It had been ages since I took some RC shots from Thunderhill in 2009. This was flown line of sight from the ground back then, so it was impossible to fly the whole track.
I now have better gear that I can fly several miles out, so it was easy to do a much better flight with front and rear video cameras in HD
my bigger power glider barely fits in my car :)
it's a bit snug though :)
2.6 meter wingspan
Around lunchtime, I went for a 30mn flight around the track (easy to stay up with minimal power use due to the gliding capabilities). You can see videos (front and rear) and some screenshots below (synchronized version courtesy of viewsync)
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someone had fun doing donuts :)
Here is a virtual lap of thunderhill (although my RC plane took more than 3:14 to do the lap I did in my car :) ):
turn 2
turn 3
turn 5 and bypass
turn 6
I was impressed in the length of the protective tire wall before 8
8 looks benign from here
turn 9E doesn't look uphill from here, but we were taking the fork to TH West
Turn 9C is an interesting roller coaster, but you can't see it from here
what's interesting is how I've never even seen the 2W connector when driving by off camber and trying to get back to the right of the track
a rear view showing 2W
3W is an interesting turn where I'm braking hard and steering at the same time so that I can make 4W
I also never noticed that tire wall to protect people driving on the highway from being hit by an out of control car
5W is usually not a big deal
here it's easy to see the shortcut at 7W we were taking
the normal 7W hairpin is tough, but we were taking the straight instead
the new 7W shortcut is very inviting from this angle :) You also catch a bit of air at the 10W connector
10W connector from another angle
again, seen from the rear camera
rear straight with 1W
1W isn't too bad
funny how I've never seen 2W because I was so focussed on not messing up 10C
the conection back to the east track is very downhill and off camber, always scares me a bit :)
I didn't even know this access road to the west track was here
11 and 12
12
I like driving over this bit :)
14
15
It was fun to get a few shots of the cars that were doing drag racing:
I never noticed those numbers to setup cars on the front straight
I had never seen the cell phone tower at the top of turn 1 until now:
Some shots of the paddocks, many solar panels:
that was just after takeoff
I was piloting from the shade under the pro shop
skid pad
just before landing, crow flaps deployed