Introduction
Hello, and welcome to CatsEyes Aerial Photography. This site is about using radio controlled (R/C) aircraft for Aerial Photography (AP) and for researching and documenting rail history.
New stuff
August 28, 2010: I am now officially working on the Cat's Eye 2. After the phenomenal success of the Cat's Eye 1, I guess success has gone to my head and I figure I can just churn out successful planes without breaking a sweat. Seriously, the design has been brewing in my head for some time now, and while it's by no means finished, I have designed and tested some of the key portions, enough to have some confidence that the final product has a fair chance of working. Please see my Cat's Eye 2 page.
The Autonomous Flight vehicle is on hold for now, although I haven't forgotten about it. This is something I have been wanting to get to for a long time and it remains a future goal for sure.
Platform status
The Cat's Eye 2, now in development, will be similar to the Cat's Eye 1, but will add a video downlink, and full pan/tilt capability. I expect it to be somewhat larger than the Cat's Eye 1, roughly the size of my Long-nose Getter. It will probably be hand-launched, but may have wheels for landing. Dunno yet.
The Cat's Eye 1 continues to be my primary aerial photography plane while I design the Cat's Eye 2. It has been a year and a half since its maiden and shows no sign of aging. It is on its second camera now (a Pentax Optio S10).
The Cat's Eye 1 is my primary aerial photography platform at the moment. It has proven itself to be a worthy successor to the Long-nose Getter. It has the same stability and control and ability to fly in moderately breezy conditions. However, it's lighter (all-up weight about 40 oz or 1135g), and was designed from the start to be hand launched, allowing it to be used in situations where the Getter could not. This was proven at the Crysler site where I flew from a fallow field of vegetation half way to my knees. Launching and landing the Cat's Eye 1 was very easy under such conditions, whereas a wheeled vehicle, requiring a "landing strip" for takeoff and landing, would have been either difficult or impossible. I am very happy with the Cat's Eye 1 and really don't see a lot of room for improvement for a still-photo-only type of plane without video downlink.
I briefly re-outfitting the Long-nose Getter as an FPV plane (First Person View, aka fly-by-video). I found the goggles to be annoying and disconcerting. I had one short flight, and, well, let's just say the Getter is still in one piece and that's about the best I can say about it. The other good thing was that I tested out much of the equipment that has now found its way onto the Cat's Eye 2.