What do you look for in airplane videos/channels?

It varies quite a lot what I watch and enjoy. Often it aligns with a specific mission I’m about to undertake. What draws me in are videos that I can relate to. I enjoy CitationMax, but I’ll never have a chance to pull up to Signature White Plains in my new CJ3+, so it’s hard for me to watch it often. I have my regulars like JustPlaneSilly, 310Pilot, Martin Pauly (speaking of, I need to rewatch his multi stuff soon). They seem like normies - just like me!

Just to echo many others here, it takes a rare breed to get me to stick around more than 10-15 minutes.

I have a handful of videos that I’ve published but are mostly for bragging on my instagram for non-pilots. They’re mostly landings since that seems to be the most exciting part. I find most of my other videos boring. My longest video is the full unedited flight from CYS-BJC and is 45 minutes. I don’t recommend watching it.
 
ah you know what. He doesn't come up here much on these threads but I do tend to stop what I am doing an watch Mike Patey and his videos are loooooooooong.
He is in a class of his own being super human and all.

Part of what makes him cool is how open he is to visiting with people about his stuff.
Meaning I watched all of the scrappy build videos and to get to go up to his plane at Osh and look at the individual parts and go "I watched you build that and that , etc"
He will talk to you for an hour about it. He seems to really love what he is doing and loves to share it with anyone that wants to visit with him about it.

He seems to be a genuinely awesome guy.
 
[QUOTE="SixPapaCharlie, post: 3219012, member: 16336"…Mike Patey…[/QUOTE]

I did watch most of Scrappy, but haven’t been back since the Oshkosh vid. He’s just a freaking genius/mad scientist and does a good job of telling his thought process, almost as a stream of consciousness.
 
What I’d like to see probably wouldn’t get you many views. I’d like to see a channel dedicated to plane ownership, with a focus on maintenance. Teaching folks how to change their oil, pros/cons of different lubricants, taking apart a piston engine, etc. Also discussing GA “issues” - how to shop for insurance, what to look for in A&P, alternatives to 100LL, etc. That would be more interesting to me than more videos of people flying around.
 
AlleyCat67 said:
What I’d like to see probably wouldn’t get you many views. I’d like to see a channel dedicated to plane ownership, with a focus on maintenance. Teaching folks how to change their oil, pros/cons of different lubricants, taking apart a piston engine, etc. Also discussing GA “issues” - how to shop for insurance, what to look for in A&P, alternatives to 100LL, etc. That would be more interesting to me than more videos of people flying around.
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There is Savvy aviation, but good God, if you don't run the video at 150% or faster you are likely to die before he gets to the point.
 
Youtube is my go to for short burst entertainment. I watch a lot of content out there! Aviation wise here's the order in which I watch things;
- Accidents or accident related education.
- Building/Maintenance, or hands on things with airplanes.
- IFR flights done well... ie show the important parts, solid radio work and cockpit flows.

That's pretty much it, however I like cooking so maybe I'll watch those flying cooking videos above.
 
eman1200 said:
1) if your description (of ANY video, aviation related or not) includes any variation of "MUST WATCH UNTIL THE END!!!", I will not watch it.

2a) I almost always fast forward aviation videos to the parts I find interesting. a 30 minute video that starts out with 8 minutes of atis, taxiing, runup etc before you even take off is not interesting TO ME.

2b) kudos if you include chapters I think they're called? makes it easier to fast forward to interesting parts.

3a) if there is some hint of a dramatic event in EVERY SINGLE video title, I will stop watching your videos pretty quickly. I don't want that much of my own drama in my life, forget about your made up drama.

3b) there is an aviation youtuber here on PoA that I was going to rip a new one last night but decided not to. however, if just about every one of your videos is a review of something stupid you did during that flight, it's great that you're using it as a learning opportunity (or more likely just a way to grab more views on your video), but how 'bout this......STOP DOING THOSE STUPID THINGS OVER AND OVER?!?!? prime example for this particular person, if you're editing one video after another after another and in each and every one your wife is literally in tears because she's completely miserable and really has no interest in being in your plane because she's absolutely miserable, maybe pick up on that and stop being selfish and putting her through that. it just leads me to believe that you're only doing it for the views and, well, basically clueless about what's going on around you. if your wife (or other passenger) is having a friggin panic attack on every flight and you're still reviewing your stupid avionics for the video or discussing the weather or whatever, you are selfish and clueless. so, like, don't do that :)

4) as pretty much everyone else said, keep 'em short.

5) put music in your video if you want and ignore the music haters. it's YOUR video, do what you want.

6) (prob should'a been #1) straight and level is b o r i n g.

7) for me it gets obvious once you get past "I wanna share my videos" to "oh wow, I'm making some money, let me step it up a notch". that's about when I stop watching your videos. enjoy catering to the non-aviation crowd who believes and enjoys any cr@p u put out.

hhmmm, there's prob more but that's enough outta me.
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3b, you need to post a link to this, I have to watch it.
 
rwellner98 said:
I pretty much only watch videos where people fly someplace and cook something. ;-)
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I LOVE those! I also like the ones where people fly someplace and shoot pheasants.

The ideal video would be a collab between those two: fly someplace and shoot pheasants, clean them, and cook them!
 
Taft said:
I've spent the past few months making videos of my flights. They started out pretty bad — learned LOTS of lessons on what not to do — but I'm slowly starting to make videos I'm more and more proud of. I went from one subscriber per month to one per week, and now it's approaching one per day.

My goal isn't to make money or build a business. I want to create something interesting that people enjoy. I also do a lot of volunteer flying, so if I do build a following, I'll use the money to do more of that rather than pay myself.

My favorite videos show people incorporating aviation into their lifestyle. 310 Pilot and SoCal Flying Monkey are channels I watched often as I was working on my PPL and IFR. I also find myself watching lots of videos about whatever airplane I'm daydreaming about owning next.

Those of you who watch aviation videos — what sort of stuff appeals to you? Are there things you want to see more of but can't find?
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To show what they don't teach you at ground school and also exploring new airports and getting to know the stories behind those smaller FBOs. I've found some amazing stories of family operated FBOs on remote places
 
Deelee said:
Not an inside joke, as far as I know. I think some people just like seeing pictures of cans.
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That's nuts. Now I'm genuinely interested in learning about this. Not for views...just to understand.
 
Hector Parra said:
To show what they don't teach you at ground school and also exploring new airports and getting to know the stories behind those smaller FBOs. I've found some amazing stories of family operated FBOs on remote places
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Yeah this makes sense to me. Sounds like it would be entertaining. If I didn't have two jobs during the week, my channel would be flying to interesting restaurants with friends. That's the dream channel for me — show 50% flying and 50% exploring cool restaurants. The FBO idea is super interesting, too. I've given a couple of tours, but haven't asked questions or gotten background.
 
Taft said:
Yeah this makes sense to me. Sounds like it would be entertaining. If I didn't have two jobs during the week, my channel would be flying to interesting restaurants with friends. That's the dream channel for me — show 50% flying and 50% exploring cool restaurants. The FBO idea is super interesting, too. I've given a couple of tours, but haven't asked questions or gotten background.
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Sure. I mean, landing on river banks and on mountain tops like goats is cool. But I'm kind of getting tired of it. Is also not my mission. I'm more on the fly low and slow side of aviation.
Another topic: What volunteering/community service options are out there in aviation? I know that search and rescue and flying people from remote areas to big cities to receive medical treatments are some of the options.
 
I'm going to first mention my #1 pet peeve of podcasts and youtube channels: Please don't take up 1/4 of your video with a discussion of your channel/podcast and how it's going. That might be interesting to you and people who have a personal connection to you/the show but as a guy randomly clicking on youtube videos to kill a bit of time I don't care.

As for what I want to see, when I was new to flying I wanted videos that would show me what things were really like. When I was doing IFR training I wanted to see what IFR flights were really like. When I was trying to decide what plane I wanted, I wanted to see videos of different types I was looking at and discussion of them.

Now I'm more interested in seeing interesting places to go/things to do. Basically I'm probably not going to watch videos of someone doing something I can already do/have done myself a bunch of times. Show me something new/different... or do comedy, I hear that's a great way to get to know your local FSDO.
 
Hector Parra said:
Another topic: What volunteering/community service options are out there in aviation? I know that search and rescue and flying people from remote areas to big cities to receive medical treatments are some of the options.
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This is what I'm focused on now. I have a couple videos of my first volunteer flight (where my airplane's starter went out 4 hours from home) and I'm about to publish a couple more that show my first successful volunteer medical flight. Glad to hear it's interesting to folks. Probably need to make a video about how to get involved and what it requires.
 
eman1200 said:
1) if your description (of ANY video, aviation related or not) includes any variation of "MUST WATCH UNTIL THE END!!!", I will not watch it.

2a) I almost always fast forward aviation videos to the parts I find interesting. a 30 minute video that starts out with 8 minutes of atis, taxiing, runup etc before you even take off is not interesting TO ME.

2b) kudos if you include chapters I think they're called? makes it easier to fast forward to interesting parts.

3a) if there is some hint of a dramatic event in EVERY SINGLE video title, I will stop watching your videos pretty quickly. I don't want that much of my own drama in my life, forget about your made up drama.

3b) there is an aviation youtuber here on PoA that I was going to rip a new one last night but decided not to. however, if just about every one of your videos is a review of something stupid you did during that flight, it's great that you're using it as a learning opportunity (or more likely just a way to grab more views on your video), but how 'bout this......STOP DOING THOSE STUPID THINGS OVER AND OVER?!?!? prime example for this particular person, if you're editing one video after another after another and in each and every one your wife is literally in tears because she's completely miserable and really has no interest in being in your plane because she's absolutely miserable, maybe pick up on that and stop being selfish and putting her through that. it just leads me to believe that you're only doing it for the views and, well, basically clueless about what's going on around you. if your wife (or other passenger) is having a friggin panic attack on every flight and you're still reviewing your stupid avionics for the video or discussing the weather or whatever, you are selfish and clueless. so, like, don't do that :)

4) as pretty much everyone else said, keep 'em short.

5) put music in your video if you want and ignore the music haters. it's YOUR video, do what you want.

6) (prob should'a been #1) straight and level is b o r i n g.

7) for me it gets obvious once you get past "I wanna share my videos" to "oh wow, I'm making some money, let me step it up a notch". that's about when I stop watching your videos. enjoy catering to the non-aviation crowd who believes and enjoys any cr@p u put out.

hhmmm, there's prob more but that's enough outta me.
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TL;DR :rofl::goofy::ihih:
 
OneCharlieTango said:
I LOVE those! I also like the ones where people fly someplace and shoot pheasants.

The ideal video would be a collab between those two: fly someplace and shoot pheasants, clean them, and cook them!
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I'm game. :)
 
OneCharlieTango said:
I LOVE those! I also like the ones where people fly someplace and shoot pheasants.

The ideal video would be a collab between those two: fly someplace and shoot pheasants, clean them, and cook them!
Click to expand...

I might actually do that next year, sounds like a good idea.
 
AlleyCat67 said:
What I’d like to see probably wouldn’t get you many views. I’d like to see a channel dedicated to plane ownership, with a focus on maintenance. Teaching folks how to change their oil, pros/cons of different lubricants, taking apart a piston engine, etc. Also discussing GA “issues” - how to shop for insurance, what to look for in A&P, alternatives to 100LL, etc. That would be more interesting to me than more videos of people flying around.
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Most of these videos makes me want to gouge my eyes out/take a nap and I own a Grumman (I think). But it does cover the things you are asking for. I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/c/GrummanPilots
 
Taft said:
Yeah this makes sense to me. Sounds like it would be entertaining. If I didn't have two jobs during the week, my channel would be flying to interesting restaurants with friends. That's the dream channel for me — show 50% flying and 50% exploring cool restaurants. The FBO idea is super interesting, too. I've given a couple of tours, but haven't asked questions or gotten background.
Click to expand...
There you go! You can be the Anthony Bourdain of aviation. I'd subscribe.
 
OneCharlieTango said:
I LOVE those! I also like the ones where people fly someplace and shoot pheasants.

The ideal video would be a collab between those two: fly someplace and shoot pheasants, clean them, and cook them!
Click to expand...
I definitely read this as "Peasants". I'd also watch that video.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I have 8 subscribers. You probably don't want my advice. :cool:
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I have 4 so you REALLY don't want to listen to me...But please like and subscribe. :) :popcorn:

I was videoing flights before videoing flights was cool. This is from around 30 years ago. My wife was videoing with a full size VHS shoulder mounted camcorder. I still had some hair. Years of hunting and flying with no headset and you can see why now I have tinnitus and can't hear as well as when I was a youngster.


Seriously the way to make any channel grow is to get a good looking :blowingkisses: to fly on your :blueplane: or your sail boat or your car.....It is the Youtube formula for success.
 
Make sure you have one of those pictures of yourself in shock or disbelief on the preview pane. Seems like a common thing on YT these days. I avoid those like the plague.
 
My two cents....
Mostly I have enjoyed living vicariously through others...to get a taste of flying even when I'm not flying myself... a good blend or mix is fun...which includes a story or purpose of sorts.... Could be a trip to a place....a nice overview and taste of the planning, the actual flight, decisions, etc...then include a bit about the place

Foremost thing I think, is do what you do best...be yourself.
just do what you do, and then after that just try to focus on doing better at the "production" side of it
Don't try to make funny videos if you're not a funny guy.
Don't try to make teaching videos about something you only just learned yourself a few minutes ago
etc...

If your thing is to travel and just film the flight/procedures...then work on the editing, camera angles, etc....

For me, I enjoy watching some channels mostly to hear pro's work the radio
or it's just fun to see another way to do a thing
or to understand what thoughts another person put into some particular decision.

Bob Noel said:
I really really really hate the "music" used on youtube videos. As much as you might think some group or band is completely awesome, there is no production value to it (unless, maybe, if it's a video about the group or band).
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I agree....but only when it's poorly done. Some folks figure out how to use music when it makes sense, pick the right sort of music, not make it the primary focus...etc..
I really don't much like those blue angles vids that you can only hear loud rock music for the whole time... I'd much rather hear the jet sounds..the radio chatter, etc... maybe just a little low key BACKGROUND type music can be nice during a time lapse or something......
 
Brad W said:
Foremost thing I think, is do what you do best...be yourself.
just do what you do, and then after that just try to focus on doing better at the "production" side of it
Don't try to make funny videos if you're not a funny guy.
Don't try to make teaching videos about something you only just learned yourself a few minutes ago
etc...

If your thing is to travel and just film the flight/procedures...then work on the editing, camera angles, etc....
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I think Brad nailed it here.

Just do you, fly your normal flights, be yourself and keep it fun. Worst case you’ll have personal videos you enjoy later in life. Maybe it catches traction if that’s what you want. If you force it, people will know and not watch.

@SixPapaCharlie is truly a naturally funny/jovial guy. That’s his niche and people love it.

@Martin Pauly is a more naturally technical guy and does great at explaining/teaching. People pack his forum to hear him talk at OSH.

Both different styles and people really enjoy it and they enjoy sharing them. PS… both are real fun drinking beers and hanging out with.

I started a channel with no intentions of where/how it would go. I posted the first video here and it was pointed out how terribly edited it was. They were right. My wife and I are ATC and occasionally talk about that. Suppose that was our niche. We’ve never pre-planned a video. Just take our normal flights, start cameras and forget about them mostly. The title/thumbnails/focus of the video doesn’t come to me till months later when I edit it. We’ve had some real fun GA journeys and along the way I feel I got slightly better at editing. Keep in mind whatever you do won’t be for everyone. The internet can be a very brutal place…it can also be rewarding.

Like all things in life, too much of a good thing can be too much… Wish you luck in your quest.
 
Radar Contact said:
Just do you, fly your normal flights, be yourself and keep it fun. Worst case you’ll have personal videos you enjoy later in life. Maybe it catches traction if that’s what you want.
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Very well stated. Worst case our videos serve as a great memory of our flights and coupled with our blog help us remember places to eat and stay along that journey.
 
Bob Noel said:
I really really really hate the "music" used on youtube videos. As much as you might think some group or band is completely awesome, there is no production value to it (unless, maybe, if it's a video about the group or band).
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Best message today. Not sure why, but my sound bar plays music WAY louder than voice ... I just back out of the videos that do that.

To the OP:

1. Shoot video like Wayne and the others ... don't paste your mug in front of the camera, only your mom is interested in that. Most have a camera just behind them or off to the side, or keep the comment SHORT like Aviation 101 (although his intros are long).

2. Second the technical videos (pilot repair, maintenace etc).

3. Short comparisons between products with pluses and minuses

4. Longer ONLY ok if trying to show something like the OSH approach

5. 310 does the enroute perfect, speeding up the boring stuff and normal speed on approaches.
 
danhagan said:
Best message today. Not sure why, but my sound bar plays music WAY louder than voice ... I just back out of the videos that do that.

...5. 310 does the enroute perfect, speeding up the boring stuff and normal speed on approaches.
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...with music :eek: :hairraise: :frown3: :eek:
 
eman1200 said:
...with music :eek: :hairraise: :frown3: :eek:
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Most music on the videos over-rides the voice on my TV soundbar. I've tried EVERY setting to decrease music ... 301's are ok as I don't notice it and it doesn't over-drive the audio
 
DFH65 said:
...I was videoing flights before videoing flights was cool. This is from around 30 years ago. My wife was videoing with a full size VHS shoulder mounted camcorder...
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I've got ones on 8mm film with no sound.
 
Taft said:
Also...what's the thing about the cans? Inside joke here?
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Cans = boobs.

There are a few YouTuber pilots with thumbnail pics of a cute chick with a nice rack in the right seat. Guaranteed clickbait.
 
Taft said:
My goal isn't to make money or build a business. I want to create something interesting that people enjoy.
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My advice to you, @Taft: Talk about something you enjoy and which you feel you know well enough to speak to. If you enjoy making the videos, it'll be recognized by the viewers. That's half the battle.

If it was purely about numbers (getting the most subscribers, or maximizing revenue) I would say stick to the very short ones (billions of 30-second reels are being watched every day) or add a good looking young woman in skimpy clothing (which has helped sales for thousands of years). Aviation is such a small world; you won't get rich with quality content. But as you said, getting rich doesn't have to be the point of it - so do what you love, and you'll do alright. I'd much rather provide quality content to a tiny niche market than get famous around the world over something which is meaningless to me.

Best of luck to you!

- Martin
 
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