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Gidday,

Decided to try and combine my 2 hobbies. Radio controlled gliders and photography. This is Long Reef headland in Sydney.

These gliders are made out of EPP foam (same stuff in boogie boards) and fibreglass strapping tape. They are designed for combat with each other and can survive all sorts of impacts.

Shots were taken with 75-300mm IS, in AI Servo mode.
Found it quite hard tracking these guys while standing on the edge of the cliff in the 15 knot winds. Doesn't make for a steady photographer. This is only my second time trying to track objects, first being kite surfers.

Launch.


Follow the leader.


Fly by.


Lining up for the kill.


Loop.

That's quite interesting. I take it these guys crash their planes into each other??

Warwick, These pics not great but sublect is. I too was into RC planes and have a heap in the shed, must get a glider oneday but all my planes are powered, well only got a few knockabouts now got rid of the scale planes and Patternships.

I still have about 5 planes and my radios and gear and a gold wings pilot but yeh haven't flown for awhile now as yeh photography taken over, so maybe i will get a glider or a sloap soarer or something to just throw off a hill somewhere for a bit of fun.

Ok well have fun.

looks like fun.

I saw some cheap r/c planes once which carried a "weapon"
this was like a microwave beam mounted in the front. if you were pointing it at your opponent at the time, it caused his electric engine to cut out and he crashed to the ground. (the planes dont get destroyed cos they are light plastic. after 30 sec you relaunch and are away again.
Was almost tempted to buy a set!!
Steve

KillaKoala:
These EPP gliders have 2 purposes:
1) They allow new pilots to learn how to fly and land without destroying their model on the first outing. I've seen many people build balsa gliders and take them to the cliff and only last 2 minutes. Unfortunatley $250 and hours of building, you never see them again.

2) When you find another pilot wanting to combat, it's quite enjoyable ( and hard to do). Basically fly around (follow the leader) and try and knock them out of the sky. A "kill" is when you make them hit the ground, usually 1/5 combat hits ends in a kill. Depending on pilot skill to pull the glider out of a dive.

Combat is fun when you have about 5+ gliders in the sky, it's basically a free for all. The most gliders I have combated in a group session is about 12-15 gliders. That was mayhem.

BBJ:
Yes I agree, the pics should have been heaps better, was a slighty overcast day, about 2.30pm and I'm shooting west (into the sun) with a Cir Pol Filter on. I was really trying to out panning shots, but these guys never came past me for a pan. They were coming towards me and would turn back about 15m before they arrived at my position on the cliff.

I should have moved closer, but I was with my wife and she didn't want to spend hours on the cliff while I took pictures. So this was a 10 minute attempt and I was basically just pointing and shooting. You can see the 4th shot was focussed on the hill behind the beach, a good 2-3km away.

I was also wndering if it's better to use a monopod for these sorts of shots. Or would that just hinder the pan action? What do you do with the bikes, karts etc. I love your shots. Any hints you can pass on?

I have been flying R/C gliders for 17 years. Also racing R/C cars for about the same amount of years. I have about 6 gliders in my garage and a new one on the building table (dining table) as I type. I'm currently selling my R/C yatch (Ebay) as I just don't use it enough and I figure can transfer the funds to cure some lens lust .

avkomp
Those planes sound like fun, but sometimes we have enough radio interference and don't need any help.

Wocka!
I would have come with you and taken some snaps too!!
You will get better with time in capturing these and as you said not easy shooting conditions at all!
I will bring the 70-200VR up and see if we can get some half-decent shots next time eh?

Geoff,

Hope your not trying to start a pissing competition between Nikon and Canon? LOL

We should organise this, I'll even bring a glider and can fly it right past your lens. I promise I won't combat with your VR.......

Cheers

Warwick, with that lens forget a monopod, i have only just started using one only because i have to as the 300m f2.8 lens weighs 2.8 or so kilo,then add D2x and carrying it around all day has forced me to use one.
All my shots are mainly shot hand held and most with the Sigma 70-200 f2.8, i only use the bigger lens in some parts of the track and find it a hinderance at times. So stick with the hand held unless you get a bigger heavier lens.

I sold my big scale Rusian Su 26 Sukhoi 30cc donk in it, took up too much room in my shed so yeh used funds for lust. Ok more practice will make u better and shooting things like these in the shy are not easy.

wocka I know how bad it feels to break a balsa one.

many years ago I spend months building a control-line place powered by a 2.5 cc taipan engine.

for some reason I decided to give it a test run in a small area because I couldnt be bothered going to the park.

I snagged the lines on a stick and I speared the plane into the ground and destroyed it. I never built another one either. still have the engine though.

Steve

Wocka - I am sure that with time your pics will improve when shooting this type of subject

Wocka wrote:Geoff,

Hope your not trying to start a pissing competition between Nikon and Canon? LOL

We should organise this, I'll even bring a glider and can fly it right past your lens. I promise I won't combat with your VR.......

Cheers

Not at all mate
Be fun to spend some time up there, I've always wanted to try out a glider and have often thought about buying one and building it. But my handyman skills are pretty much non existant

See you have the 350D.

What focus mode did you have it in? AI Servo?

I find the AI servo mode in my 20D is more than capable of keeping up with many subjects. Although that is with L lenses - not sure about the 75-300.

DionM,

I had the 350D on AI Servo mode, but I also had it on the centre focusing dot as well. It was hard to track these gliders and keep it on the centre dot.

I think for the flight shots through the sky, with no background I should have had all dots able to focus. But with the background shots on the cliff, leave just the centre dot and try and stay with the glider better.

I was also standing on the edge of the cliff myself, so I was getting blown by the wind. Camera movement, etc. I didn't have the time to get a good position for all the things I did wrong. But next time I'll leave the wife at home and go by myself.

The focus speed on the 75-300 IS was fine for me. I was just having issues keeping up with the gliders and not being notchy/ jerking in my panning, if you know what I mean. I wasn't smooth in the panning action hence my Q to BBJ about using a monopod.

From the feedback I have here, I'm keen to have another go this weekend, or I could just go up after work one night. I love daylight saving, it allows you to fly till 8pm.

Cheers