Warren Pettit wasn't always this good at flying his model helicopter above Martha's Vineyard. It took the Tisbury resident a few years before he was confident enough to hover near familiar Island landmarks and take breathtaking photographs using a digital camera mounted on the tiny aircraft. Despite a well-honed aptitude for fine motor coordination, he crashed it a few times when he first took up flying four years ago.
Flying model helicopters is extraordinarily difficult. "It's not a plane, it doesn't glide. All it wants to do is crash," said Mr. Pettit. Photo by Steve Myrick
"Two things will put a bird in the dirt," Mr. Pettit said. "Number one, dumb sticks." In the lingo of a model helicopter pilot, that means a mistake in either coordination or judgment with the small controllers, one for each thumb, which guide the helicopter's flight from a remote radio device.
"The second reason is mechanical," Mr. Pettit said. Just as with a full scale helicopter, maintenance is essential. "For every hour in the air, it's probably about another hour on the bench. You've got to stay on top of the physics of the helicopter. It's rather unforgiving."
Warren Pettit of Tisbury makes a final adjustment to the camera mounted to his model helicopter. Photo by Steve Myrick
On the fly
On a recent morning at the Tashmoo overlook, Mr. Pettit ticked carefully through a list of pre-flight safety checks. Confident that all was in order with his helicopter, he carefully nudged the rotors into action by radio control, using the slightest movement of his thumbs on the controller sticks. The helicopter, with rotors building to a speed of 1,700 rpm, lifted smoothly out of the knee high grass and hovered about six feet off the ground. Guided by Mr. Pettit and powered by a battery that provides about nine minutes of flight time, the helicopter flew on a line about 20 yards, made a precise turn, and headed back. Later, he sent the helicopter soaring over the field at an altitude about 250 feet. Brisk winds made flying a challenge, but it's always a challenge. His skill at carefully landing the helicopter just a few yards from where he was standing offers no hint that he has been flying for a relatively short time.
Mr. Pettit, who is director of the Contemporary Music Center on Lambert's Cove Road, said he didn't understand how difficult it would be when he took up flying just four years ago.
"It's not a plane, it doesn't glide. All it wants to do is crash," said Mr. Pettit. "I'm a piano player, I know what fine motor skills are. I was shocked at how hard it is."
He said pilots with long experience flying full-scale helicopters are equally surprised at how difficult it is to fly a model. "There's no transference of flight skills," Mr. Pettit said. "You have to know how to use a throttle and stick in a helicopter. That doesn't mean you can put two thumbs on sticks and fly. Some pilots say it's more difficult."
Photographs taken from the model helicopter, which flies up to altitudes of 500 feet, provide a different perspective on familiar Island landmarks.
He built (and rebuilt) the eight-pound model helicopter himself, from a kit that cost about $3,000. He says no self-respecting pilot would do otherwise. "You're going to crash, and you're gong to have to rebuild it. I think you have to know where every nut and bolt is."
Safety is foremost on Mr. Pettit's mind when he flies. He is careful to locate any observers, and make sure they are standing a safe distance away. He flies in clearly defined air space, up to 500 feet, and never flies over people. "A bride will ask me to shoot their wedding. No," Mr. Pettit said.
Smile for the helicopter
Mr. Pettit's interest in model helicopters began at a Christmas party. "Someone had one of those little Radio Shack helicopters flying around the room," he said. Already involved in video and still photography, he realized that combining the two could produce some creative results.
Originally, he wanted to find a way to shoot video from the air. But the physics of lifting eight or ten pounds of video equipment, including a gyro stabilizing mechanism, proved too daunting. Strapping an inexpensive digital camera to the bottom of the aircraft, along with some decidedly low tech, but ingenious modifications, worked remarkably well, however. Early attempts to fire the camera's shutter by remote control proved too chancy, so Mr. Pettit came up with a better way. By rigging a thick rubber band around the camera and over the shutter, the camera fires continuously every few seconds during the flight. "This isn't too terribly sophisticated," Mr. Pettit said. With a very large memory card, the digital camera can snap hundreds of pictures. He simply downloads the pictures into his computer, and picks the frame that caught the subject perfectly.
Mr. Pettit has steady assignments from real estate companies who need aerial photographs to market large properties, and corporate clients who need panoramic views for advertising or business publications. He has also worked for a construction company that needed a site survey for a wind turbine, and created a photographic map for a wedding planner who needed to show vendors exactly where they needed to be on the wedding day. He charges $150 for the aerial photography service.
