Attaching a Bullet Camera to your Plane

[FleetFlyer]

Does anybody have any info on how one normally goes about attaching a bullet camera to the exterior of one's plane?

I realise the LAA will have some info and I'll be approaching them, but any info or experience that others here can share would be useful. There are plenty of youtube videos that show that others have done it, but info on how is pretty thin on the ground. My type has a steel tube/fabric fin, tube/fabric fus, and a wooden wing. No struts, but there is fixed gear.

[Unusual Attitude]

http://avacalouca.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/bodge-tape.jpg

Sorry couldnt resist!!! :}

[LowNSlow]

I have a suction cup mounting for my Dogcam which sticks to the upper part of the inside of the windscreen except when it is really cold then it falls off!

I was tempted to use the clips and suction cups supplied to attach it to the engine cowl but that isn't a sufficiently positive method of attachment to my mind. The manufacturers state that this method has been used at 100mph on a car but I don't want to be responsible for my camera landing on some poor person's nut!

[peterh337]

Or hitting your elevator at 100+kt... could cost 4 or 5 digits to fix.

[Agaricus bisporus]

As you clearly have CAA approval for this your engineering department will be quite capable of complying with the requirements they have stipulated.

Won't it?

So why do you need to ask?

[Andy H]

Gosh - an engineering deprtment ! What a godsend. Mine is a shed at the end of the garden, with B&Q as the favoured supplier of spare parts.

This is recreational flying after all......

[Agaricus bisporus]

This is recreational flying after all......

That doesn't make you above the law.

Does it?

[Russell Gulch]

The OP did mention LAA, not CAA, RTFM. :suspect:

(edited to make all the TLA ackronyms more than two letters)

[BackPacker]

FF, I have no experience with it myself, but you can get "handlebar" mounts for the GoPro line of cameras, which are originally intended to mount the camera on bicycles. I think they come in two sizes (diameters) and one of those might just fit an exterior tube on your aircraft somewhere.

For more permanent uses, you can use the quick-release mounts that come as standard with the GoPro, and attach with the (included) very strong double-sided 3M tape. Leave the quick-release on the aircraft, and snap the mount with the camera into it when needed. There are also screw-on quick-release mounts available, AFAIK. I know a guy whose Europa is positively littered with GoPro quick-release mounts. (Okay, that's exaggeration, but he must have at least three on the exterior alone.) He uses the double-sided-tape ones and I don't think any of them has come loose in three years of flying with them.

We've also had great success with the suction cup mount on composite gliders (wingtip, elevator and turtle deck) and the (composite) wingtip of a DR400. Although with the DR400 we backed it up with some duct tape.

[Zulu Alpha]

Get some of these and put them round your tubes and around the bullet camera.
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/100-x-SIZE-5-CABLE-CLEATS-CLAMPS-ELECTRICAL-SWA-ARMOURED-12-7mm-REDUCED-/00/s/MTYwWDE2MA==/$(KGrHqR,!jYFCO-y1In9BQkmWVDzQ!~~60_35.JPG

Available from ebay eg:
100 x SIZE 5 CABLE CLEATS / CLAMPS ELECTRICAL SWA ARMOURED 12.7mm **REDUCED** | eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-x-SIZE-5-CABLE-CLEATS-CLAMPS-ELECTRICAL-SWA-ARMOURED-12-7mm-REDUCED-/271092614393?pt=UK_BOI_Materials_Supplies_Electrical_ET&hash=item3f1e6104f9)

They come in many sizes. You can probably get a few from your local electrical hardware supplier.

[waveskimmer]

A b

A tad pompous don't you think? the chap was only asking for some advice :ugh:

[Sam Rutherford]

...who bolted on 1" RAM balls at various locations on the aircraft - then can just attach (at any angle as desired)/remove any/all cameras in about 10 seconds, (and they're utterly secure). Cheap, easy, safe.

Clearly, everything should be removed before take-off.

Fly safe, Sam.

[Scalper]

as long as it's a proper bullet shaped camera (eg. not a gopro), I can testify that plain and simple duct tape works just fine on DA40 landing gears and DR400 wingtips

never tried a suction mount myself, as I was afraid it could become loose

[Zulu Alpha]

The go pro sticky pad on my wing was OK at 200mph.

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