Hello people, I just found this forum and it seems to be the right place to ask a few questions.

I'm currently living in Thailand and I'm planning a short holiday to India in a few days; when I travel I like to carry a small FPV plane with me (I called the design Sidekick  ), to fly around and shoot some videos with it of all the beautiful places I've been to. Recently I've also built a tricopter for aerial photography and I'd also like to carry it with me for this trip.

This is the sort of things I do with the plane (60cm wingspan, 100 grams weight, by the way)



And with the tricopter:



I don't fly high or far with neither.

So the question is, is it OK to bring this models into India and fly them in some isolated areas? I will be in and around the town of Leh up the mountains in the north of India.
Should I declare them at the customs desk at the airport?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

thats awesome stuff.
But how come it weigh only 100grams 

Thank you. The plane is very small and built light; I used very small gear on it too, micro servos, micro camera, micro video transmitter, etc...  You can see the building of the model here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1156779

It is our understanding that Arial Photography is a restricted activity in India.  A non-citizen doing it may bring even more unwanted attention, in light of the times we are living in. 

Many of us fly RC with the same reservations, with the rule of thumb that we do it away from people.  There are known/established clubs etc, but those are limited. 

More than likely you may get away with the same... but you are on your own !

Regarding imports, I am sorry to say declaring the same will most likely put you through some uneasy questioning, especially if you mention any FPV/AP.  If you do declare, be prepared to explain that this is something you carry in your trip for hobby purposes, and be firm.

Still wondering how you managed to put FPV gear on such a light setup.  Is that you in the first video, flying with what seems like goggles ?

This is nice

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14503727&postcount=36

Oh, I see...  Well, I plan to go to very isolated places, hardly anyone there as far as I know; so it should be fine. Maybe just take the camera off the plane and tricopter to get through the airport then?   A plain RC plane should be alright I suppose.

Yes, it's me in the video, using goggles to fly FPV, very exciting, specially the tricopter. That's one of the reasons I like to carry this stuff with me when I travel, it gives me a different perspective and feeling of the places I go to. It can also be helpful, a few months ago in Java, Indonesia, we trekked down to a very isolated beach in the Meru Beriti National Park, we wanted to go to the next beach but got lost in the jungle; we went back to the first beach, I flew the FPV plane and I found the way to go to the second beach.  

Ah, yes; that's the box where I carry the plane, it fits inside a backpack (the radio transmitter and FPV gear also fit in the same backpack. Actually I'm designing a new version of that plane, more or less the same size and shape but it will be possible to fit it in a box of almost half the volume as the current one.

Are using the same camera for recording and FPV ?  Which Goggles, FPV gear etc are you using ?

PS: Did not finish reading your RCG thread

On the plane at first I had a normal keychain video camera, no FPV; later on I added an FPV only camera and used it to record the video from the flight, but the image quality was pretty poor so later on I installed an HD keychain camera on top of the FPV camera, so now there are two cameras on the plane.
The tricopter also has two cameras, a regular video camera as used for surveillance or the like and a GoPro Hero HD camera for recording the in flight video.

Cool   

I would go a step further by saying you declare it as only a toy plane for recreational purposes at the customs. second stay far away from sensitive and govt establishments.

Oh yes!, certainly a toy!
I have no qualms in calling my planes toys.

As for staying away from sensitive areas, anyone knows if the area around Leh (Kashmir) is eh... insensitive enough?
I'd like to take some aerial videos of a few mountain lakes, so the subject I'm after is nature, the less man made stuff the better.

 

By the way I saw your videos and photographs in rcgroups. Man I must say they are absolute pleasure to watch. You should enroll yourself for National Geographic.

  Great Job there.

Any pointers for best source of wide angle lens for 1 gms camera KX -1 Colour CMOS (pixels PAL：786（H）×576（V）520TV Lines)

Whats the pros and cons with wide angel lens?

On the plane I use a "Jelly Lens" to get a wider field of view (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/jelly-lens-wide-angle-fish-eye-filter-for-cell-phones-and-compact-digital-cameras-22880). This lens simply goes in front of the stock camera lens, to widen the FoV.
The disadvantage is that it distorts the image, which is rather unavoidable really, and that there's some loss of quality on the image. In my case I don't care much about neither because I'm using a second camera to record the video and the FPV camera is just for flying, for that its very important (in my opinion) to have a wide field of view, specially flying like I do, usually in difficult terrain or tight spaces, like close to the ground, around trees, rocks, etc...

There's also the option of replacing the stock lens on the camera with a wider FoV lens, FPVHobby.com has a wide angle lens for its 1 gram camera, but I don't know if the lens thread size is the same as in the one you have.

 

Official secrets act, and punishments for restricted area photography is stringent, for the case to be heard will take time, problem is to know which place is restricted and which is not is a PIA. I go with anwar bhai on this, not a good idea, a hand held cam is ok, fpv and situation in india anywhere could be a explosive mix, I wouldn't dare

Hi AleG,

Your Sidekick plane design is an excellent model! I am wholly impressed with the simplicity of the design. I am myself building a 2.3Meter Twin boob 'Big Brother' model ,which quite resembles your plane.

All the best for your stay in India and keep us posted!

hehehe "Twin boob" that's what's called a Freudian Slip.
Like I said I'm planning to improve on the design a bit later on, I believe a few changes here and there would make an even better plane.


Since everyone has been so helpful here I thought I could ask something else, I'm going to spend a day and a half in New Delih and I'd really love to visit the Taj Mahal, but I'm not sure how to get there or how long it takes, any ideas?
No, I'm not planning on flying at the Taj Mahal (awesome as that may be), just want to go and take photos at ground level.

By the way, just case I need to buy some spare part at New Delih (propeller, battery, etc...) are there any good airmodel shops in the city?

i guess the situation in kashmir is very critical since a last few months though its open for tourists but i wouldn't suggest  flying any sort of fpv stuff in leh , or Srinagar as this may make you fall into deep trouble if it comes under the knowledge of any local person too as he will directly go to the army and police officials

yes there are people stocking batteries and props , electronics etc etc in new delhi

I returned from India this early morning, I didn't have much opportunity for flying though. I only did one flight with the airplane and a few with the Tricopter at Pangong Tso lake. That's at 4500 meters altitude so I now have my own altitude record.

I'll post the videos of the flights later on when I have the time to upload them.

I didn't had much problem with the equipment, I was asked a couple times to open the luggage and check what was in it, but once I showed that it was a radio controlled plane there were no issues.

I'm actually surprised that they let you pass through. Glad that every thing went smooth, waiting for the video

Pangong Tso lake, 1/2 of it is with us and 1/2 with Chinese , wonder how you did it, I am sure you are on Chinese radar, I heard they like to eat sausages

 
 

I very much doubt I would had made a blip in anyone's radar flying a very small RC model under 100 meters from the lake level among mountains rising one or two thousand meters all around.

No idea what sausages have to do with it though.

Pangong Tso lake! wow a paradise on earth. you are really a privileged man.       

Eagerly waiting for the video. 

I uploadeda  video made out of the two short FPV flights I could do with the tricopter at Pangong Tso.

Wow, what a beautiful place now i want to go fly there.
4500 meter! Was the tricopter modified in any way or were you able to fly your regular setup??  Also interested in flight report of the twin boom, that thing has very small wings to fly at such high altitude.

its simply awsome ...was treat of my eyes....
can you please post a few pics of your tricopter tooo
hat off to you mann

The tricopter was exactly the same as I fly it here in Bangkok at pretty much sea level. I used 10X5 Slow Flyer propellers. I had carried an assortment of other propeller sizes (12X6, 10X6 triblade, 10X5 APC, etc...) to test, but in the end I flew it as normal.
However I needed much more thrust to hover, close to 90% I think.

I'll post some photos of the tricopter later and the video of the airplane. The airplane had no problem whatsoever to fly at that height, I only needed to toss it much faster than at sea level to take off.

That is very very beautiful video..!! 

hi mate.
very nice video...........It looks very much as though the lake is receding?
is this right? due to global warming?
beautiful location.
regards
don

fabulous video and marvelous flying there 

I don't know if the lake is receding, you'd need to check the water level over a period of time for that.

Here's the second video, shot from the small FPV plane this time. It uses a lower resolution camera and is less stable than the tricopter, but very fun to fly.