EvoMax organised by Vmax 200

I follow an event on FaceBook called Vmax. Essentially it's an event whereby Supercar owners are invited to Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground near Leicester and attempt to reach the top speed of their car along a 2 mile runway. This event was organised in conjunction with Evo magazine and called Evomax. A few months ago I applied to marshall the event as I thought it would be a great opportunity to see these cars doing what they were designed to do!

Not knowing what to expect I arrived at an airfield not too far from the M1, gave the 'password' to the guy on security and was granted access. I pulled forward into a carpark that was overrun with supercars and suddenly felt very out of place in my diesel golf. Even the 22B would have been overshadowed by all the Mclarens, Ferraris, and Porsches - of which there were many! I followed in the procession of supercars on a road which snaked about under the wingtips of huge Jumbo Jets and on to the airfield itself. I was introduced to the other marshalls and Chris from Evo magazine. We listened to the safety briefing given by Craig Williams who runs the event and then drove around the long right hand bend and headed toward the timing line where I would be stationed, three quarters of the way down the 2 mile runway.

Sporting a rather fetching hi-vis jacket, my job for the day would be to man the radar guns and record the speeds of the various supercars that descended upon us at full throttle - simples! The first cars passed by us at around 140mph which apparently was fairly slow. Then as the drivers got used to the track their speeds increased steadily, some exceeding the magic 200mph! All of the standard and most of the not-so-standard cars dealt with the following routine fairly well: Going flat out from a standing start; accelerating through a long right hand bend; flat out to achieve a top speed along a two mile straight; then hitting the brakes to slow before queuing up to do it all over again! Only one car (a modified GTR) started undressing itself halfway down the runway and considerately spat its entire wheel-arch liner out of the back of the car as it passed our marshaling point. 

GTR wheel arch liner

With most of the cars passing us in pairs, the pitch of their exhausts at full chat sounded awesome! On the overrun the Mercedes AMGs barked as the throttle blipped on the down-change as they did their best to slow in the braking zone. The Ferraris sounded particularly good too, pushing out their braking point and coming through the timing beams with the throttle still pinned! An attention seeking orange Ford GT Mirage 720 spat flames out of the rear of the car every time it passed us! Those who know me know that I do love a gadget and the sheer efficiency and stopping power provided by the air-brakes on the 12C and Veyron was hugely impressive.  

As an added incentive to slow down in time, a Jumbo Jet was parked at the end of the runway. During the course of the safety briefing Craig notified everyone that if they were running out of space and required a little extra run off, there was "plenty of room under the right wing"! With a Porsche reaching the highest speed of the day (a huge 212mph!), I was surprised this emergency 'under the wing run-off space' didn't come in useful.

It was an awesome day and people began to leave the airfield around three o'clock, at which point Evo had a number of shoot-outs planned. Suddenly we were told over the radio that the Ferrari La Ferrari and the Bugatti Veyron had just set off and were racing each other down the runway. When capturing the aerial footage I had been keeping a sensible distance from the track, so as not to distract the drivers. However, it's not everyday you such epic cars go head-to-head. I therefore thought it best to ask a welsh guy who was helping Craig run the day if it was ok to use the quadcopter to get a little closer to the action! To which he replied enthusiastically "too right it is boyo, stick it in the middle of the f*ckin' runway, you might never see this again!" So I did. Unfortunately due to the Ferrari La Ferrari and the Bugatti going through at 207 and 205mph respectively, the resulting aerial footage was a very short clip indeed! In summary, it was awesome to be part of Evomax - an adrenaline fueled and really well organised event! Enjoy the video:

(skip to 25 seconds in to see La Ferrari and Veyron fly by)

Cheap eBay brushless aluminium gimbal

The GoPro Hero 3+ Silver edition is capable of taking some pretty good quality aerial footage when attached to the underneath of the Blade 350 QX. The only problem being that as the camera is directly mounted to the quadcopter, every directional input, vibration or judder ruins the fluidity of the footage. Birds don't seem to have this problem, as their heads manage to stay in one place when they are being moved around:

Having seen more 'professional' looking footage that was shot with the aid of a quadcopter on Redbull TV and the GoPro channel on YouTube, I was keen to emulate this. My research into gimbals began. Gimbals are capable of reacting hundreds of times per second to ensure the camera stays steady and smooth. This should mean that even if the quadcopter is being blown around in the wind, the brushless motors in the gimbal will counter any input detected so the camera remains unaffected. Check out this demonstration of how straight the gimbal keeps the GoPro as the quadcopter is jerked around:

TopGun

In order to take more stable footage, I have ordered a motorised brushless gimbal which attaches to the quadcopter and keeps the GoPro stable during flight no matter how the quadcopter moves. However, while I am waiting for that to arrive, it seemed like a good excuse to have some fun with some faster banked turns and record some on-board footage with the GoPro. As I was using the 'blue mode' on the quadcopter it left most of the controlling to me which was particularly good for filming. The 'green mode' although more fool proof, does constantly correct itself automatically and these tiny alterations are massively magnified in the shot.

Couldn't resist the TopGun soundtrack!!

Did you see the shadow of the quad on the grass at around 1:15 seconds - how cool is that!?

Practicing cool shots

Having experimented with filming from the quadcopter, I really wanted be able to capture the type of footage only quadcopters are capable of filming. In theory, filming with a quadcopter allows for flowing footage, over things that would normally require some sort of crane or gib. I deliberately chose something 'boring' and normally uninspiring. A fallen tree-trunk in the middle of Richmond Park should do the trick! I simply flew over the top it, whilst rotating the quad through 180 degrees., keeping the tree-trunk as the main focal point of the shot.

Filming a fallen tree-trunk like they do in the movies!

Awesome ultra tough carry case for the Blade 350 QX

I needed to buy a carry case for the quad, so did a little research and most were either too bulky or not good enough quality. This was going to be carrying over £600 worth of kit - it needed to be good!

Having found a case to be exactly what I wanted, I managed to strike a deal with the supplier and bought a batch of these ultra protective cases! They are superior in quality to any of the others I have seen - and because I bought in bulk, I can now sell them on eBay at a discount:

Blade 350 Qx Protective Travel Case RC Quadcopter / Drone

The dimensions are 51.5cm x 41.5cm x 20cm. Unlike some of the other cases available, it is within the Easyjet hand luggage allowance and can be stored in the overhead compartment and not thrown around in the hold! (This is of particular benefit to me as I have a friend who lives in Swizerland that I frequently visit)

These cases are awesome! They are made of tough, rugged, durable black plastic, and have four layers of foam of various thickness inside them. Two of the foam sheets are 'egg crate' shaped (see picture) and two are 'pick and pluck' so it is entirely customisable to what you would like to carry with your quadcopter.

I could only work out two layouts for the 'pick and pluck' foam in order to carry the quadcopter and the Transmitter which I will e-mail to anyone who purchases one. The 'pick and pluck' foam squares although attached, can pull out easily with your fingers - so no cutting required. I only have a couple of battery packs at the moment, but will simply remove a few more blocks if I buy any more (plenty of room!). I also use I blue metal lipo charger which easily fits but so does the standard charger.

The Blade 350 QX fits in lengthways with GoPro attached without removing the rotor blades as displayed in the pictures. There is also a layer of regular 'thin' foam sheeting on the bottom underneath the skis, and 'egg crate' type foam on the inside of the lid in the configuration shown. This means none of the quadcopter is in direct contact with the the plastic box for added protection. There are no stickers on the box which could give away what you are carrying. Although there is a small rectangle on the lid for you to add your own if you so wish. Finally there is a dial which you can turn to seal or release the pressure from the box - which is slightly over engineered!!

GoPro bike helmet mount!

I went out for an hour on the bikes with my Dad this morning and took the chance to try the new helmet mount for the GoPro. The mount straps on to your helmet and the GoPro clips in! As long as the surface is relatively smooth, the shot stays reasonably stable.

This is just a couple of clips of the footage it recorded earlier today. Good Colour and fairly stable!

Experimenting with a little aerial photography!

So having familiarised myself with the controls of the quadcopter, I plucked up the courage to attach my GoPro to it. The Blade 350 QX can fly in 3 modes, green, blue and red. Green is best suited to photography as the quad is very stable, automatically correcting itself and always following the direction of the stick no matter which way the quad is orientated. Providing the green light stays solid (indicating that it has GPS lock) and knows where it is, it will also fly in vertical columns. This means if the quad is sitting on the ground, just by moving the left stick up the quad will elevate to the required level, keep itself stable, and maintain it's location even in windy conditions. The rudder can adjust the angle of the quadcopter ensuring the camera is taking the right shot. The GoPro was set to time-lapse mode again, automatically taking a photo every 0.5 seconds.

I also experimented with shooting some video from the air. I knew the footage was going to be shaky as I haven't fitted a gimbal yet (which will keep the GoPro completely stable no matter which way the quad moves). However, I thought the footage was going to be much worse than it turned out. The previous video was of the quad flying in blue mode, constantly requiring stick inputs and correction. The video below was almost only controlled with the left stick, accelerating the quad to a given height then using left or right rudder to orientate the quad through 360 degrees before reducing the throttle and lowering it to the ground again.

You can hear the quadcopter compensate for the wind by constantly correcting itself