I lost what could have been the greatest ever video footage of a wingover in South West Wales in September. Stevie had agreed to let me hover close by while he went into various manoeuvres and close in as he descended. At one point he did a wingover beneath me and slightly to my right and as I looked down I saw Stevie's feet above Stevie harness above Stevie's wing - fantastic, it would have been.

On the plus side, I did get a great sequence of Stevie SATing my acro wing silhouetted against the low evening sun, apparently losing no height apart from on entry and exit. No doubt something to do with his being higher than me and me closing on him at near trim speed.

Big thanks to Paul J for the lift - 2.5 hours plus each way from my place, and he had another 40 minutes on top of that.

Well done to Peggy for getting back in the saddle, though a proper paragliding harness might be preferable.

[MartinCowley]

That looks like a superb camera Steve. Amazingly small and light and with HD and laser alignment! Straight on my Xmas list.

[Steve Watkins]

I've always thought of a normal camcorder Martin but it puts me off with the fiddling.

I have been looking at this : http://www.vholdr.com/

Seems to be good quality and not much fiddling when setup, just a flick of the switch on top.

[MartinCowley]

I use Windows Movie Maker - it's pretty basic, but I couldn't get Premiere Elements 3.0 stable under Vista (though it's probably got better in the four versions since then).

Some of the footage in the first vid (e.g. two superimposed views of a helico) were done in Premiere Elements some time ago - I just imported the finished clip into Movie Maker. Not sure if MM can do that superimposition - its effects are much less flexible than Elements'.

[Stevie G]

good stuff Martin...keep it up....might have to call over and try some of your favourite flying spots.... footage is great....what editing software are you using?...Stevie G

[MartinCowley]

Thanks Guys.

I have heard tell of sea thermals at Bossington (or North Hill, just around the corner). Reech has been there in search of such a phenomenon, but chose not to fly due to the offshore breeze.

The setup for the above footage was a Sony HDR-HC3 HDV 1080i/miniDV camcorder (yes, I had to look that up!) mounted on a camera shoe screwed and glued to the top of my old Kiwi Pickup helmet and with a wide angle lens attachment to reduce the effect of camera shake. I've had this camcorder a couple of years or more and I'm sure there are better ones out there now, but I still get quite good quality footage from it - very nice mounted on a tripod and without the wide angle lens, which is old and scratched and blurs the edges.

The trickiest part is getting the opportunity to film so close and to stay watching the subject for a reasonable time, since flying usually requires so much looking around for other fliers. On this day, only four of us were at a site we know very well, Helen made sure she remained well clear of the other two pilots and was happy for me to follow her closely. Even so, it takes a conscious effort to hold the target in view for so long and to look around by moving your eyes rather than your head. I think a better arrangement would be a tandem, with the passenger doing the filming (possibly even with some sort of steadycam).

A cheaper and easier option is the GoPro Hero that Reech uses for his inflight footage. It is also waterproof - great for SIV courses!

Of course, the head mounted Hero camera and the brightly coloured flying suit make Reech look like the unwanted product of a scary liaison between a pirate and a teletubby.

[Steve Watkins]

I agree Nick, excellent footage

Martin - what setup do you use for filming and how is it mounted etc?
I have tried with  a sony sport cam but the battery doesn't like the cold.

[Nick Roberts]

Nice footage Martin!

A nice looking coastal site too - Do you get sea thermals there in Autumn?

[MartinCowley]

In terms of image quality, this is much better than the previous video. It's my partner, Helen, flying at Bossington:

Helen at Bossington

On a very clear day, I guess you could see Rhossili from there, not to mention the beautiful Port Talbot

[MartinCowley]

Thanks Steve. Unfortunately the upload process squashed the aspect ratio - something to do with mixing HD and SD I suppose, though  the original file plays fine.

Ah, flying...

It's not that I mind being unemployed, but why can't I be unemployed in Annecy or the Dune?