Introduction
Hello, and welcome to CatsEyes Aerial Photography. This site is about using radio controlled (R/C) aircraft for Aerial Photography (AP) for researching and documenting rail history.
New stuff
February 6, 2012: I have completed the physical build of the Cat's Eye 2 and just have the wiring left to do. I don't really have much new to report -- it is coming along basically as expected, and should be completed in time for a spring maiden. I will do an update once it is complete.
In the mean time, here's a little article on a repair to an old LiPo pack. Just for fun (and because I needed some content!) I put this on my "other" site (my personal site) as a blog entry. If you have any old LiPos floating around that need to be ressurrected, especially if one of the terminal tabs is not in great shape, this might give you some ideas.
Platform status
As I mentioned, I am nearing completion of the Cat's Eye 2 and just have the wiring and integration testing left to do. It should be ready for flight testing in the spring. This will be interesting!
The Cat's Eye 2 will be similar to the Cat's Eye 1, but will add a video downlink, and full pan/tilt capability. It will be somewhat larger than the Cat's Eye 1, roughly the size of my Long-nose Getter. It will be hand-launched, but has one big wheel for landing.
The Cat's Eye 1 continues to be my primary aerial photography plane while I build the Cat's Eye 2. It has been almost three years since its maiden and shows no sign of aging. It is on its second camera now (a Pentax Optio S10). 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 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 found its way onto the Cat's Eye 2.