Videos Archives - Page 10 of 46 - Golf Hotel Whiskey

New Guinea bush flying video: If you thought Microsoft Flight Simulator was hard…

Matt Dearden, a British pilot who flies Pilatus PC-6 and is the blogger behind Bush Flying Diaries, Indonesia, has spent a few months collecting the footage for and then a week dealing with power cuts and blackouts to get the following video of his flying in New Guinea uploaded on to the Internet:

And if you think Microsoft Flight Simulator is challenging, try landing on these landing strips that Matt needs to deal with every day in real life:

Matt added that if viewers like this video, he would like to know about it because he would also love to try out a few more angles and compile footage of other landing strips.

YouTube stunt lands a stunt pilot into FAA trouble

Stunt pilot Jason Newburg who was filmed performing a practice stunt has landed into trouble with the FAA for having an aerobatics waiver that had expired in November. The video of the stunt in which he flew at 200 miles an hour comes within feet of a man on a runway and another on a bike, was posted on YouTube and had attracted considerable attention – including that of the FAA:

ABC News first reported on the stunt which apparently took place at a North Texas airport and may have been a practice run for an upcoming show being filmed in the area. A local city manager stated:

He does have an FAA aerobatic waiver. We are required to keep a copy of the waiver on file. We do have a copy of that waiver and have verified it’s currently valid.

However, the FAA stated that it could not “immediately locate a waiver tied to the pilot, the airport or the plane seen in the stunt” and it was later reported that the waiver to perform aerobatics had expired in November.

Apparently, Jason often performs with motorcycle showmen known as the Dallas Stunt Riderz who do maneuvers beneath his aircraft. Moreover, Newburg’s company was involved in a helicopter crash in 2008 when an unlicensed helicopter pilot took off with rather than against the wind, causing a hard landing.

Most comments on the later report seemed to criticize the FAA, including posts like:

“FAA told ABC to get the attention off the Boeing’s lithium battery problem…”

and:

“It was a slow day at headquarters.”

I guess one could say that the stunt was reasonably “safe” – so long as the participants knew not to move and there was no sudden burst of wind. However, Jason should have gotten his expired waiver renewed and he should not have posted a video on the Internet to remind the FAA to do their job!

Insane landing video: Would you go flying with this pilot?

AVweb recently posted an undated LiveLeak video of a pilot of a Dornier taking about two minutes to go from what looks like an altitude of 12,000 feet or 3,600 meters to unload a few skydivers to then land at an airport somewhere in Europe (various comments suggest its in Poland or perhaps Germany while LiveLeak says the video was taken in Brazil). The real dicey maneuver (as if the whole video of the flight is not jaw dropping enough) comes in at around the 2:30 minute mark as the pilot does a low and hard bank above some woods and then lands at the airport:

It also appears that this following video from YouTube was taken from the ground and shows the pilot performing that last maneuver:

After the video was posted on AVweb, editor Paul Bertorelli then wrote a piece entitled: Should We Have Published This Video? Paul pointed out that skydiving operations tend to push envelope a bit when it comes to risk and that dropzones “often have enough tension with the local airport operators without making it worse by pushing outside the envelope of acceptable behavior in the pattern.” Otherwise, he concluded that there was no “defensible reason for that kind of horsing around” plus he added in the comments section:

This is pretty cool stuff to watch and before the crash, everyone says great piloting. After the crash, it’s what a dumb ass.

Other comments pointed out that the aircraft used is super durable and has STOL capabilities plus the pilot is obviously experienced.

With the videos along with all of the comments they have garnered on AVweb and LiveLeak in mind though, we would like to ask you our readers: Would you go flying with this pilot in real life or would you want to just stick to playing with the Microsoft Flight Simulator? Moreover, should this type of flying even be allowed?

James May’s Toy Stories: Flight Club

In the latest episode of James May’s Toy Stories (Flight Club), he attempted to achieve the first flight across the English Channel by an engineless, home-made supersized toy glider to break the British distance record in the process. There was one major problem: French bureaucrats would not budge to allow the flight to take place – meaning the 22 mile flight had to take place across the Bristol Channel as a substitute for the English Channel.

Otherwise and what’s also interesting about the episode is that James looks into the possibility that British school children were the real pioneers of aviation by making paper airplanes or paper darts (some of which resembled the Concorde) more than 100 years ago.

The Love Planes’ blog has pointed out that if you missed the episode, you can watch it online from the BBC directly depending upon your location (or click on TV Guide here to find out when the show will repeat). However, a quick search on YouTube reveals the episode has been posted by a couple of users (and so far BBC has apparently not noticed them!).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k41z_ujop4&w=480]

Aviation videos of flying that would be illegal in the UK

Hat tip to Rodney of the Rodney’s Aviation Ramblings blog for finding and posting this video of 1920s wing walker Gladys Ingle of the 13 BLACK CATS changing aircraft in mid-air in order to replace a lost wheel. Rodney’s comment was:

I am sure there are a few reasons why this would never happen these days…
…probably including the Rules, and a lack of engineers who enjoy flying…:-)

And we can safely assume this would not be legal in the UK today:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oAzdbd0J2A&w=480]

The same goes for this next video (“The daredevil pilots of Colombia”) produced for Al Jazeera and posted on FlightSchoolList.com showing pilots in Colombia fly a DC3 on some of the most perilous air routes in the world over the Amazon jungle. One reason old DC3s are still used is because they can actually stand up to the brutal weather and climate conditions in places like the Amazon jungle where they deliver supplies to remote villages, but maintenance problems and (fatal) accidents are common:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-F-cBF5ZbQ&w=480]

Finally, Matt Dearden, a British born Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter pilot who flies over the jungles of Indonesia, has recently posted this great flying video on his Bush Flying Diaries, Indonesia blog that was taken on trips to remote and rather dangerous looking jungle airstrips in Northern Kalimantan/Borneo. The scenes were shot over a few months entirely on a single GoPro 1 HD camera:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj2aw2zjdlA&w=480]

Awesome aerial videos of New Zealand the world’s only flying WWII Mosquito Bomber

Hat tip to the MRC Aviation in New Zealand for posting this great HD video (except for the lousy music!) of the world’s only flying WWII Mosquito Bomber taking off from Ardmore Airport and then flying in formation with the Spitfire and Vampire around the Auckland CBD:

A quick look at YouTube reveals another video from the Heletranz Helicopters (with perhaps better music) that does a great job of showing off just how beautiful New Zealand is from the air:

Finally, Heletranz Helicopters has also taken this aerial footage of flying around Auckland along with the West Coast, Piha, Waiheke and Taranaki: