Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1782161
mick w wrote:I once 'plonked' a Quickie sideways to prevent a Grass Runway excursion ,the POH suggested it was the thing to do, even on Tarmac !!. :o


Soooo, now I have to explain to MrT6 why my internet search history includes Quickie 2. Thanks!
Seriously, what an intriguing ac that is.

On the subject of learning, as i am ab initio and desperate for next lessons, I have resorted to Youtube atm. Lots of useful stuff, just hearing the radio work, watching the approaches, and listening to post-flight debriefs helps me get familiar with the correct terminology.. I take my hat off to anyone who debriefs their mistakes as an aid for others (as opposed to boasting about their gungho attitude that they got away with). Anyone follow Flightchops? His aim is to learn and share.
Last edited by T6Harvard on Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By flyingearly
#1782233
T6Harvard wrote:Anyone follow Flightchops? His aim is to learn and share.


I absolutely cannot stand FlightChops, for a similar reason to the first video in this thread actually.

If you watch all of the FlightChops videos, I just get a sense that he's pretty cavalier when it comes to safety. Of course, some of it might be clickbaity, but he just seems a bit blase. In the videos I've seen, he accidentally jetblasts the aircraft behind him, there's several engine failures, he shows off a prop strike, groundloops a taildragger, shows off flying in winds that are above POH, nearly flies VMC into IMC, has an issue with wake turbulence on final....and that's just in the videos I've watched. There's always some kind of drama, or something goes wrong, or he causes someone else a problem.

I don't know, maybe I'm a fuddy duddy, maybe I just don't get 'content creation' and vlogging, but I feel compelled to want to comment whenever I watch one of his videos because he just seems a bit reckless with it all, or least nonchalent towards the safety side of what we's done. Like he wrecks the prop of his taildragger and then talks as if it's just one of those things...

The same with the first video in this thread. Now, admittedly I'm very low hours, but was it me or did the narrator suggest that he took off again after that landing? From what I could see, surely the aircraft's undercarriage is quite likely to be damaged, or at least in need of some kind of engineering check-over before you just hop in and take off again. If I had landed like that, at the very least I'd need a new pair of trousers to replace the pair I just stained.

Ditto for the gravel bar landings I mentioned in another thread; it's all 'hey, I flipped my aircraft, no big deal' - but in practice, surely these things ARE a big deal? I mean, if I flipped an aircraft, I'd be pretty mortified, not bragging about it.

Anyway, rant over. I'm sure others like him, but I don't think he's a great advocate for flight safety.

Now the one I REALLY like is SoCal Flying Monkey - he's a cinematographer, so the filming is really something else. He's safety conscious, analytical and seems like a guy you'd want to share a beer with.
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By Hooligan
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1782287
I was in the back seat of a Popham-based C172 about 25 years ago. Young pilot was a bit rusty and the change of runway from 21 on departure to 08 for landing seemed to catch him out a bit. I reminded him about avoiding the farmhouse or whatever it is under the 08 approach, then from flare to touch down took for ever as we floated down the slope with the stall warning blaring the whole time - thought it would get laryngitis. We did turn off with some room to spare though.

It's a while since I visited Popham other than blatting past on the A303 - the runway doesn't slope that much as far as I remember... does it?

PS - are there seriously large proper job breakfasts on offer in the cafe there? Usually stop for brekkers around Amesbury when heading down to Kernow and I keep meaning to give Popham a try...
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1782351
Not seen all of Flightchops vids but I did see the VFC to near IMC and tbh I took the learning from it and assumed he had! Shame if that is not the case. I haven't watched for a while because the stuff was getting too far away from most GA and i lost interest.

I picked up the channel when looking for T6 Harvard vids - I had an aerobatic experience in one but had no film and i wanted to show MrT6 what my expression must have been like as we did a loop.

I did find a vid elsewhere and I KNOW that my expression was exactly like the bloke on that vid, ie. a bit startled at the G!
Just before the top I did manage to blurt out one word -"Amazing" :mrgreen:

Will look at SoCal Flying Monkey, thanks, flyingearly.
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By JAFO
#1782371
I like some of the British ones: The Flying Reporter, Ben Atkinson and, of course, 2Donkeys videos under the N101DW tag being favourites of mine.
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1782437
I never have time normally to watch these, but about the only one I have ever seen was recently, and I couldn't watch much of, as it did seem to have a poor attitude to airmanship and safety. It was someone in a CTR under special VFR and ATC clearly trying to give hints of 'I would get on final and land if I were you, cloudbase is coming down all the time and will be at illegal levels soon' but the pilot just didn't seem to realise what they trying to tell him without overstepping their role, as he was making a video about him flying SVFR in a CTR. In the end conditions went illegal for him and they had to just tell him to land.
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By flyingearly
#1782463
Irv Lee wrote:I never have time normally to watch these, but about the only one I have ever seen was recently, and I couldn't watch much of, as it did seem to have a poor attitude to airmanship and safety. It was someone in a CTR under special VFR and ATC clearly trying to give hints of 'I would get on final and land if I were you, cloudbase is coming down all the time and will be at illegal levels soon' but the pilot just didn't seem to realise what they trying to tell him without overstepping their role, as he was making a video about him flying SVFR in a CTR. In the end conditions went illegal for him and they had to just tell him to land.


...and that's really the interesting thing I was trying (poorly) to say: a lot of these YouTube videos try to dress themselves up as 'learning opportunities', or that the author/vlogger is deliberately pushing the envelope to give themselves something to dissect afterwards: what went wrong, what could go better etc, but really, the mark of a safe flight is surely that it's pretty benign and that there isn't any drama.

A safe pilot gives themselves a reasonable margin against mishap, or trouble, or problems...and they think ahead of time. Of course, things go wrong and unforeseen problems occur, but not on every flight.

If I had released dozens of videos and in a chain of videos I'd had a lot of 'learning opportunities' (shall we say!) in quick succession, I'd probably ask myself whether the real issue is something related to how I approach aviation, or attitude, or culture or something more systemic. And maybe, flying dozens of different aircraft types and doing lots of new stuff on camera isn't the answer: maybe it's doing less, but doing it well and building up my skills to the point where I'm not constantly operating in the category of 'beginner's mistakes'. Undoubtedly it's cool to fly a floatplane, or build my own RV, or get my IFR, or try bush flying, or fly 18 different aircrafts types (from what I can count), but actually I find the better videos are the ones where one person does one thing very well and talks about that.

As a great example, FlightChops has videos in a collection called the CubCrafters Hat Trick and in his commentary he talks about how 'he learnt to fly these 3 different airplanes'....but really, did he? I mean he certainly had flights in 3 different aircraft and had lessons, but I wouldn't say that I've learned to fly three different aircraft just because I've flown in 3 different aircraft. It's that sort of subtlety I really disagree with: you haven't 'learned' to fly 3 different aircraft just after flying in each one.

I'm sure FlightChops is a lovely guy and a great aviator, but I just wish he would tone down the clickbait and present less of an image that flying is all about pushing your luck, or that screwing up is part of the routine, because it's not part of a good routine. Rant over! :)
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By MichaelP
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1782475
I have a few videos of me doing stuff:
“My daughter flying Pitt Meadows” would be criticised for the low cloud in the Pitt Lake area, but I did keep clear of it mostly... It’s still a joy to see.
“Glacier Air aerobatics” was fun.
“PA38 Tomahawk steep turns and spins” was instructive.

Others have posted “Aerobatics with mp in the Pitt Lake”

There’s no escape if you do a lot of things and someone has a GoPro.

Of course before GoPro there was “Biggles” and “A Handful of Dust”. Me as Anjelica Huston :shock: