Barry.h Posted May 5, 2023 Report Share Posted May 5, 2023 Hi everyone. I am recently back from an epic voyage in my Phoenix. On April 20 there was a total solar eclipse that just touched the western-most tip of Australia. My plan was to fly across the continent in my Phoenix and to climb up to around 14,000ft so I could have a chance to see the shadow travel across the ground. After 19.5 hr flying over 4 days, plus 2 days tied down waiting for the remants of a cyclone to pass, I arrived in Carnarvon for a rest day before heading up to the eclipse. I had oxygen so I easily climbed up to a holding point at 14,000 ft and waited for the shadow to arrive. Wow ... what a show, both in the sky and on the ground. I took lots of video, but unfortunately the audio track dropped out 1 minute before the eclipse, but I have managed to patch it up with a voice over. Here is the story: I am using this trip as a basis to start a Youtube channel following the adventures I have planned. Morning Glory next I hope!! www.youtube.com/@FlightsofthePhoenix There area couple of videos of the eclipse there already. As always, all the views, likes and followers I can get will help spread the word about how amazing the Phoneinx is. I will be adding some more videos from the trip soon. I flew home largely along the coast, giving a round trip total of 4,480nm (8,288km) over 10 flying days and 45.4hrs in the air. The Phoenix performed beautifully, cruising at 110kts TAS burning about 16l/hr. Super comfortable for up to 7.5hrs a day (With some Confor foam cussions I have made ...) Man I love my Phoenix. It is a beautiful little aeroplane both as a touring aircraft and a glider. Barry #21 - Australia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamey Jacobs Posted May 6, 2023 Report Share Posted May 6, 2023 This post and video are thoroughly entertaining and enlightening. Thanks to Barry for all of the planning and work that went into it! It would be interesting to know what equipment was used to create the video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry.h Posted May 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2023 Hi Jamey, The video was shot mainly on a Insta360 One X2 camera mounted on a ball mount on the passenger side panel. This captures full 360 video that you can post-process to extract the view you want, or export the 360 VR version. The challenge is - this captures LOTS of data and is time consuming to process, but it does allow you to focus on flying when landing for example and worry about the camera view later. (More video coming to the channel soon with that.) The other camera is a DJI Osmo pocket which is a gimbal stabilised camera. You can use it in forward-view mode or selfie mode. It is nice because it has face tracking in selfie mode, or is smooth and satabilised when moving it around. One challenge is sound ... I connected my Bose headset to my phone on bluetooth and then used the Google Recorder to record pretty good quality voice, but without any radio receiver sound. You do have to mark the files by tapping the microphone and then syncing the 2 videos and the sound file in your editor. This can be challenging to find the matching files and sync them. This all worked fine, until I recieved a phone call just before totallity (that I didn't answer), but it dropped out the bluetooth for some reason and I didn't get audio from the actual eclipse. VERY annoying! I did the editing in PowerDirector - a mid level editing package. Editing is very time consuming.... Syncing 2 cameras is a challenge and it is quite an art (I am not that good at). In future, I will use an audio splitter cable on the headset and plug that into an adaptor on the Osmo and record sound on the camera. Then I will just have to sync the 2 cameras when editing, plus I will get all radio sound too. And hopefully no dropouts!! The other thing I want to do is mount the Insta360 on a pole in front of the wing. You can get amazing shots from that. I really want that working for my Morning Glory trip in September. But for that, since it is outside the aircraft, I need to develop a good mounting system, and I will need to get a Letter of Authorisation from the factory, and I am not sure how I will go with that!! Otherwise I will have to use the hand-held pole out the window, which still looks pretty good. I have footage for a few more videos for the channel before I head to Morning Glory. Barry #21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chillmobil Posted July 6, 2023 Report Share Posted July 6, 2023 Barry I watched your videos and loved them! I don’t have a Phoenix yet but as a 13 year experience Paraglider pilot it’s definitely on my mid-term horizon. I an subscribed to your channel and can’t wait for your future videos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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