Maplins have just reduced the price of their stocked, Silverlit Spy Cam 3 Channel Gyro Helicopter, for any budding chopper filmmakers to learn on - could be a good little practice toy to learn before upgrading to the bigboys! It's on promotion until 22/02/2012 at £49.99 down from 80 quid. The helicopter, with electronic gyro for directional stability, features a built-in camera for digital photographs and HQ video recording.
@Vitaliy No offense, but the guys with experience that are talking about all the negatives and problems are not afraid you will take their jobs. They are trying to look out for you so you don't lose a lot of money and waste a lot of time. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
In reply @Rambo, it is sad but true - at the moment in the U.S. the use of R/C aircraft for commercial photography, is prohibited. You can still fly R/C for hobby photography, though.
I posted this on my own Google+ page last week after looking into this - and have a link to the FAA's temporary restriction document on commercial R/C applications.
According to aerial photographer http://mi6films.com/ the FAA has issued a temporary rule banning all R/C aircraft used for any commercial purposes, nationwide, pending the FAA's development of permit or licensing requirement some time in 2013.
Until then, it remains legal to take aerial photos from an R/C aircraft for free, but is illegal to do so for hire (commercially).
This rulemaking procedure appears to be due to the aggressive use of fairly large low flying "unmanned aircraft" drones, often by police, and the desire to regulate this activity. A copy of the FAA's temporary restrictions is here (this downloads a PDF): http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=b-cVZxwdB9gk4SC2jK_8HA
It appears the FAA has co-mingled the use of large unmanned aircraft with small R/C's hobby aircraft, until they sort out rules. In the meanwhile, here are the hobby rules www.modelaircraft.org/PDF-files/105.pdf
There is a potential work around for some applications: if the R/C is tethered in any way, this is said not to be considered an unmanned aerial vehicle. Same for tethered helium balloons.
@driftwood Too bad they don't sell outside the UK :(
This is a bit unrelated, but the goes to show the control systems are getting more and more amazing.
http://gizmodo.com/5888117/breakthrough-quadcopter-does-previously-impossible-acrobatics
I'm building a quad copter with the amazing Open Pilot Copter Control FC. Will start with a gopro first.
Please show us pictures along the way. I'd like to learn more about this.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!