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GoPro stick resistance

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ALMARTON

Well Known Member
Hi Folks,

Does anyone who uses GoPro camera mounted on the 3M sticks can tell if it is safe to fly it up to 200mph without loosing the camera?

Does anyone lost a GoPro due to drag at high speeds ripping the 3M stick off?

Thanks in advance.
Alexandre "neck" Marton
Brazil.
 
I fly with mine mounted on the wing regularly but do not use nor trust the pad. Even if the glue holds the sticky pad itself could split. It is easy enough to file down the ridge on the mount in the center then drill and countersink a screw hole. Use a tinnerman washer and mount it to one of the existing screws already on the wing.
 
Go Pro

I also put a screw in one of the pads without the sticky tape. I have gone to 230 mph no problem.
 
Hi thanks for the advice but I do not intend to put any screw , I will only use the pad, I'd rather loose the camera than to screw it to the plane. If I loose the camera screw it ... lol!!!!

With the pads alone I went to 147 mph IAS that would give me arround 173mph TAS, with no problem.

But I posted the question here to gain from others experience, and certify myself of the pads resistance/endurance.

Like to hear from folks out there that has being using the pads alone to secure the Gopro for long time or anyone who has lost one when using only the pads...
 
On the Cozy MkIV, we take the camera out of it's water proof case and use just Gorilla Duct Tape to attach only the camera to the airframe. We've mounted it on the wings, upper winglets, top, bottom, nose and sides of the fuselage. Haven't lost one yet.

Some advantages of this method, 1) pictures are sharper/clearer (not having to shoot through the plexi glass cover). 2) less wind turbulence around the camera (we were getting a lot of that "jello look" until we took the camera out of it's case), being able to screw it to the wing would really help that. Hard to do with a fiberglass wing though. 3) easier to mount.

Some disadvantages, 1) Rain (one does need to be a little more careful in the type of weather you fly in :) 2) the residue that the tape leaves (it does need to be cleaned off).

Just a suggestion, take off the little lens (6 screws I think?) that's on the GoPro camera and shoot some cockpit footage, you'll notice a much sharper image with more contrast.
 
Alexandre, if you insist on only using the sticky pads (not sure why you wouldn't want to use a screw in an existing nutplate?) you might want to pick up the surfboard mount that GoPro sells. It is a much larger adhesive pad (it is a round pad approximately 4" in diameter.) I put this on one of my surfboards and it is on there for good - pretty sure I'd delaminate the fiberglass from the foam core before the 3M adhesive would let go of the fiberglass.

http://gopro.com/camera-mounts/surf-hero-expansion/

...And if you haven't seen this, here is a great/simple way to modify one of your mounts to accommodate a screw.
 
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sticky situation......

....and of course, the magic 3M adhesive is only as good as the surface it's adhered to.....so you have to THOROUGHLY degrease - removing any wax etc. from the surface. If water beads, it's still waxy! A good idea is to test the 'peel strength' of some duct tape first.
If it's really tough to get off, then the 3M pad will probably have good adhesion. Remember, most pressure sensitive adhesives 'flow' for quite a while after inital adhesion, so the bond will increase for up to a day or two after application. ( at room temperature).
 
ALMARTON said:
Hi thanks for the advice but I do not intend to put any screw , I will only use the pad, I'd rather loose the camera than to screw it to the plane. If I loose the camera screw it ... lol!!!!
Click to expand...

You may not care about losing the camera but the poor guy on the ground that has his windshield smashed from the falling camera might.....good thing it didn't hit him. You may want to rethink your strategy and help keep everyone safe.
 
Capflyer, good thinking and thanks for the advice but I plan to fly only over unhabitated areas with this set up (my airfield is on the mountains, very very sparse population there).

RBD I did not know about the surfboard mount, I will use one of these seems the best solution yet.

But another compromise was given by BruceS he made me think in using the pads reinforced by duct tape...

Well until know I flew 2hours with the pads only up to 147mph , I was just considering the adhesives loosing strengh with time, elements, sun... so was think in made it more secure...

flyboy1963 good thinking , I cleaned very well the surfaces before aplying the pads and waited 24 hours to first operation...

Well many many thanks all you guys I will use pads + duct tape until got the surfboard pads.
 
I'm glad this came up..

I am doing a couple of fun trips this year to Mexico and Alaska and definitely wanted a GoPro camera on the outside. My plane was to mount one on the end of the wing looking at the fuselage mounting it to the existing screws that hold the wingtip on.
I also may mount one looking forward to the tiedown ring on the bottom of the wing. Any other thoughts on great locations other than the top of the rudder or better ways to attach it?
 
I put one on the top of the rudder (think this one is the most unsafe place in terms of adhesive bond) , other one in the left wing facing front, other one just behind the former facing the cockpit and one the last one in the bottom of the fuselage facing the left flap and landing gear...
 
I should know to keep my mouth shut, but here goes:

Using rough numbers and assuming standard air conditions at 200mph, assuming a 3" x 4" camera with the center 2" above the mounting surface come up with a bending moment of 60 in*lb at the mounting surface. You would need at least 3in^2 of adhesive to reliably hold on to this assuming your surface prep was good enough to sustain 22lb/in^2 as quoted below. I think I would prefer a different mounting method.

In other words, I calculate nearly 30 lbs drag from the camera at RV type speeds. This number is admittedly a bit high, as I used conservative values and rounded up. It's in the ballpark though.

Guy

ALMARTON said:
Folks,

Some more data can be read on page 4 of this 3M document.

The Gopro 3m VHB 4991 adhesive sustains 65lb/in2 on normal mode or 22 lb/in2 in 90 degree angle.

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?66666UuZjcFSLXTtnxMtLXs6EVuQEcuZgVs6EVs6E666666--

So... 22lb/in , I think the camera does not generates that much drag even at 150mph IAS....
Click to expand...
 
Hi Guy Prevost one has to consider that 200mph is TAS not useable for drag calculation !

The IAS would be arround 150-160mph for this TAS so you have to use IAS on drag calculus... and using that - as drag increases with speed to square power - the total drag I calculated for 150mph is like 15lbf... so I will have a good safety margin for the pads.... :cool:
 
ALMARTON said:
Hi Guy Prevost one has to consider that 200mph is TAS not useable for drag calculation !

The IAS would be arround 150-160mph for this TAS so you have to use IAS on drag calculus... and using that - as drag increases with speed to square power - the total drag I calculated for 150mph is like 15lbf... so I will have a good safety margin for the pads.... :cool:
Click to expand...

You've got a pretty slow RV if 150 mph IAS is the highest you will ever achieve in a descent.
 
Lets focus that the speed in question is IAS and 150mph IAS level flight yields about 183mph TAS (LEVEL FLIGHT 8000ft DA)

I am not going to dive with my cameras mounted mind you....:eek: so I am not goint to go over 150mph in no circunstamce when recording. Probably would be arround 130 - 145mph IAS when filming (it is a RV9A won't film aerobatics)

By the way... still think I got a slow RV (despite my 183 TAS level flight) :rolleyes: cause often folks out there have been saying they can get 200mph... fisherman talk or reality?
 
ScottSchmidt said:
My plan was to mount one on the end of the wing looking at the fuselage mounting it to the existing screws that hold the wingtip on.
I also may mount one looking forward to the tiedown ring on the bottom of the wing. Any other thoughts on great locations other than the top of the rudder or better ways to attach it?
Click to expand...

The wingtip screws work great and give you a cool perspective (there a couple of examples in the video forum). Regarding a forward looking mount, I too planned on using the tie-down ring mount, but then realized that I could get a similar shot (forward looking) by just using the wingtip screw closest to the leading edge of the wing - worked great on my test flight the other day.
 
RBD said:
The wingtip screws work great and give you a cool perspective (there a couple of examples in the video forum). Regarding a forward looking mount, I too planned on using the tie-down ring mount, but then realized that I could get a similar shot (forward looking) by just using the wingtip screw closest to the leading edge of the wing - worked great on my test flight the other day.
Click to expand...

You are right, I bet you can get some great forward shots from the wingtip. I have been looking at all the cameras and it appears the GoPro HD is slightly preferred over the contour but I can't tell the difference on the video.
 
For what it's worth skydivers have been using these things for a few years and I've never heard of one with the stock sticky pad coming off of somebody's helmet. Some people who don't want to use the sticky pad mount just velcro them on and they stay at 200+ mph.

We also stuck one onto the bottom fuse of one of our jump planes (a Beech 99) that stayed on through the descent just fine. I wouldn't worry about using the stock sticky pad mount as long as it's adhered properly to a well prepped surface.
 
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Hi Base1127,

Thanks for the tips.

I already made some tests with 3 GoPros in the pads and so far up to speeds of 160mph IAS (about 180mph TAS) they holded perfectly (the longer test was for two hours continously).

I will post an example video of the stresses they endured (2,5G):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeqx2lsx1lY&feature=email&email=comment_received

But I think they will come off eventually with prolonged use... (fatigue)

I was thinking in change the pads from time to time as preventive measure against fatigue.

Regards
Alexandre "neck" Marton.
 
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