Feather in the KAP

My KAP Feather came in today. Sorry, no pictures and no wild wind reports yet, but they'll be along shortly.

Prior to my ordering the KAP Feather, a discussion came up on the KAP forum about suspension stability vs. pan axle length. Because the KAP Feather puts a fairly large obstruction at the downwind side of the rig, it includes an extra long pan axle so the camera is positioned underneath the obstruction. So I now have a chance to try three configurations at once: Original, Long-Axle, and Long-Axle with Feather.

The ideal way to test this would be to get a 6DOF IMU and a data logger, and fly each of the three configurations under the same wind conditions. Mmmm... Not gonna happen. I can't shell out the $300+ for the IMU, and the only person I know who owns one needs it for their own project (a quadracopter). But I do have the next best thing: a camera.

While developing the 4x5 box camera, Henry Jebe suggested mounting my digital camera somewhere on the rig so I could shoot video during a flight. The videos I've shot from a KAP rig have been pretty wobbly because of all the rig motion, but as Henry pointed out, what better way to measure the wobbliness! Give a nice ground-level pano of the scenery, you should be able to get angular measurements between landmarks, and not only get a good idea of the overall motion of the rig, but be able to turn it into angular rates. Fly each of the three configurations, and you have a good idea of what each one will do.

One encouraging point is that Mike Jones from Jones Airfoil, the designer and manufacturer of the KAP Feather, shoots HD video from his rig. Given my own experience with low-def video, if he's getting enough stability to shoot HD, the Feather will do an admirable job. I'm looking forward to trying it in the field this weekend.

The one question I still have to answer is transport. Right now everything packs down into a backpack, and is quick to set up in the field. The longer axle on the pan axis won't fit into my pack. So chances are I will have to come up with some sort of release system so I can remove the Picavet from the top of the rig, and remove the KAP Feather from the Picavet. Starting to get complicated.

But it really doesn't have to be. I just need to find the right way to work it, and it'll be fine.

So the next question is what to do with the 4x5 rig. I ran the idea of adding stabilization to it past Mike Jones, and it looks like he's got some ideas. Work's been too busy for me to do much with it, but I hope to talk to him in the next week or so and get some direction.

Lots to look forward to.

Tom