Best Maneuvers for a Video

Windymind

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Windymind
Hi everyone,

I'm the marketing guy of a flight school based in Montreal. I'm afraid of heights but I plan to go in a Cessna 172 with an instructor and do a video with cool maneuvers for pilot students (up to ATPL).

In your opinion, what would be the best maneuvers to film for that video? Which ones are impressive to see?

PS: I'll try to post the video in this forum once made.
 
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Have you been in a small plane before?
 
I'm the marketing guy of a flight school based in Montreal. I'm afraid of heights
Classic. Incidentally chair lifts recently started bothering me as far as heights go, but so far so good with planes luckily! Having said that, high wings always feel "odd" to me since you're hanging under the wing, I much prefer low wings

In all seriousness, for a marketing video here would be my votes, based on some amateur experience when I tried to get some of my training flights on film
*be weary of an audience who can get motion sick - steep turns might give a 1-2 second cool factor "look at that bank angle!" but I would keep those minimal
*focus on the sight seeing abilities from the air, if you are in a 172 the view is awesome... have the school fly you over some cool sights and I would film some shallow banks cruising around the air
*landings are always cool, get some shots of that
*if the school goes up through ATP another cool shot is breaking out at minimums with a big beautiful runway infront of you

*I would keep the music at a minimum, and let the audience here the real ATC and some engine sounds. Rarely have I seen an aviation movie where I thought "thank goodness I'm listening to Nickelback instead of the ATC"
 
MrAviation101 does a good job I think of making these videos and sampling in music where appropriate. On his Hoover Dam one around 9:30 the music is phased in

 
Of course, in the interest of truth in marketing (now there's a concept), you should probably show the prospective student a couple of hundred laps around the pattern doing touch-&-go landings.
 
I'm the marketing guy of a flight school based in Montreal. I'm afraid of heights
You work for a flight school and you're afraid of heights? Isn't that an oxymoron? :dunno:
 
I agree with Br-Y-an, straight and level is the best and most interesting maneuver.
And when you get bored, try some accelerated stalls with uncoordinated inputs and please don't stop filming until the spinning, puking and screaming stops. Pretty pretty please! :)
 
I hate heights. Love flying in anything that makes it off the ground (and back again softly). You will want to avoid anything that feels like a roller coaster - like spins and aggressive stalls.

I find most videos on youtube pretty darn boring unless they are acro in nature. You will have to get pretty creative I think. I bet even some mild stalls will make you queasy at first and anything mild is simply boring.

I'd film as many maneuvers as your stomach can handle and the air speed indicator. Steep turns, take offs, landings.
The following day after you recover, stitch them all together so they don't make anyone sleepy.
 
Or, just show them this video:
 
60 degree bank turns.

do it a few times, you start liking the G's. this is coming from someone whose definition of moderate bank was 5 degrees. trust me, it goes away with time.
 
Seriously, most of the sexy marketing shots are taken from another aircraft in formation. People just starting out think of what they see from the ground as flying, not what they eventually see from the cockpit.

Agreed that shots out the windows to show what you CAN see for new folks is also very cool to them, too.

A bunch of maneuvers with the horizon tilting behind the glareshield isn't all that useful for marketing purposes. Most new students are way more fascinated by the stuff in the panel and in fact instructors usually have to say things like, "Hey, look outside there, isn't it a beautiful VFR day? I can see Pikes Peak from here!" to get their eyeballs outside.

That's what they see in movies. Outside shots of aircraft in flight, and cockpits full of knobs, dials, switches, levers, and lights.
 
Thank you for these comments so far. This is kind and helpful.
 
Spins. They look awesome on video, and will make you realize how stable a 172 is.
 
Hi everyone,

I'm the marketing guy of a flight school based in Montreal. I'm afraid of heights but I plan to go in a Cessna 172 with an instructor and do a video with cool maneuvers for pilot students (up to ATPL).

In your opinion, what would be the best maneuvers to film for that video? Which ones are impressive to see?

PS: I'll try to post the video in this forum once made.

Look up Gary Wing's videos on Youtube for some ideas.
 
Me too. But flying in a plane is different for me. The heights thing doesn't come up in a plane for me. Been flying for 38 years.
People always ask me "how can you be afraid of heights if you fly?" Airplanes never bothered me though with heights, I have a few theories why this is but I won't waste time with those here :)
 
Chandells and lazy 8s
Hard slip to a landing
Not a part of the maneuver checklist, but a wing over normally looks good on film and I can't think of a plane that can't do one easily.
 
I second spins! But, only as a joke. Personally I like to see exterior shots, from outside of the airplane. Set up a formation flight.

 
Chandells and lazy 8s
Hard slip to a landing
Not a part of the maneuver checklist, but a wing over normally looks good on film and I can't think of a plane that can't do one easily.


Lazy 8's? That gotta be one of the slowest most boring maneuvers ever...Chandelle's are "meh"...

Slips would be fun..Now, 8's on pylons, that I could get behind :)
 
Ground reference maneuvers over something interesting, you'll get more sense of motion. I like external shots as well. You can get the feeling at altitude that you're sitting still, not very exciting. Turning will just put the horizon at an angle out front. Side view of turns can be cool, looking down.
 
I kinda like the view during nadir shots. Steep turns around a point, usually at low altitude.

But I don't know how that will look on video. Probably not a good perspective for someone afraid of heights.
 
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