Aerial Exposures Gyro Helicopter Mount So you found my page as you have a request from a client to shoot aerial footage from a helicopter, but do not know where to start. I had this same dilemma and did the leg work to find a solution. I knew from previous experience that hand holding a camera flying in a helicopter is not an option. I called a friend who had over 3000 hours of helicopter shooting experience and he was honest and upfront that I would be looking at $10,000 a day to shoot with a modern ball mount. It can get very expensive if you are shooting in a region that does not have a compatible helicopter and stabilizer. I wandered upon an aerial videographer by the name of Arnie Itzkowitz who manufactures mounts using Kenyon Gyros that belt into the helicopter using the seat belt and gaffers tape. No FAA approval is required as his units are not attached to the aircraft. They are essentially cargo. Arnie's units were initially designed to hold large broadcast video and film cameras and utilize several large Kenyon gyros. These units sold $20,000-$40,000 depending upon the camera weight. Still this is too expensive for many shoots. When I telephoned Arnie I learned he had a brand new model the was relatively inexpensive at around $11,000 that was designed for small cameras under 10 pounds. His sample footage looked pretty amazing and I decided to buy a unit as I had some other aerial projects coming up the following year. When the stabilizer arrived it looked like something out of Buck Rogers. It weighed a little over 30 pounds and came in a nice Storm Case. The Kenyon gyros run off of 110 volts and they utilize an inverter to power them from a 12 volt power source. They do require high amperage to get up to speed and it is important that you only run them up one at a time. You will need a 10amp circuit to power them adequately. There are also lead acid batteries available, but I would suggest an automotive jump start battery pack with cigarette lighter adapter. I fired up the gyros and strapped it down in the family SUV and took my 12 year old on a ride around town using my Panasonic AG-HMC150. The results were pretty amazing. Granted my son was not a cameraman, but I was able to get an idea of how it stabilizers. The following week we traveled to our big event known as Train Festival near Flint, Michigan in the small town of Owosso. I took my son Mason and a well seasoned cameraman with over 3000 hours of helicopter shooting experience working in television news. He has used nearly every helicopter stabilization device ever built and he was excited to give this unit a spin. For the event we chartered a Robinson R44 helicopter from Magnum Helicopter that is based out of a suburb of Detroit. The owner of the copter built a small wooden base that covers the hole when the rear seat is lift up. We placed the unit on the base and seat belted it in. We also gaffer taped the unit in to prevent it from moving around. To enable the cameraman to see what he was shooting we gaffer taped a small lcd monitor and plugged in a remote zoom control. As it turned out neither the monitor, or the zoom control was needed. In fact both made it more difficult to operate the contraption. We ran up the gyros using the outlet of our rented Cadillac. I found that without the engine turned on there was not enough power. Even with the engine on the outlet did not put out enough amperage to adequately spin up the gyros to full speed. We got each gyro up to about half speed, before we unplugged them and had the pilot start the copter. We plugged the inverter into the copter and within 10 minutes both were at full speed. It took my experienced cameraman about 20 minutes to get comfortable with the unit. Basically, the camera floats and gyros absorb sudden movement that would otherwise be transferred by the helicopter. You control the camera through two tiny handles that you lightly grasp. If your grasp them too hard your movement will transfer to the camera. The task at hand when you are shooting is to keep the horizon level. If you don.t pay attention the horizon will tilt as if you were on a boat. When the copter landed, my cameraman said the unit felt a lot like a Tyler Middle Mount and the resulting video looked similar. The second day we went up for two hours and I had my turn with the unit. I felt comfortable with it after only a few minutes. Arnie told me most people need an hour, but for me it felt much like my little Steadicam Jr I had mastered in the early 1990's. I had no problem operating the unit. I was simply amazed at what I was able to accomplish with it. Once I returned back home I ran the footage through iMovie's stabilization feature to stabilize the roll. I cropped the footage all around by about 10% and this eliminated any rolling. I will give a further demo in the future to see the difference using an inset screen. I don't use the unit all that much for my own uses so I have the unit available for rent when I am not using it. I also have a Panasonic AG-HMC150 available for rental with the unit. This camera can record 720p30, 720p60, 1080i60, 1080p30 at up to 23 mbps in mp4. The quality is comparable to similar compact P2 cameras. Check out Trainorders.com for more information concerning the system and renting it. For more information about renting the system visit Trainorders.com