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GoPro is having a $100 off sale right now if you turn in any old digital camera that had an original retail price >$100.  As a result, my first GoPro is on its way.  With the countless mounting options available, I'm curious what the MS crowd has found as their favorites.  Please share what has worked well for you and any lessons learned from things that perhaps didn't go so well.  Thanks for all your input.  This is a great group that I continue to learn from every time I sign on.

 

Blue skies and tail winds (not that kind!)

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GoPro is having a $100 off sale right now if you turn in any old digital camera that had an original retail price >$100.  As a result, my first GoPro is on its way.  With the countless mounting options available, I'm curious what the MS crowd has found as their favorites.  Please share what has worked well for you and any lessons learned from things that perhaps didn't go so well.  Thanks for all your input.  This is a great group that I continue to learn from every time I sign on.
 
Blue skies and tail winds (not that kind!)


Think it depends on what kind of recording you will be doing. I have one GoPro mount on the overhead panel between the seats. That gives a decent full panel shot.

A second GoPro on the windscreen with the appropriate filter would be a nice frontal view.

I haven’t mounted anything outside. I’m too much of a Cheap Bast$&d to withstand a loss of a GoPro.


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My go to is my CB mount.  It's a 1/4-20 eye bolt with 3 fender washers and another 1/4-20 bolt with wing nut.  You sandwich one of your tie down points and the eye bolt between washers and then put the both through and secure with the wing nut.  Then you have a 1/4-20 mounting bolt to attach your camera.  You'll also want another 1/4-20 nut to let you secure the camera in the direction you point it.  This is how I filmed this video using my contour roam 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuvpY-EKxjk

 

mount1.jpg

mount2.jpg

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like @bob865, I like the tiedown ring mounting option. I also like the behind the front seats view. Here's samples of both of them. You'll see the tie-down one talks about "success." I tried the eyebolt/wingnut method but never got it tight enough. You can see that if you look at some of the other videos in that series. Worked fine in a Cherokee, but at Mooney speeds, it worked its way around so the camera ended up pointing to the ground. The lever clamp made all the difference. Rock solid, even at Ovation speeds.This was a DIY - you can see a closeup at the end of the video - but there's a commercial version, almost identical, at https://mypilotpro.com/

Behind the seats:

Tiedown Success!

 

 

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I've mounted GoPros all over my airplane both inside and out. The truth is the sticky mounts or "helmet" mounts are all you need to mount a GoPro on the outside of the plane. I've mounted them in about every position you can imagine and have never had one come off. The original GoPro camera was designed to be mounted on a race car. And so the mounts are plenty strong. 

My favorite locations, after trying all of them, is high on the side of the vertical stab and out on the tip of the horizontal stab. Out on the wing tip looking back at the airplane is also good. I also really like the mount on the tail as well. But my airplane is blowing too much oil and quickly fogs the lens under the tail.

It's also very cool to see the gear retract and extend with a camera under the tail.

One thing to note is that the video always looks best when a piece of the airplane is in the frame. You need something static to anchor the frame.

Nuts and bolts clamps are good for tie down rings, but don't be afraid of the sticky mounts. I usually try to stick them close to a rivet line just to reduce flexing. I also try to keep the mount short to keep the camera close to the surface again to reduce vibration. Just clean the surface and stick them on. They can be quickly and easily removed with a piece of dental floss or fishing line. A little heat makes it come off even easier. It will not mar the paint or affect the plane in anyway.

If you look in the video forum you can find my video from Burning Man shot from the mount on the vertical stab.

IMG_0080.jpg

IMG_0407.jpg

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45 minutes ago, midlifeflyer said:

like @bob865, I like the tiedown ring mounting option. I also like the behind the front seats view. Here's samples of both of them. You'll see the tie-down one talks about "success." I tried the eyebolt/wingnut method but never got it tight enough. You can see that if you look at some of the other videos in that series. Worked fine in a Cherokee, but at Mooney speeds, it worked its way around so the camera ended up pointing to the ground. The lever clamp made all the difference. Rock solid, even at Ovation speeds.This was a DIY - you can see a closeup at the end of the video - but there's a commercial version, almost identical, at https://mypilotpro.com/

Behind the seats:

Tiedown Success!

 

Hey, I couldn't find the closeup of the mount you were referring to.  In fact, both videos seem to have the camera ABOVE the wing rather than below??

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14 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

My favorite locations, after trying all of them, is high on the side of the vertical stab and out on the tip of the horizontal stab. Out on the wing tip looking back at the airplane is also good. I also really like the mount on the tail as well. But my airplane is blowing too much oil and quickly fogs the lens under the tail.

Yeah, I wouldn't have thought about mounting it on the stabilizers.  It just seems there a possibility of the turbulence from the camera hitting the control surfaces and doing something unpredictable (like causing flutter below Vne)?

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14 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

Yeah, I wouldn't have thought about mounting it on the stabilizers.  It just seems there a possibility of the turbulence from the camera hitting the control surfaces and doing something unpredictable (like causing flutter below Vne)?

I think the camera is small enough that it doesn't have any effect. I've mounted GoPro's in this location on two different Mooneys, a C and a K and never had an issue. While flying, there isn't any way to know the camera is there.

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5 hours ago, Marauder said:

 


Think it depends on what kind of recording you will be doing. I have one GoPro mount on the overhead panel between the seats. That gives a decent full panel shot.

A second GoPro on the windscreen with the appropriate filter would be a nice frontal view.

I haven’t mounted anything outside. I’m too much of a Cheap Bast$&d to withstand a loss of a GoPro. emoji1787.png


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

I use my GoPro only inside, but have a couple of the Apeman cameras that I play around with outside. I honestly can't tell the difference in the videos that the GoPro takes and the ones from the Apeman. The battery life on the Apeman is much better too, and for under $70 for the camera, a couple batteries, a bunch of mounts, and a case you can't really go wrong. You can probably even keep your CB Card...;)

https://smile.amazon.com/APEMAN-Underwater-Waterproof-Camcorder-Accessories/dp/B07BF76DSX/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1549053803&sr=8-4&keywords=apeman

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34 minutes ago, Skates97 said:

I use my GoPro only inside, but have a couple of the Apeman cameras that I play around with outside. I honestly can't tell the difference in the videos that the GoPro takes and the ones from the Apeman. The battery life on the Apeman is much better too, and for under $70 for the camera, a couple batteries, a bunch of mounts, and a case you can't really go wrong. You can probably even keep your CB Card...;)

https://smile.amazon.com/APEMAN-Underwater-Waterproof-Camcorder-Accessories/dp/B07BF76DSX/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1549053803&sr=8-4&keywords=apeman

I use an Apeman outside also. Great little camera. And yes it uses the same micro SD card as everything else.

Edited by midlifeflyer
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56 minutes ago, midlifeflyer said:

I use an Apeman outside also. Great little camera. And yes it uses the same micro SD card as everything else.

Not SD card, his CB club membership card. :P

Anyone who can afford to lose a GoPro doesn't belong in the CB club, but an Apeman, that would be livable.

I think I picked up the first of the two Apeman cameras that I have on a lightning deal after Thanksgiving in 2017 for about $30 for the whole package. Figured at that price even if it was junk I wouldn't be too upset. I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality and battery life.

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I've heard good things about the Apeman as well. But a properly applied GoPro sticky mount will never let your camera get away. I have over 800 hours with sticky mounts on my Mooneys and have never lost a camera. 

I kinda wish I would lose an old one so I could justify a new model. But no, I've still got the first Hero 2 I ever bought. I've even mounted it just using the suction cup for pattern work to watch a certain thing, like cowl flaps or gear doors, etc. I still can't seem to lose one of these cameras.

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53 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

I've heard good things about the Apeman as well. But a properly applied GoPro sticky mount will never let your camera get away. I have over 800 hours with sticky mounts on my Mooneys and have never lost a camera. 

I kinda wish I would lose an old one so I could justify a new model. But no, I've still got the first Hero 2 I ever bought. I've even mounted it just using the suction cup for pattern work to watch a certain thing, like cowl flaps or gear doors, etc. I still can't seem to lose one of these cameras.

If you want to lose a suction cup mount, just climb a few thousand feet :D The lower air pressure will make them pop right off...

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20 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

I use an Apeman outside also. Great little camera. And yes it uses the same micro SD card as everything else.

The one thing I do is sync all my gopro's to a gopro smart remote so I can start all the cameras at once (I have three I use)  it makes the editing process a bit easier to sync the clips.

Does the Apeman have something similar?

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1 hour ago, Mike Ropers said:

The one thing I do is sync all my gopro's to a gopro smart remote so I can start all the cameras at once (I have three I use)  it makes the editing process a bit easier to sync the clips.

Does the Apeman have something similar?

No. The inexpensive GoPro "clones" generally don't have a lot of the advanced features. Not even it's own external mic connection (it looks like it has one but it's not functional). The "good ones" are different from the "bad ones" primarily in terms of lens/video quality. Even then, I wouldn't expect the same video quality at the edges from a $70 close as I would from a high-end GoPro. You can see the Apeman for yourself in my videos, like this one from last year. BTW, it's an older 1080p model not the 4K.

 

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On 2/1/2019 at 10:02 AM, bob865 said:

My go to is my CB mount.  It's a 1/4-20 eye bolt with 3 fender washers and another 1/4-20 bolt with wing nut.  You sandwich one of your tie down points and the eye bolt between washers and then put the both through and secure with the wing nut.  Then you have a 1/4-20 mounting bolt to attach your camera.  You'll also want another 1/4-20 nut to let you secure the camera in the direction you point it.  This is how I filmed this video using my contour roam 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuvpY-EKxjk

 

 

So close then you missed the centerline...

 

I need to make a tiedown ring mount

Edited by Yetti
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7 minutes ago, Yetti said:

If you will accept a foot off, what's to say 4 feet off is OK.  Suddenly you can only land on 12000 x 100 foot run ways

Just to be fair, that was like hour 6 or 7 in my Mooney.  Right after I got her I was always left of the taxiway center line, runway center line, and parking center line.  The sight picture is a lot different than in a cherokee.  I've since brought everything back to center.  You'll have to take my word for it because I quit making photographic evidence since.  :)

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4 hours ago, Yetti said:

So close then you missed the centerline...

 

I need to make a tiedown ring mount

What I would do different to my mount is add some sheet rubber.  Not sure where I would get it.  I'm thinking old inner tube or something similar.  I would add some isolation and make it more difficult for the mount to move in flight.

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15 minutes ago, bob865 said:

What I would do different to my mount is add some sheet rubber.  Not sure where I would get it.  I'm thinking old inner tube or something similar.  I would add some isolation and make it more difficult for the mount to move in flight.

I built a similar mount. FYI, Home depot has neoprene washers that I think would do what you need. They are what I am using. 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/1-4-in-x-1-1-4-in-Black-Neoprene-Washer-815788/204276441

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43 minutes ago, bob865 said:

What I would do different to my mount is add some sheet rubber.  Not sure where I would get it.  I'm thinking old inner tube or something similar.  I would add some isolation and make it more difficult for the mount to move in flight.

I have some 1/8" sheet rubber in 4" and 1" strips I was going to use.  If I had a ring, I would mill out a slot for each half to fit in....   I kind like the quick release lever like on a bike seat post.

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13 hours ago, Yetti said:

If you will accept a foot off, what's to say 4 feet off is OK.  Suddenly you can only land on 12000 x 100 foot run ways

Really? Equating 1 foot with half the runway? I'll stick with "too picky." And I never suggested "accepting it" and not striving to do better.

Edited by midlifeflyer
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1 hour ago, midlifeflyer said:

And I never suggested "accepting it" and not striving to do better.

That's the spirit.  My FR instructor was a former carrier pilot.  They sit around and grade every landing on the carrier.   When you are off CL with him you will get a "Now arriving on 16 Left" in the headset.  First time I flew with him he said CL was his thing.  So you need to taxi on the CL, take off on the CL, Land on the CL.   I know the second rivet on the cowl and the centerline need to line up.  

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