The Similans from a different perspective...

[AleG]

A little off topic, but I thought you may like to see this.

Koh Smilian aerial video:
[video=vimeo;36937828]http://vimeo.com/36937828[/video]

Oh, I see I can only add one video per post...

 

[AleG]

Here's Koh Bon, in between dives. I don't have to wait 12/18 hours before flying.
[video=vimeo;37293147]http://vimeo.com/37293147[/video]

 

[AleG]

Koh Tachai.
[video=vimeo;36757237]http://vimeo.com/36757237[/video]

Too bad I couldn't fly longer over the island, there was an unscheduled splash-down while I was chasing the dingy...

 

[AleG]

Aaaand Richelieu Rock... not much to see there but I wanted to see if I could spot Mantas or Whale Sharks.

[video=vimeo;37172392]http://vimeo.com/37172392[/video]

 

[Quero]

Not off topic at all, but I'm curious as to the flights themselves. Did you mount a camera on a small remote-controlled aircraft?

 

[Buadhai]

AFAIK a Tricopter is a remote controlled small helicopter that uses three rotors spaced at 120º instead of one large rotor and a tail rotor.

I'd love to see photos of the one that took these fun videos.

Thanks for sharing them.

Edit: The more I look at them the more I think how wonderful this would be for dive planning.

 

[Batfish]

Very nice, thank you!

 

[AleG]

AFAIK a Tricopter is a remote controlled small helicopter that uses three rotors spaced at 120º instead of one large rotor and a tail rotor.

I'd love to see photos of the one that took these fun videos.

Thanks for sharing them.

Edit: The more I look at them the more I think how wonderful this would be for dive planning.

Yes, correct, that's what a tricopter is. Mine looks like this...

Ugly but reliable and can take more punishment than you may think.

It has a GoPro Hero HD camera mounted on the front and a second, smaller camera used for flying, the image is sent via a video link and I see it on video goggles.



I also took a plane for this trip, almost 2 meters wingspan and in theory with a range of 2km and 30 minutes flight, but in practice there are some gremlins in the radio receiver and can only fly out 500 meters. I'm planning to upgrade it with a different R/C link that should be good at least up to 10Km out.




The plane also carries a GoPro in the nose, fixed looking forward; although later on I'll build a gimbal mount so it can be rotated.
The plane is waterproof, so it can land in the sea, here's Gemma, one of the Dive Masters, picking it up for me.


By the way, there's one more video I shot during the trip, at Koh Tachai again. You can see the plane landing in the water at the end.

[video=vimeo;37721715]http://vimeo.com/37721715[/video]

 

[AleG]

Edit: The more I look at them the more I think how wonderful this would be for dive planning

I suppose it could be used for that; also as I mentioned one of the things I wanted to try was to spot either mantas or whale shark from the air. There were none in this trip but I think it may work, specially with the plane since it has a longer loitering time.
I know they do something like this in Australia, using a small, manned airplane to spot whale sharks and then direct dive boats to the area.

Besides that it could also be used to check water visibility in advance...
I could actually see the reef underwater through the video goggles as the plane floated on the surface.
[video=youtube;c2oV_PFREz8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oV_PFREz8[/video]

Although it would be more convenient to use the tricopter for that, dip the camera, check dive site, looks good? let's go then!

 

[Quero]

This is all so fascinating! Did you shoot these vids as a promotional gig for Peter Pan? I absolutely love them. Kudos to you!