WRC Testing

[miniwintz]

very nice video indeed!

as for the cost, professional turnkey solutions are in excess of 15.000 eur (which is still relatively cheap compared to full-scale helis, but not quite as fast-going) but amateur kits can be built for no more than 400 eur.

Camera payload and stabilization (via advanced gimbals) are the biggest challenges and designing a drone capable of following a WRC car at 200 km/h would require really large structures, and electrical power storage is still difficult, so runtimes are usually low (10-15 min).

The hobbyist term is "multicopter", you can read a lot on forums such as rcgroups, it's really interesting.

[danon]

have no cost idea, but what I noticed watching the drone vid is that the pilot/driver needs a talent and skills of a world rally champ to fly it and shoot at the same time being not too shaky creating the impression as if watching an Oscar movie

a new world drone championship is about to rise

but I doubt it, that this particular drone pilot will make it the first champ

[miniwintz]

Those crafts are more often than not stabilized via computer algorithms (hence they are called "drones" and not helicopters), so the piloting part can be mastered quite easily. Motors have plenty of thrust so in the end it's all about positioning (almost no inertia pushing you in the trees, it's all corrected by the onboard computer).

Learning and piloting an helicopter such as the R22 (entry level helicopter widely used for aerial footage) on the other hand is a whole other story. Hundreds of hours of formation (hence expensive pilots), costly fuel expenditures, costly insurances, costly transport of the heli to the site...

I can really see drones becoming an important part of aerial photography in the near future, and seeing such rally coverage is clearly not science fiction. We're definitely going to see more and more of them, at least from amateurs/semi professionals.

PS: camera shooting is often done by a separate operator than the pilot of the aircraft himself. That way both can fully focus on their task to produce the best possible result.

[Mirek]

Once Tommeke told me that the guy flying for Eurosport in IRC/ERC is piloting and taking videos alone. He told me they started as two person but later the pilot found it better when he does all himself.

About drones... I can see a problem with the safety or possible damages if there are more drones or if they are sent on long distances. As You said piloting a simple drone is no rocket science but still it's quite a reasonable mass moving in a public space where it can meet plenty of other objects both still and moving. There is a reason why there are strict rules for flying airplanes or helicopters. On the other hand the drone can be flown by anybody.

[miniwintz]

I'm not too much of a fan of Eurosport's helicopter work to be honest, I prefer the onboards My favourite helicopter shot would be this one from 1:17 onwards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WgVmIF7uJ8

On a more serious note, concerns about safety are very important indeed. Amateurs flying those things around cars going really fast and spectators standing very close could be very dangerous and should be avoided. AFAIK regulations exist (it's illegal to fly - yet to film - on public terrain without specific authorization, at least in France), and should be enforced if the problem arises.

On the other hand if a professional team commisionned by the WRC does it, I cant see any more problems than with real helicopters. Far lesser costs and much more flexibility because of the small size. With the correct regulation and safety measures it could very well be a new way of filming WRC IMO.

[Mirek]

I agree with You. It's definitely a good thing but must be used rationally.

[Franky]

i wonder which is the cost of a drone?

Depends a lot on the components and which camera is it capable of flying. But they start from a few thousand Euros I believe. A top class drone with a Gopro is somewhere 4500-5000 Euros. But they don't fly very long with one charge. Not sure but it might be about 15 minutes of flight time.

At the moment the drones have a pretty limited use for rallying because they can't fly fast enough. Though in Monte Carlo or somewhere in the hills with lots of hairpins it can produce remarkable images.

[dimviii]

i would like to see jumps in Finland via drone.In the correct height for drone,we could see the car before and after the jump.

[miniwintz]

top-dollar drones : http://www.service-drone.com/en-gb/shop/uav
37 grand for cinema-camera carrying, most advanced ones

[Slipzen]

Pontus Tidemand Pre-Test Mountain Rally. The test was made in northen part of the Rally Sweden area. Looks good both from speed and weather perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5bIFr9ORPA