1. Citizens Serving Communities
Introduction to the Garmin VIRB© Camera Mount Pikes Peak Senior Squadron
Citizens Serving Communities
Revision 1.0, by 2d Lt Max Starkman

2. Presentation Outline Introduction to Garmin VIRB©
Location / Storage of VIRB©
Installation of VIRB© mount
Operation of VIRB©
Questions & Support

3. Garmin VIRB©
The VIRB© is an action camera capable of taking video and still photographs.
Used on missions to photograph ground targets.
Select Specifications:
Still photo resolution: 16 MP (4664*3496)
Photo burst: or
GPS & Wi-Fi
Memory: microSD™ card (up to 64 GB)
Battery type: Removable Li-ion up to 3 hrs

4. Location / Storage of VIRB©
VIRB© camera and supporting hardware are located in a Pelican Case stored in the CAP office cabinet.
Camera is stored inside Pelican Case in a Garmin “Dive Case”.
VIRB© inside of “Dive Case”

5. VIRB© Mounting Components
The VIRB© mount consists of the VIRB© camera carriage (below) and the aircraft wing post (right).
Note: The wing post is semi-permanent and requires permission of the aircraft crew chief to remove.

6. Camera Carriage
One end of the carriage has a hooked clamp attachment that screws into the body of the carriage with either a flat head or Phillips screw driver. The flat head slot is large enough to accept a thin coin.

7. Camera Carriage
The body of the carriage includes a swivel ball with a two-sided clamp that is attached by tightening a hand screw for securing the clamp.
The clamp will completely come apart if the hand screw is backed out more than 9 full (360 degree) revolutions.

8. Camera Carriage
A third attachment to the carriage is a reinforced rubber loop that is secured to the carriage body by a Phillips head screw.
This screw loosens with use so it is important to make sure it is tight before mounting the camera in the carriage.

9. Installing VIRB© Into Mount
Remove the VIRB© camera from the Dive Case.

10. Installing VIRB© Into Mount
To mount the camera in the carriage, first back out the hooked clamp attachment screw by about 1/4 - 3/8 inches to provide movement freedom.
Next, seat the camera rear wire loop latch (battery cover lock) into the hook of the clamp attachment. The camera lens faces toward the rubber loop side of the carriage.

11. Installing VIRB© Into Mount
Rotate the VIRB© body while keeping the rear wire loop latch seated in the hook clamp until the lens end of the camera is partially inserted into the rubber loop.
Be very careful not to touch the lens.
If the camera cannot be partially inserted into the rubber loop you may need to loosen the hook clamp attachment screw or remove it all together.

12. Installing VIRB© Into Mount
Use one hand to hold the body of the camera while gently moving the rubber loop with your fingers back past the lens to where it is firmly and symmetrically secured around the lens body.

13. Installing Mount Onto Plane
Go to the plane and stand next to or under the aircraft wing post.
Notice that the post is tapered near its end and has a screw that secures a washer onto the end of the taper. The washer is wider than the body of the post. This taper and washer are used to secure the carriage to the post.

14. Installing Mount Onto Plane
Secure the ball clamp to the aircraft wing post and the swivel ball simultaneously while tightening the hand screw.
The post taper and spacer fit into the first 1/2 inch of the clamp. The swivel ball fits into the opposite end of the clamp.

15. Note on Mounting Ball Clamp (1 of 2)
This is a tricky operation.
The clamp is designed to fit onto the post and the swivel ball at almost exactly the same hand screw position on the clamp. This is at about 8.5 full (360 degree) rotations of the hand screw from its tightened position.
If you loosen the hand screw to more than 9 full rotations the entire clamp comes apart into its pieces.
As a result, there is significant danger of dropping the camera while attempting to attach all three pieces together (camera, carriage and post).

16. Note on Mounting Ball Clamp (2 of 2)
Start by tightening the clamp onto the swivel ball, then back off the pressure with 8.5 full rotations.
Mount the carriage on the aircraft wing post with only the minimum necessary closure on the clamp, then insert the swivel ball.
Finally, tighten the hand screw to hold the entire mount assembly securely in place but lightly tightened so that adjustments can be completed.

17. Installing Mount Onto Plane
Rotate the camera carriage on the ball so that the lens is pointing down to the ground. Rotate the clamp on the post such that the display screen on the VIRB© camera is squarely facing toward the direction of flight.

18. Installing Mount Onto Plane
You can use the seams along the camera body to gauge if the camera is vertically aligned. Remember that the wing has both a built-in angle of attack and a dihedral angle.
Notice that there is a slight angle between the camera body and the aircraft wing post.
Once the VIRB camera is perfectly positioned, firmly hand tighten the ball clamp hand screw to ensure that the mount stays in place during flight.

19. Installing Mount Onto Plane
View of mounted VIRB© camera

20. Operating the VIRB©
Once the camera if fully positioned and you are ready to start the engine, turn on the power by pressing the power button on the side while squeezing the body with your fingers so that the body does not move.
To turn the power on, the button only needs to be held down for a moment, basically a push.

21. Operating the VIRB©
As the VIRB© camera powers up, the display will show the word “Garmin”.

22. Operating the VIRB©
After a short delay you will see a video feed of what the lens is capturing.

23. Operating the VIRB©
After confirming that the power is on and that the lens video is displayed, start the camera image collection by pushing the ridged button adjacent to the power button.

24. Operating the VIRB©
The display image will look much like the prior image but now it will freeze every 5 to 10 seconds and will show counters in two corners, one for the total number of images collected and the other for the countdown timer between images.
Normally the first 3 countdown numbers on the countdown timer are not seen because they coincide with when the captured image is momentarily displayed.
For example, with a 5 second interval setting, only the counts of 2 and 1 will be seen before the image freezes to display the captured image.
See example on next slide.

25. Operating the VIRB©
VIRB© capturing images

26. Operating the VIRB©
Once you have completed your flight, turn off the image collection by pressing the ridged button adjacent to the power button again.

27. Operating the VIRB©
Then turn off the camera power by pressing and holding the power button for 3 seconds or more until the display screen show a power icon.
Once the power button is released the camera will turn off.

28. Storing the VIRB©
After uploading the images, open the back of the VIRB© camera to remove the battery.
Replace it with one stored in the VIRB© Pelican Case and confirm that it is fully charged.
Place the recently used battery in the charging tray and connect it to a charger using the USB Cable.

29. Storing the VIRB©
Put the VIRB© Camera back in the Dive Case and return it to the Pelican case.

30. Questions?
Contact Capt Loren Lancaster and/or 2d Lt Max Starkman with questions. 30

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Civil Air Patrol
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