Peter Steele
7 July 2020
Every flight is different and recordable in these days of the easily available action camera. But the question is – what camera to use? How do you mount them safely, record audio and make a video from the footage, all for the cost of one hour in a club aircraft? I’m no expert, but I can certainly tell you which techniques and equipment have worked for me during the 14 years of recording my flying adventures. It can be a confusing subject, so I’ll try and explain as best I can in bite-sized chunks.
The current crop of action cameras boast 4k resolution, which is quite an increase in image quality over the previous standard of 1080, as 4k records 3840 x 2160 pixels (8.29 million pixels). 1080 records 1920 x 1080, 2.07 million pixels, meaning 4k video will have four times the resolution, giving far more detailed video images. But, the question is, do you need it?
For various reasons I don’t use 4k video for my flights. On a one-hour flight my camera will produce a 4k video file of 21 gigabytes (GB) and needs a card that can handle writing six megabytes of data every second. Set the same camera to 1080 resolution and it produces files of 11GB an hour at 50 frames per second or 6.4GB per hour at 25 frames per second. But why does this matter?
Trying to get an average computer to deal with these massive amounts of data is very difficult. An old PC crashed on my first attempt to create a video from two 4K cameras. So unless you’ve got a top-spec machine, stick to 1080. Plus you’ll get more recording time on a camera card and your battery will last longer. A win-win situation.
I bought two GoPro Hero 2s, complete with back screens, on eBay some years ago for £70 each. They have been great – once you get used to the torturous menu system. Newer GoPros do not allow an external microphone to be plugged in without an adapter, plus they use the same socket for power and audio. This means a microphone can be plugged in, or power, but not both, unlike my Hero 2s. I also have a 4K Panasonic HX-A500 bullet camera (more on that bit of kit later) and a Drift Stealth 2, a tiny camera I use for recording motorbike trips.
This is a tricky subject. Mounting any camera in the cockpit needs to be properly considered, plus it must also be done in line with the guidance for your particular aircraft operating regime. It must not be a distraction nor produce blind spots. The CAA’s document, CAP1369 (https://bit.ly/2ZivTsu) should be your first source of information.
Mounting a camera externally is a different matter. As has previously been written in FLYER: “How do you mount an external camera legally? Well… it’s complicated. If you want to mount it legally, it will depend on which particular regime your aircraft comes under. To be safe, you should talk to the LAA, the BMAA or to a licensed engineer. The CAA issued some guidance on the subject a while ago, which is worth reading. Alternatively, some people have suggested that you follow the FAA’s advice and fit it in such a way that is sensible, that won’t get in the way of any controls or moving surfaces and that won’t fall off. This might sound logical, but unless you have an N-reg aircraft it isn’t legal. Before you decide to do something stupid, take a look in the mirror – you’ll be looking at the person responsible for your safety. If it goes wrong you’d better blame whoever was staring back at you from the mirror rather than anyone else.”
I bought a MyPilot Pro Airplane Mount for GoPro cameras after reading a review on the FLYER website (https://bit.ly/31kCBR2). I’ve used it once and had my installation (with extra cable ties and wire locking just to be sure) checked by an aircraft engineer before flying. There are two types available: one with a RAM arm swivel mount allowing the camera to rotate through 360°, and the one I have, which can only face forwards or backwards. Mine sits on the tail tie-down of a PA28 very nicely and I managed to capture a beautiful flight from Fowlmere to overhead Great Yarmouth and back. The mount is still available on Amazon for £46.50, although I found one on eBay for half that price.
Mounting cameras inside the cockpit can be approached in two ways, the ‘pilots’ eye’ or the ‘fixed’ view.
My GoPros came with a head strap, which I used in a Cessna 172, so the camera mount simply sits on your forehead. This works very well with the Cessna with its high, front window, but not well on the Piper Archer III with its vertically narrower window. Because the camera sits a fair bit above your eyeline the high-level switches of the Archer III block the view completely. I did try a £7 cap with an integral GoPro mount but had the same problem. Adding extension brackets lowered the camera so that it sat on the cap’s peak, but this proved too heavy and awkward.
All of which brings me to the amazing Panasonic HX-A500 bullet camera. It’s a small cylindrical camera attached by a lead to a compact box containing the controls, card, battery and screen, which comfortably sits in a pocket. The camera part is velcroed to the side of my headset, using part of a strap mount that came with the camera. The beauty of this is the camera part is so light I don’t notice it, and the screen means I can set up the view before flying then forget about it. They were discontinued a few years ago but I found several for £150 to £180 on eBay. The disadvantage is there is no way to attach a separate microphone, unlike the GoPros… but more on that later, too.
The simplest fixed-mount is a GoPro adhesive camera mount which is stuck to the ceiling of the aircraft. Most aircraft I’ve rented over the past few years have had one of these stuck to the ceiling already. Top tip – if you’re going to fit one yourself, check the view. If there is no screen and you can’t view the camera image on a phone via bluetooth, take a laptop and card reader with you. As the view from this position is good at showing the inside of the aircraft, but not so good at capturing the outside, I add a second camera (the Drift) on a small suction mount, normally above and behind the direct vision window on a PA28, giving a view forward and down.
Using two cameras leads me to the thorny subject of audio. My simple solution is to use a good quality lapel microphone (Audio Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier microphone, £29) wedged inside the ear cup of my headset. I used to tape it into my Bose X headset, but the tape lifts off the headset lining. I plug the audio jack into the socket of my GoPro.
If I’m using the Panasonic or Drift, which don’t have microphone sockets, I plug the mic into a pocket audio recorder, a £40 Sony ICD-PX370. The trick is to synchronise the audio with both video tracks. Assuming I’ve got either two cameras in the cockpit, or one camera with a separate audio recorder, when I switch on the camera(s) and microphone I clap once, twice, then three times. Make sure you tell your passengers what you are doing or they may well think that you’re crazy – and probably run away.
When I add both video and audio tracks to my video editor (more on this in the next section), it’s a simple process to drag one clip so the audio ‘claps’ line up, therefore avoiding the ‘lips out of sync’ problem.
Viewing and editing video clips (especially 4k) can be problematic on some computers. I use the free Video Lan player from www.videolan.org (available for Mac or Windows) to view clips. There’s also the amazing, free Shotcut video editor from www.shotcut.org. I’ve been using it since it appeared in 2011 and it is really excellent. Shotcut may look complicated, but just 30 minutes on YouTube studying any of the video tutorials for beginners makes learning the basics pretty straightforward. I think it’s on a par with paid-for software that I’ve used – yet it’s free!
So there you have it – that’s my system. I find videos very useful, not only for reliving my adventures, but for learning as well. As I mentioned in Lockdown Learnings (FLYER, July 2020), a year ago I flew an aircraft with different avionics with an instructor. I haven’t flown it since, but after reviewing my video, I would be comfortable to fly it again.
Finally, and most importantly, we will all have to ‘hang up our headsets’ one day, so it will be marvellous to have some cracking visual souvenirs of the time when we could – and did – fly the skies…
