Now he’s totally 100% right. No arguments. It’s potentially dangerous for all
kinds of reasons. I have no excuse other than the fact that JPM doesn’t have
front pockets to stow it in, which leaves me scrambling looking for a space
after I’ve used it to jot down the Hobbs, ATIS info and time up. But to be honest today, I simply forgot it
was there. The dash comes quite high up
and it was pushed back so I genuinely didn’t see it.
My camera, of course has a different angle on things. It sits
higher up and I point it slightly downwards. Consequently I have 40ish minutes
of footage, of which my clipboard is the prime star. Stage front and centre. A constantly reminder of " you did something naughty!"The really stupid thing is, because of the foreshortening effect of the lens it looks like I’m constantly head-butting the thing and anyone would wonder how I didn't spot it.
I think we can consider that a point well made. 40 minutes of my scrappy scribbling of the
ATIS info is not what I was going for filmwise!
If I could film myself flying I would mount the camera behind me so you see out the front and the instruments at the same time. Much better for debriefing yourself... "You idiot! Can't you see the ****** switch is on? Turn it off! I bet Bob knows, is that a wry grin on his face? Oh boy I am never going to hear the end of this..."
ReplyDeleteI've thought a lot about where to mount the camera for the best effect At the moment I just strap it to my head. This has the distinct advantage of being really easy to set up. I’d love to set something up that gets both the view outside and the instrument panel in but
ReplyDelete1) The go pro seems to take a few seconds to refocus when transitioning from light to dark areas. I’m not sure how it would cope with seeing both simultaneously
2) I’m not sure where/how to mount it. Obviously the mounting has to be really secure and these are rental planes so I can’t fit anything permanent onto them. I wouldn’t feel right about using vast amounts of duct tape and potentially damaging something
3) Privacy – I’ve never really asked Bob how he feels about ending up on YouTube. I’m ok with my flying (both good and bad) being on there but it’s probably different if you are an instructor. It is why at the moment I’m happy that the mike seems to pick up mostly my voice. I’m considering getting a line in input so I can record ATC as well, but will probably limit using that to when I’m flying solo.
4) At the moment I very much need to concentrate on the flying. The camera is a valuable tool but I don’t want to be distracted by messing around with it. It took me a couple of flights to get it set u and recording. The second one. I knew it wasn’t working but just left it because I wanted to show Bob that my priority was flying not filming
When I’ve got my license, or when I’m flying with RTH , well then hopefully the fun really begins!