I did hand hold them. It's not that difficult in s helicopter as long as you keep the camera out of the rotor wash. It's been 38 years since I shot these. The were for planning purposes for the 1982 worlds fair. Just a guess I'd say I shot at 1/250 but I remember some overcast at times an haze and don't remember if I had a K2 filter on it or not. I might have because of the haze. The f stop, ???.
If you're really serious about 4x5 I'd buy an old wooden body crown or speed graphic. A 127 Ektar would be good and I'd get some aluminum and build a cowling around the bellows and just past the front standard. I said wooden body because I'd secure the cowling on the camera with screws. Then I'd run the front standard out to exactly infinity, pot epoxy on the rails and then secure the rails at infinity focus wit a screw. It's just too easy for things to move up there. I'd then use the wire sports finder on the camera and figure out what the lens sees vs the view through the wire finder. Usually theses finders aren't very accurate so you might even need to fabricatecone.
If you really want a fun adventure, find someone with a J3 Cub. The strut is farther forward than the 172 and you can fly with the door open. The J3 originally didn't have an electric start so you had to pull the prop by hand. Folks would get behind the prop, crack the throttle, prime the engine, switch on the magnetos then pull the prop and jump in because there was no way to engage the breaks. I flew a 7AC Aeronca Champ that I had to pull the wooden prop on to start it but the door was different and the strut too far back to do that. I had to have someone hold the breaks because I had to start it from in front of the prop. It's a little in needing the first time.
J3 pilots are usd to flying from the back seat as that's where you have to fly from when there's only one person aboard. It's duecti center of gravity, CG. Fly solo from the front and you become a lawn dart.
The J3 other than being really small is it's cheap cheap to fly and Slooooow. It's like the champ, I know from experience in cold dry weather it would fly at 25-30 mph. If you're a flying nut, these old vintage aircraft are a hoot to fly in. The Champ I flew was built in 1946, 2 years before me. Uncomfortable seats, pulling a wooden prop by hand to start it and flying with a stick. Everything's cool until you encounter a large hawk that wants to take you down.
Maximize your fun. Get someone to fly you that's an instructor and use it as a flying lesson too. That's what I do when I use a helicopter. The flying service I use has two Schweitzer 300's and the pilot in an instructor. I've got enough hours in rotor now that I do all the flying frongvthecairport to the shoot site and back. It's on my clients dime too.
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