The GoPro video camera has become increasingly popular in all sorts of “adventure” sports and outdoor activities. After seeing enough videos produced by glider flying friends, we decided to finally get one. And last weekend we set out to try it in our airplane.
That, of course, resulted in some quick learning of iMovie and playing around to produce some videos. First up is N722VJ Takeoff Video Test:
In that video, Kathleen flies her first takeoff from our home airport of Pine Mountain Lake (E45).
And then the longer (but better done) Saturday video is Flying N722VJ from Avenal to Pine Mountain Lake.
That shows the takeoff from the dirt runway at Avenal (CA69) and then the landing back at Pine Mountain Lake (E45), as well as a high speed taxi back to the hangar, and an even higher speed rendition of putting the airplane away at the end of the day.
The GoPro has an amazing field of view and works really well for filming aviation. We look forward to filming a lot more and exploring iMovie as well.
Jeremy Zawodny's blog 
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That seems like an amazingly high approach speed. I don’t know anything at all about the CTsw – what’s the speed you make short final at?
That was an approach with only 15 degrees of flaps down, so probably 65-70 knots. And the density altitude was proably 4500-5000 feet (maybe a bit more).
When landing with 30 degrees the approach is more like 55 knots and the approach is notably steeper too (as you’d expect).
I have a GoPro Hero2 and would like to connect it to my cessna 206 intercom to record audio. Any suggestion on required hardware would be appreciated. Art.
Well, your video inspired me to check out E45! Just got back from a little flight out from KSQL. O22 was reporting BKN50, so I flew the GPS27 approach. Having done not much mountain flying, my impressions after breaking out can be summed up as: Holy crap – Trees! Cool airport! The runway is shaped like a spoon (flat, flat, flat, dip, flat)
I’ll have to come back on a nice weather day.
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Stall speed with flaps up is 42 KCAS, if you multiply that by 1.3 is 55kts, so I think somewhere around 60kts would help hit those runway numbers better. You don’t have to adjust the airspeed for density altitude as the airspeed indicator is reading the density altitude.
I noticed your copilot is wearing a Lightspeed QFR XCc. Is that a good headset? I use a Dave Clark 13.4S (looks like you do too), was thinking of stepping up to an ANR and the QFR XCc is on my list to investigate. Also, I occasionally fly a Skycatcher from time to time. How does the DC compare to the QFR for LSA planes? (smaller prop turning higher RPM’s, thinner cockpit walls, etc)