The flight of the Hexacopter. A new look at the Brindabellas.

Deref said :

If you mute the horrible soundtrack it’s an awesome video.

Jeez, I’m no fan of electronic ambient style music, but I actually thought that was pretty good. It really seemed to add a serious tone to the beautiful imagery.

So props for the music from chez LSWCHP, and big props for the awesome footage and sweet tech.

Kim F – yes, it is Gibraltar Falls.

These aircraft can be set up for a reasonable price. To get something basic you would be up for no more than $500 to get everything you need. If you already have some RC gear you could do it for less than $300. like many other hobbies its the initial costs that hurt but once you’re rolling its not too bad.

If anyone wants more info please feel free to contact me via apaustralia1@gmail.com

I wonder how much these cost? And where do you buy them? Thanks.

JessP said :

Great pictures but the whole hexacopter thing makes me nervous. Dangerous looking. Sorry.

wait what? It has plastic rotors, a bicycle, a vacuum, or even a pedestal fan is more dangerous

JessP said :

Great pictures but the whole hexacopter thing makes me nervous. Dangerous looking. Sorry.

I’m almost lost for words. I’m betting you travel in a car, occasionally drink alcohol and maybe have smoked before.

Is that Gibraltar Falls in the video ?

Great pictures but the whole hexacopter thing makes me nervous. Dangerous looking. Sorry.

great video. Just a touch of the beauty of our surrounding region. Well done.

Absolutely amazing stuff mate, loving it (including the music).

If this is the sought of stuff us civvies get to play with imagine what the boys/gals in the militaries of the world have at their hands. I’m assuming that you pretty much have to maintain LOS on the unit to avoid any problems? I wonder if people are/have figured out ways to remotely pilot the unit beyond LOS?

However I can see the potential privacy issues resulting if people start to use these things in ways they shouldn’t.

Enjoyable! (I turned the sound off but)

Thanks for all the positive feedback – it’s really appreciated and motivates me to make more clips.

In an attempt to efficiently answer all of the questions;

– Rolling shutter (jello) – always a problem with this type of thing. I did seem to suffer from it when flying around the falls because it was extremely turbulent and windy. You can see later on it wasn’t a problem. I also haven’t fine tuned some of the settings as that was the first time the hex has been in the air. Once I’ve done some more testing I will swap out the go-pro for my SLR on a stabilised mount – this will improve the video quality out of sight.

– Picture of this hex can be found here: http://www.multiwiicopter.com – otherwise PM me your email address and ill send one to you.

– Soundtrack – yeah it sucks but due to music is so personal i can’t cater for everyone’s likes and secondly I need to use license free music so it doesn’t get blocked by vimeo / youtube.

– utilisation – these things are incredible! the possibilities are endless! The only challenge is keeping the equipment safe and minimising other risks. 60 minutes has started using hexacopters / octocopters for their shoots. Stay tuned to my vimeo page to see more. Just need some more interesting places to fly around.

Thanks again for the positive comments!

Cheers,

John.

It’s actually already being done. Quite a few even more serious octacopters have been lugging full frame 1080p DSLR’s over surfing competitions, swimsuit shoots and incidental oportunities in various hotspots in the middle east (Although you might not find them on youtube just yet). They’re being flown with increasingly impressive autonomous software and when dynamically controlled, can accomplish interesting manouvers like flying through small gaps sideways. Multi bladed helicopters are one of the forefronts of multi use cheap, effective remote control platforms. They’re much more efficient for inspections of things like high voltage wiring than 5 guys operating a lift truck. I can’t wait to see what else people put them to. They’ll only get cheaper and better..

I’ve always thought that the typical helicopter flyover shots were a bit rough in documentaries.

Once the documentary producers around the world get wind of Hexacopter we are going to get some excellent documentaries with great flyovers for minimum budget.

Deref: Here here

If you mute the horrible soundtrack it’s an awesome video.

trevar said :

I want a picture of the hexacopter!

Try http://www.hexacopter.com

I want a picture of the hexacopter!

Thanks. I have quite a few different cameras & lenses. For this video I used the following;

1. Canon 600D with a EF 50mm f1.4 USM lens.
2. Go-Pro hero 1080P.
3. Sony PM5K (mainly as a backup)

Nice.

Looks like a Go Pro HD.
Nice work AP_Oz.
When technology eliminates the rolling shutter effect, they’ll be outstanding. Keep it up! (Specially when flying over roads)

nexus6 said :

very cool, what sort of camera do you use?

That looks like a GoPro Hero HD if I’m not mistaken.

right i should have watched the end titles

very cool, what sort of camera do you use?

basketcase said :

Brilliant, but I have trouble getting my head round the “775 kva” motors, that’s like 600hp

Anyway, it flies, love it

Sorry that’s a typo – it should ready 775kv which is an indication of RPM per volt.

Brilliant, but I have trouble getting my head round the “775 kva” motors, that’s like 600hp

Anyway, it flies, love it

Damn – I so badly want one of those things!

Brilliant video!

🙂