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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Epic Takes Flight

W

Wendell Adkins

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Got the opportunity to fly the Epic M on one of our remotely piloted helicopters last weekend for an independent film. Wasn't really sure how happy the camera would be on the heli but it worked out really well with only a couple of hours of engineering before test flights. Really looking forward the seeing the final cut.

Cheers!
 
regarding to what the owner
of the octocopter said, yes!
I'm also very exaited about
it and hope to test it the
coming weeks.
he said, he will use new and
bigger motors and than it
should be possible, which
lens to use and so on we have
to check of course!
He said with the new motors
the total weight can be
up to 25 kg!!!
 
Our general rule of thumb is to have enough reserve power/lift available to carry another 75% of the camera payload to allow for safe maneuvering. We never fly unless we can meet this requirement. The primary problem with Octocopters and carrying such heavy/expensive payloads, is the inability to perform an autorotation (glide down safely without power). Should the heavy load over tax the power system and a shutdown occurred, the end result would be little different than tossing the whole enchilada off a building.

We just finished about a dozen flights with the Epic M for the new film "Liberal Arts" (2012 release) and the large industrial helicopter flew all weekend without issue.
 

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Am continually astonished at what you RC guys are doing with these rigs. Just saw some Blue Whale footage shot from an RC, up close and personal, as never seen before, absolutely no other way to get the shot. Even from a Cineflex rig, the noise and rotor wash of the heli would have chased the whale away.

From a cost/quality point of view, this is huge stuff. Would also love to see some of the footage.
 
That is quite a payload! A cooke and an Epic!!
 
Thanks for the kind comments. Unfortunately this rig isn't directly available as a single unit as it is a marriage of dozens of different individual systems, some of which can be purchased, others which were custom built. It's development represents every moment I could manage to spare over the last 5 years. Just having the equipment is a very small piece of the puzzle as perhaps the most difficult part is having the experience to build, test, maintain and fly the rig with some efficacy without breaking it.
 
Wendell, I'd appreciate it if you could point me to some web sites where I could get some information on getting started with RC helicopters... I'd love to experiment and build a rig someday!
 
Jean,

Try helifreak.com. It's a huge long road and a steep and expensive learning curve. Ask me how I know ;-) I abandonned helicopters and am now quite happy with multicopters. I am flying a multicopter in an x8 cnfiguration with a two axis stabilized head. I fly a t2i. The nice hing about multicopters, is that there are a lot fewer moving parts, and the nature of an y6 or an x8 allow for complete failure of a motor without batting an eye.

If you are going to learn to fly, a multicopter is way more forgiving than a helicopter. Helicopters are really violent and killy.

Nick
 
Would love to see what you shot. I just spoke with a friend yesterday who is a pilot anf is willing to connect me with some roto pilots in hopes of getting some aerials. Would love to hear of tips you might also have?!
 
Jean,

Multicopters are a pretty good option to learn to fly. For higher end work they don't do as well in wind as a large single rotor helicopter like we use. We regularly fly in winds up to 25mph and can still provide something usable. A flight simulator is a good place to start also. A popular one is - http://www.realflight.com/


Joshua,

I have tried to put together some hopefully useful information in my blog - http://aerial-video.blogspot.com/

We travel coast to coast doing this type of work. We spent a very hot week in Texas shooting for the new BBC series "Hairy Bikers" recently so if you have any specific projects coming up please give us a call.
 
If you cannot make the pilgrimage to Park City, Utah in January for the Sundance Film Festival you can also see this film as a part of Sundance Film Festival USA. 'Liberal Arts' will also premiere at the Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco on 1/26/12 at 7:30 pm. If you're in the SF area come watch with us. Get your tickets in advance though. It worked out that we were going to be filming in SF most of the month of January and will be able to catch it there. Most of the film was shot on the Alexa with our close range aerials shot on Epic.

http://www.sundance.org/press-cente...lms-for-sundance-film-festival-usa-on-jan.-2/
 
Wow. That looks way too complex for my ADD brain. I have enough to handle sitting INSIDE the aircraft.
 
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