Air photos by Jojo

Helicopter: Joker 2 w/10cell 5000mah Lipo
Radio: JR X9303 2.4Ghz
Receiver: JR 921
Camera: Nikon D50 with lens Sigma 18-200 3.5-6,2
Now with Nikon D40X (10mp), Sigma 10-20, Sigma 18-200

Early testing heli:
Helicopter: JR Venture with YS 91.
Radio: JR9303
Receiver: Multiplex IPD DS 9ch
Camera: Nikon D50 with lens Sigma 18-200 3.5-6,2

DAY .. 6-7.november 2009 - Rakfisk
The Mother club and National organisation had arranged a stand at the festival so I made up a board, some video and gathered some of my stuff. Two long days but was fun talking to people and flying a bit. It is fairly dangerous to fly among so many people so no fancy flying. Just in and out mostly with the Joker 2 but I did fly a lot with the NoLiemit indoor model also. Got some nice photos that I sold to a local newspaper also (so airphotos are copyright'ed please). All the photos HERE - A report in Norwegian HERE

DAY .. 29.october 2009 - Football
The local football field needed some photos to show of the new sitting places. And to show of a ticket place. So I took some photos of the ticket place and placed it into the photo.

DAY .. 24.october 2009 - Vågå Airshow / Open day
Jotunheimen model air club is about a year old and working hard on getting new members and the community with them. Our club was invited to help out on the flying bit so me and Geir Atle took the trip with some planes. I took my helicopter, indoor model and some sailplanes (Perfect ET and Predator). Geir Atle took some indoor models. It became a buzy day since there was not so many other pilots present but we had a blast. Indoor flying in a "show case" hall with model shops, lottery, cafe and a good crowd at times. We could wish for more spectators but in 7 hours there were always an audience. They paid for the diesel but I out it in the lottery ;) Thanks for a nice day with lots of smiling faces.
More pictures HERE

DAY .. 14-16.october 2009 - DS in Haugesund
Took the trip further south after the photo mission. My friends let all work go and went flying with me instead. More video later maybe but here is a video of Arild flying DS F3F with his Skymax4 and some pictures of the day to follow with fishing. I flew my Kobra DS and Rolf Inge his Compact. On the way back I flew my Joker2 in the Vøringsfossen canyon since the weather was so nice.
Video of flying and some fun HERE (66mb .wmv)

DAY .. 13-14.June 2009 - Geiranger and Høgli
Me and my son went to Høgli past Geiranger to make one single photo for a customer... Photos HERE
Put together photos from 1967, 1996 and mine gave this video that shows the customer lost a of his lawn
More private photos from the trip HERE

DAY .. 9.June 2009 - Volbu - local airfield
We had a local school class and they got to fly simulator inside and 3 different airplanes outside. I flew Fredrik's EPP floater and also took a photo of the guys (and one girl). See all the pictures HERE

DAY .. 3.August 2008 - Aurdal Fjordcamp
Did a photosession today on a local camping since the evening sun was up after a rainy day. The strange part was that when I looked at their webpage they already had some pictures from a big helicopter.. Well maybe mine is better. I need to talk to them more to get details but todays pictures were taken as fast as possible since the weather was there. Need to take some more action pictures down low later I guess. My pictures are HERE

DAY .. 18.July 2008 - Goldagan
This weekend was "Goldagan" but the weather-man said it was going to rain so the guys phoned around to start on Friday. Went over with my 3m Extra and the Joker2 heli. Had 3 ling flights with the Extra and a couple with the Joker2 (just for photo). A good crowd for a Friday (about 20 pilots) and 3 large Ultimates and my Extra formed the "large crowd". Happy day of flying and as always they have both waffles and hot dogs for us and not the least decent coffee! Did not have chance to take so many photos but HERE are a video (50mb .wmv) of Knut Erik Rognes Ultimate and HERE are a video of Oddgeir Leikvold trying to start Kjell Arne's MVVS (a bit local picking here of who has problems ;)

DAY .. 27.April 2008 - Next door house
Took some photos of the next door house as it is now almost completed. Been a nice thing to follow this. See all HERE
The last picture shows were I live (the whole top floor)

DAY .. 13-16.March 2008 - Fagernes Airshow
- 4 days of flying and wonderful weather with friends from all over Norway. Not the F3J guys but the powerguys this time. Every year my club has a big airshow and this was number 33 in a row. 76 pilots and wonderful weather can not go wrong. I was speaker but managed to fly both the Joker2 with camera a couple of times - the Pike Perfect electro - and the Adrenaline 2meter in beetween.
Lots of pictures by me HERE

DAY .. 30.November 2007 - A story of building
Next door to me they are building some apartments and I have documented the building step by step.
HERE is a collection of pictures Beware pictures might take some time to download since they are not so much compressed.

DAY .. 24-26.oktober 2007 - Photomission
Yes it has been a bit quiet here but for a reason. I have been on the North part of the west coast to take some photos of some rocks for geologists in a large oil company. It went very well. 3 days of photos in heavy turbulence but we did it. I am not so sure any other operators of this kind would have so much success. But the main place we flew on the second day was supposed to be 45min light walking but after 45min climbing!! we were not even at the top. It took 2 hours each way and 10-15m/s winds at the top made it difficult. But after 2 hours and three flights landing on 5x2m of fairly ok ground we had the 400 pictures we needed. On the picture you see the area we photographed that day (photo from the plane we flew).
Have a lot of video and pictures but too much right now....

DAY .. 25.august 2007
Phototesting with small UVA at Espen's place. The plan was to do a photo mission on North west coast for Hydro but the weather was supposed to be bad. Anyhow we needed to do some testing so we found a inland hill with lots of turbulence from nearby hills. The UAV managed it very well and with downlink with GPS and height (and a lot of other measurements) we managed to get lots of good pictures. The model was very stable in the turbulence and could be launched even downwind. The model is electric powered and can be flown from 15 to 60 minutes depending on weather and battery onboard. In just 3 flights (5, 10 and 5 min) we could manage more than 200 pictures and both straight down, 45 degrees and 90 degrees to the hill. All of them making a pattern so we could stitch them together later.

DAY .. 23.august 2007
In the evening I took some pictures of the family cottage Rolf Inge have by the water. Lovely place. Earlier on the day I also took some photos of a waterfall with my Joker2 heli.

DAY .. 20.august 2007
Next week I will go to the west coast for a photo mission so I had to test a smaller camera for a electro sailplane we will use. The mission is to cover 1x1km with pictures and the pictures will be taken at 200m altitude mostly. The test showed I got what I needed ;) Test was offcourse made with the helicopter. That is a worse environment than the sailplane.

DAY .. 4.august 2007
Rockfestival went well even though it was cloudy/rain and darker than I would have wanted. Got some good pictures anyhow and you can see them all HERE. I was using my Joker 2 (electric 10cell lipo) with Nikon D50.

DAY .. 24.May 2007 - Joker 2
Some days without flying but I have been doing something... Been in the workshop fixing the Joker 2 and also service on some sailplanes. The Joker 2 got new blades. This time Curtis Youngblood 710mm blades with cool graphic that can be seen easier than only white or black color. Very quiet and light blades (188g). A bit expensive but worth it since I am doing expensive photowork! So I went out in the evening and took a shot of my new neighbours that starts working 07:00 each morning. Yes its noisy..

DAY .. 19.november 2006
A trip to Sweden and "cottage" in south Norway in the weekend and I offcourse some pictures of the cottage we rented (the one in the middle). Swimming pool and bubble bath indoor off course so almost a house and not a cottage. Nice weekend with friends. With low red light from the sun I got some very cool photos I think compared to the daytime photos. This would not be possible with a fuel heli I think.

DAY .. 14.november 2006
I did some more flying today as I wanted to test some difficult photos. Winter with white snow and water with low light is fun so I first went to a waterfall. This I was sure was not going to be good and I was right. Pictures straight onto a almost frozen waterfall is no good. But I did not want to go the far way in snow to get good ones. Might have gad to if it was a paid thing. Got a cool photo of a farm before I moved to a river I had seen in the local newspaper. They want to build a small powerplant here. Got some ok photos and also of a local shop just by the river.

DAY .. 10.november 2006 - Joker in the air again
Finally (well quick turnaround actually) the Joker 2 is in the air again. New tailboom, mainshaft, drivebelt, tailrotor shaft, pushrods, battery, blades, etc. and I am in the air. Getting the hang of this now so did not need a single click on the trim on the first flight after the crash. Could see the rotor needed a touch of adjusting but rock steady and a night picture (flew with lights) showed that there were no vibrations ;-) My son Fredrik took some funny pictures.

DAY .. 29.october 2006 - Heliwork/crash...
Ooops I guess it happens. After lots of photos and low light you get tired and do more than you can. Lost a bit control and ended up in a tree with the Joker heli. Gets expensive... New parts are already ordered to get it going. Lots of stuff got cranked: Lipo battery, heliparts, gyro, servos, camera lens, blades :-( Good thing is that nobody got hurt and I hope to pay for some of the parts by selling the pictures.

DAY .. 28.october 2006
Cold today with -4 Celcius (24F) in the evening. Earlier in the day a small breeze made me drink coffee instead of flying but I did use the low light evening conditions to take a photo of a friends house (Arild). I used Joker heli now equipped with a photomount that I can adjust from the ground (2 servos). I have borrowed the mount from Espen Torp and although it is a bit heavy (1010g) it alows me to take photos from different angles by adjusting in the air. So todays photos was really a testing not paid ;-O

DAY .. 24.october 2006 - heliwork..
Got some photos of a cafeteria/camping. More photos HERE
Also did some free work on a friends home. Se below for some of the photos. Yes he should have cleaned up before the photos.. ;-)

DAY .. 18.october 2006 - Airphotos
My first airphoto in the newspaper ;-)
The article is about a local football club and their progress for a bigger club for the area

DAY .. 14.october 2006 - heliwork..
Today I took a few heliphotos after I had finished a sign I had been working on for the local football field (I have a big cutter/printer that can take 55cmxendless). I have been curious too the bigger SAB blades I have had laying around. They are 710mm instead of the stock 695mm blades and heavier but I still tested them on. Now I have changed both paddlers, tail rotor and now main blades. The paddlers and tail rotor did minor changed but changing the blades did a huge step forward. I now have not only a more stable model but also more response and even more power available. Wow.. And there are even better blades out there they say! Photos of me and heli by Andre. Cool rattling sound of the leaves in the rotor being cut

DAY .. 10.october 2006 - heliwork..
Got a few missions today. First I wanted to test DV video so I borrowed a Panasonic DVC-30 from the National television (NRK) since they wanted me to do some work for them when needed. The camera is apx 1,2kg but I did not feel it much. I felt I had to work the throttle a tiny bit higher but other than that it was ok. I mounted it on the side and that was ok but needs some tweaking. I have a undercarriage coming but are not sure what to use. I took 18min of video with various settings and ended with some manual settings. But low rpm on the rotor did the main trick. I also got some photos of the local football field from a new angle (early morning sunshine) a local guesthouse and later in the day I did a job for a local camping place. Very nice place but they needed to upgrade their website with new pictures and maybe also layout. Lots of extra pictures HERE

DAY .. 8.october 2006
In the evening I took some test photos of the local football field that I am making some posters for. Hoping for good photo weather tomorrow and will also take some different views. So good to have an electric chopper of this size. Testhotos costs nothing and heavy winds like today was no match for the Joker 2 ;-)

DAY .. 1.october 2006
Ekeberg airshow.. Well not that big this year since someone forgot to inform the public I guess. But we that were there had a bunch of fun (atleast me). We flew two rounds of LSF (locally called Cirrus'21) and I brought out a X21 I bought cheap last weekend. I had not flown it at all but me and Rune Nessen shared it in the competition. It was way off settings so good landings was impossible but I made the times. The airshow bit was cool since I flew Katana 2M two times, the electro Joker2 heli with camera and my Nemo DLG. So I got a lot of flying during those two hours it lasted. More info and pictures HERE

DAY .. 28.september 2006
Packed the car for sailplane flying today but it started raining so I prepared my Joker for night flying instead and got some late night flights. Rune took some photos with my camera. More photos HERE

DAY .. 27.september 2006
Me and some friends in the club went over the hill and visited a local hobbyshop. I got some new batteries in the mail from Griffin and wanted to test them in the heli. They are 10S5000mah flightpower and can take 100A continuous so I they should take my abuse. So I took some late afternoon photos of the shop we visited and also some high pictures to show the shop and the airfield behind (not shown here). He did not want to buy the pictures (not even exchange for 8 metal threads for the sum of 5EUR..) but I understand that. Geir Atle almost bought a 2m model but reasoned and we went for pizza next door instead.

DAY .. 22.september 2006
On my way to the National Championship F3J I stopped by a local hobby shop and took out the helicopter for a small photo mission. Not an easy job since I had to fly in the main street and just above the big cars driving under the helicopter. But I got some good shots in just two small lifts.

DAY .. 21.september 2006
Tomorrow I will travel to the Nationals F3J this year. It was supposed to be earlier but was delayed of various reasons. Maybe I should have flown some sailplanes today but lack of time and hopefully practice tomorrow instead will be better on the right field. Maybe it is too easy to take the helicopter out of the car!
Took some pictures of places I have been before but try to improve myself. All pictures are now in focus and more than before is usable! Next is I think that I need to use more zoom and fly further away in some pictures.

Left: The chairs are mounted. Right: Me and Arild

Left: A typical pictures you get from planes. More pictures of farm HERE
Right: I can fly on the inside of the valley and get both the farm and the view

DAY .. 20.september 2006
Yes more helicopter today.... Packed the car for DS but the wind was not the direction I wanted :-(
Made some adjustments to the camera mount on the helicopter while I waited. Now it is very easy to both change position (other side) and to take the camera of for checking the pictures. Incredible how fast the turnaround time is for checking pictures on an electric helicopter.

DAY .. 18.september 2006
Since I bought a Joker 2 yesterday I used most of the day to set it up properly and make a camera mount. Still have some work to do but it is getting there. With the heli I got Tanic 6000mah 10cell Lipo (with some strange cells) but I also have Kokam 3200mah that I can use. With the Tanic batteries the weight was 4820g and with the Kokam 4110g. That is much lighter than the JR Venture and yet it seems to have a lot of power available. The size of the Joker is just a tiny bit shorter (1cm main rotor to tail) and the rotor diameter 71cm versus 69,5cm. Oh btw I guess I need to make a new color scheme... Photos by Tom Olav

DAY .. 15.september 2006
A few more pictures of the stadium that is starting too look as it can be finished soon. Also a pan photo of Fagernes the town "below" the stadium. On the left of the pan photo you can see they are making ready for new apartments with great view.

Pan of Fagernes

Yes they are a bit high but are only for showing progress. Then you need height.

Chairs being mounted

Some of the guys in Vision Completed

A new cabin Visioncompleted used as base

Left: Club house. Right: School class sitting down for a photo

Left: overwiev. Right: Trying to show the worksite just by tilting the helicopter (not readjusting camera).

Boys working

11.september 2006
A friend of mine bought a cheap car from a guy with a small garage. I took some test pictures of his house and garage since it was difficult. Cloudy and I had to work around some trees to get far enough away (+/- 3m from the trees). Got some good shots but should have moved the cars. But it was not a paid job so I did not bother...

9.september 2006
Got some nice pictures with the Venture on a big model airshow in Norway. The new mount works pretty well. Have ordered electro conversion kit for the Venture but the provider is not fast on emails....

8.september 2006
Out testing a new setup for the camera on the helicopter. Seems to work much better as I get fewer pictures that are blurred. A little refinery on this setup and it will be good I think. Took some pictures of a local skatepark and a local stadium that are having new seats.

25.august 2006
Another day with testing of camera. The light is bad with low clouds but I still manage to get some decent photos considering it is my 3rd day with camera on. Actually removed a few springs under the camera and it got better. The reason for the place I am taking pictures today is that I am webmaster for the local athlete club and they are making a new place for the spectators. So I actually get a few bucks for it... Another problem I found today is the fuel I use. It develops a lot of smoke and with a little wind as today it gets in the way!

23-24.august
Getting better but mounting is still not good. Some hard rubber bands helped.

19.august 2006
Never flown my own helicopter before (only poor first issue Hornet).
Got myself a JR Venture with YS91. First flights was good