bookofjoe

Landing a plane on a tiny helipad on top of a Dubai hotel

From Kottke:

The Piper Super Cub is an amazing short takeoff and landing airplane that can, under the right conditions, takeoff and land in as little as 10 or 20 feet of runway.

In a recent stunt for Red Bull, Luke Czepiela landed a Super Cub on an 88-foot-wide helipad located on the 56th story of the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai.

YouTube description:

Pilot Luke Czepiela lands an aeroplane on the world famous helipad on top of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, the iconic seven-star hotel in Dubai.

To land on the helipad, 27m in diameter, he completed over 650 practice landings before the attempt on top of the 56-story hotel.

He needed just 20.76 meters to stop. To make the feat possible he and a team of CubCrafters engineers along with renowned American aviation engineer and aircraft builder Mike Patey made a number of modifications to the aircraft, reducing the total weight to only 425 kilograms, moving the main fuel tank to the rear of the plane to allow for more aggressive braking, and adding nitrous to enhance power for Czepiela's secondary challenge — taking off from the helipad.

More here.

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[via Clive Thompson]

World's First Self-Leveling Travel Tripod

Can your tripod do that?

Didn't think so.

From PetaPixel:

Benro has developed what it says is the world's first travel tripod with "One-Touch Auto-Leveling" that uses a battery-powered system to adjust the tripod to be perfectly level automatically.

The new tripod is called the Theta and is billed as a device with built-in smart features allowing photographers to focus on their art rather than the nitty-gritty of camera setup and management.

"Level adjustment has always been a waste of valuable preparation time which is one of the problems when using a tripod," Benro says.

"The photographer has to readjust the tripod level according to different terrain when relocating. Theta's one-key Auto Leveling function solves the biggest problem of traditional tripods and brings real convenience to photographers."

Digitally Connected Tripod

The Theta features a set of add-on modules that provide a number of benefits: a battery module, camera control module, a "GoLive" module, and an optical sensor module.

The battery module hosts the auto-leveling feature and not only supplies the necessary power to do so but can also work as a power bank. The camera control module provides remote live view, camera settings adjustments, shutter release, and can sync media files with a connected mobile device via either Bluetooth or WiFi).

The "GoLive" module supports live streaming on all platforms while the optical sensor module attaches to the camera and auto-detects ambient light and auto-adjusts shooting parameters for time-lapse photography.

There are two available sizes for the Theta: a standard and a "Max" version. The standard version weighs 2.98 pounds, has a max payload of 24.3 pounds, and a packed length of 16.5 inches. The Max version weighs 3.3 pounds, has a max payload of 44.1 pounds, and has a packed length of 17.7 inches.

$349-$399.