Mooney Formation Flying (with editing question)

Do you like music in flying videos?

  • Total voters
    34
  • Poll closed .
Archammer

Archammer

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FlyingSchmidt
So, I posted a video that I made of some flying with Gsxrpilot, that I was invited to join in on and I have a poll question for all of you.

I want to know if you thought the actual video was done well for inspiring others to fly. But more importantly, I get the wildest responses about the music I lay into the video. Some love it to death, and some hate it so bad they yell at me with BIG LETTERS about it. No real gray area about the matter. I really enjoy the music, but it brought up a great question.

Do you like music in a video like this or not? I don't think the droning sound of the engine the entire video would be enjoyable, but you be the judge. Poll attached, enjoy the vid!


P.S. Hey Gsxrpilot, thank you very much for inviting me tag along on your practice!
 
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Music complimented it well! I thoroughly enjoyed the video.

Why'd y'all pull that gear up so fast though? While I don't have any retract time, it's been already beaten in to my head not to retract until out of usable.
 
for the record, I voted based on the responses you provided, but a coupl'a thoughts:

I've realized that videos of flying straight and level over flat land gets real boring real quick for some folks. so yeah, u can easily spruce them up with some GOOD music. I don't recall who I recently nudged a lil bit for using the most god awful music in his video, but the bottom line is, it's YOUR video, do what you want, get creative, and hope people like it, and if not, F 'em.

I try to keep my vids to real short clips, 20seconds to a minuteish. longer than that I'll most likely add music.
 
I like music in videos, my two flying video so far have had music. I think it's important to match the music to the video though....just putting up a song you like a lot onto a video may not work as well as finding a song with the proper beat, tempo, lyrics or whatever.

The best aviation videos that I've seen have the ambient engine noise droning on quietly in the backround and the intercom and ATC comms as well as some music...but as has been said, it's YOUR video, you don't have to listen to us or anyone else about what is "right", do it however you want because you'll probably watch it way more than anyone else anyway.
 
mkosmo said:
Music complimented it well! I thoroughly enjoyed the video.

Why'd y'all pull that gear up so fast though? While I don't have any retract time, it's been already beaten in to my head not to retract until out of usable.
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First of all, great job to FlyingSchmidt for putting together such a great video! If you've ever tried to do one, you know how time consuming all the editing is. I'm thrilled to have such a cool video of my flying. Shane is my new favorite co-pilot.

Regarding the gear. And I know it's easy to get flamed on this board for answering a question. But here goes...

1. I have manual gear in the Mooney so it's muscle power alone that raises and lowers the gear. I usually rotate at 75 without flaps. (We never use flaps for takeoff or landing when flying formation.) At 80 and above, the gear becomes very difficult to move. Therefore I raise it as soon as leaving the ground while I still can.
2. Again, with the manual gear, I can drop it almost instantly. It typically takes about 2 seconds to go from fully retracted to down and locked. So I'm confident I can get it right back down if needed.
3. In an emergency situation, almost as useful as useable runway is altitude. My little Mooney climbs like a sick chicken with the gear out. Therefore I like to tuck it up and climb for that altitude.

I think if you watch, you'll see it's very common for pilots of older manual gear Mooney's to do likewise.
 
That makes sense! I've seen the Johnson bar gears before and know you have near instant deployment, but had no idea that speed made them difficult to operate. Thanks for the insight!
 
I originally posted before I watched the video....it's VERY well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for putting it up!
 
Paul, I like the video but the music drowns out the radio calls that you left in. Good job picking appropriate music, just turn the gain on it down a little bit.

My gear is electric and moves in 6 seconds from down and locked to up, or from up to down and locked, and I raise them by treetop level on most takeoffs. "Positive rate, gear up." At my new home field (5000' long, 264 msl) I can be 300' agl or higher by the end of the runway with the gear up; probably less than half of that with gear down.

So think: raise gear when no usable runway is left. On landing solo, I hit the numbers at 75 mph and generally touch down NLT the 500' ILS mark and make the midfield turnoff with gentle braking. So I can stand on the brakes and stop in maybe 1200' instead of 2000'. That means touchdown again by 3800. Liftoff is usually by the 1000' mark. How high can I climb then descend again in 2800' while accelerating from 70 mph at rotation to Vy of 85, then set back down again at 64 with Takeoff flaps?

Since 85 mph = 125 feet per second, it will take me about 25 seconds including acceleration to cover this distance. Subtract reported 4 seconds to recognize a problem and take action, leaves 21 seconds. It takes more time to slow down than to accelerate (no air brakes . . .), leaving me a window of about 8 seconds after rotation when I have useable runway in front of me. So I raise the gear. On shorter runways, I have no useable runway by the time the gear moves up.

"Speed is life. Altitude is life insurance."
 
I liked that video a lot, and recognize your lead/wingman. I had the pleasure of doing a flight in a formation with Bucko at the Yuma clinic. Those Texas boys are definitely good at this stuff. The music fit the pace of the video well. The problem with music is always that everyone has different taste, but IMHO it's better to have music that some people dont like than none. If they would rather listen to the drone of an engine they can hit mute and turn the vacuum cleaner on next to them. IMHO the best is if you can get the ambient airplane noise, the intercom audio and some music as well. I've finally figured out how to do that but it requires some extra equipment.

On the gear, I'll second or third what was said about getting it up quick on the johnson bar mooneys. If I'm at 80mph indicated I can have the gear up and locked in under 2 seconds. If I'm at 100 (Vy) it's a tough job. The opposite is true of dropping the gear. the faster you go the easier it is. I usually drop my gear right below the max of 120mph and unless my hand slips off the handle it's down and locked almost instantly. If you watch some of the videos I've posted here in the past you'll probably see it as well.
 
I liked the music in the OP's video. The beat matched the pace of the action without being obnoxious or overwhelming. It had the airy, bouncy sound that is the feel of flight.

It's the folks who use screamo rock in their videos that need to have their cameras confiscated.
 
The problem with "music" in a video is most of the time it's crap.
 
Nice video, very well put together and the music complemented it nicely. I've gotten to fly with Paul and Bucko in formation before and they're both great pilots. Paul's plane is setup nicely.
 
I'm one of those that hates music add-ins.
They offer nothing to the video except a distraction.

At best, I have to mute my audio; but normally, I just kill the video
 
I fail to see how a bunch of constant wind noise is any different than mute, or how either is better than music.
 
Love this stuff! Thanks for all the feedback so far. It's good to have you know. I'm doing my best to make aviation more inviting and fun for enthusiasts and people outside of aviation. I also want to inspire us pilots to have fun and enjoy it every time we can! We have to share this activity with others, or no one will care.

Gsxrpilot said:
First of all, great job to FlyingSchmidt for putting together such a great video! If you've ever tried to do one, you know how time consuming all the editing is. I'm thrilled to have such a cool video of my flying. Shane is my new favorite co-pilot.

Regarding the gear.
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Thanks budde! Flying with you was good times!

Oh and FYI, he would have been able to tuck the gear faster except I had my stupid arm in the way. hehe, huh Paul!
Also, I'm thinking I might actually prefer the Johnson bar in a complex, because it seems like you have more "control" of your gear, and less concern with busted, leaking or faulty pressure lines. He was able to retract and deploy the gear well, and really "feel" it being where it should.

LevelWing said:
Nice video, very well put together and the music complemented it nicely. I've gotten to fly with Paul and Bucko in formation before and they're both great pilots. Paul's plane is setup nicely.
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They were both great! The plane was great, and I was privileged to be able to sit in on the brief and debrief. Just a damn good day all around for me!
 
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Some videos are enhanced by the music chosen, others it is just a lot of noise. I leave the volume alone until I cannot stand it. The mute button works well.
 
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