My Helmet-Cam -- P-51 flight

[Dave Hadfield]

I was slated to fly the Mustang for our Sept airshow, so took it up for a practice flight a few days before. I was wearing a helmet-cam, a Sony AS50. I know nothing about video editing, but winter is here, so I bought PowerDirector and have spent this week puzzling-out how to do the basics.

Rolls, commentary, and some music. I'm not an experienced Mustang pilot, but I had fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzC6z9ShXMM



Dave

[A68-1001]

Enjoyed that , learned a few things too , thanks sharing your flight

[Lynn Allen]

Dave, thank you for sharing the video. What is the tool on your left wrist?

Lynn

[garbs]

Thanks for the ride-along, Dave!

[Bradburger]

Very nice Dave, and thanks for sharing it with us - a lovely video!

I enjoyed your comments, and your song interpretation of 'High Flight'.

Hope you are able to do many more in the future!

Cheers

Paul

[hardlanding]

Thank you *so much* for the video! These kind of videos are the greatest thing for those of us who can only imagine the actual tactile, visceral feel of flying these amazing machines.

I hope you'll do something similar flying the Spitfire soon! (I've watched your video landing the Spitfire, but this P-51 video shows how helpful it is to have your narration added to it.)

I know this is a standard question you may be sick of, but I'd be interested to know, what are the main differences in "feel" that you notice when you move from the Spitfire to the P-51?

Thanks again for a marvelous video -

[jdeters79]

Dave, thank you for sharing the video. What is the tool on your left wrist?

Lynn

Looks like a cell phone holder.

https://www.amazon.com/Wristband-Rotatable-Forearm-Compatible-Smartphone/dp/B0734JVDKG/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1543208879&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=cell+phone+wrist+holder&dpPl=1&dpID=51xVjOQZ8sL&ref=plSrch

[Dave Hadfield]

Yes, that combination was my prime navigator during the 5000-mile Spitfire trip. Much better than a knee-pad. I had ForeFlight loaded onto my iPhone7, and bought a case that has an extra battery built into it.

This worked very well. GPS reception was perfect. Real-Time data, not so much. The higher and faster I went the more trouble I had getting weather information and such. The cockpit needs a router of some kind. But battery-life was really good -- all day, depending.

There is an older Garmin 500 on the panel as you saw, but foreflight is a better program.

The wrist-mount was a simple $30 item off Amazon. It held the phone very securely, and allowed me to click to any angle. Never a hint of a problem.

NO paper maps. No room for them in a Spitfire. But I did do a careful flight plan before each leg. I needed the basic comms and such written on a piece of paper (jot notes) in case of electronic failure.

Dave

[Scott Rose]

Thanks for sharing this with us Dave.
Some of us will never be able to fly in a P-51 (I'm built for bombers )

I appreciate the viewport into this world.

[OD/NG]

Dave, thanks for taking the time to make that video with your commentary. I enjoyed it.

I only have a few comments:

1) I really like the narration overlay on top of the recorded video where you give a running commentary of what's happening. We need more of that. Rather than use the "filler" material of your song (which I liked by the way), how about talking about some other aspect of Mustang flying during that sequence? Also, in my opinion, in a commentary type video such as this, songs are best reserved only for the "lead-in" and "lead-out" audio track of the video. In other words, at the beginning or end. Having the song in the middle kind of broke up the commentary and it felt slightly disjointed. For whatever it's worth, the very best example of a "narrated", first person perspective video, are Kermit Week's videos that he has on youtube. He has started going back and "remastering" his original, "in the cockpit" Kermie-cam videos with narration. His are perfect and exactly what I like to see as a viewer.

2) You put various words and overlay text on your video. That was a nice emphasis, but I wouldn't make your letters black, especially against a dark background such as the sky. Not having much contrast makes the words very difficult to read at times. As a suggestion, perhaps use some "contrasty" colored letters that are completely different from your background that don't "blend-in". Perhaps use red, orange, green, or yellow, for example, against that dark blue sky. If you want to use a similar color for your letters as your background, then think about putting your letters inside a solid or shadowed box so the letters will "pop" and stand out. These ideas would contrast nicely against both the blue sky and the white clouds and be very easy for the viewer to read.

3) I absolutely loved your rendition of "High Flight". I'm not normally a fan of musician's interpretations of poems or songs, etc., but that one was quite nice! I didn't realize you were such a talented musician.

I really liked this video, so take the previous comments as "constructive criticism" and not as any sign of disapproval or harsh criticism whatsoever.

A few more comments:

1) At about 7:10 in the video, you mention that in previous flights you accomplished spin training and upset training in the Mustang. I'm particularly interested in your spin training in the Mustang. I'm not aware of too many people that practice that in a Mustang, though some do, from time to time. Can you talk about that, or better yet, post a video of your Mustang spin training? I'm assuming those are "power-off" spins, correct?

2) Can you do a similar video for a flight in the Spitfire?

Great job on this Dave! It's things like this that make reading WIX a pure joy. Thank you for your contribution!

[bdk]

NO paper maps. No room for them in a Spitfire. But I did do a careful flight plan before each leg. I needed the basic comms and such written on a piece of paper (jot notes) in case of electronic failure.

And your phone is less likely to get sucked out when you open the canopy!

[Lynn Allen]

Dave, thank you for sharing the video. What is the tool on your left wrist?

Lynn

Looks like a cell phone holder.

https://www.amazon.com/Wristband-Rotatable-Forearm-Compatible-Smartphone/dp/B0734JVDKG/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1543208879&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=cell+phone+wrist+holder&dpPl=1&dpID=51xVjOQZ8sL&ref=plSrch

Thank you

[Lynn Allen]

Yes, that combination was my prime navigator during the 5000-mile Spitfire trip. Much better than a knee-pad. I had ForeFlight loaded onto my iPhone7, and bought a case that has an extra battery built into it.

This worked very well. GPS reception was perfect. Real-Time data, not so much. The higher and faster I went the more trouble I had getting weather information and such. The cockpit needs a router of some kind. But battery-life was really good -- all day, depending.

There is an older Garmin 500 on the panel as you saw, but foreflight is a better program.

The wrist-mount was a simple $30 item off Amazon. It held the phone very securely, and allowed me to click to any angle. Never a hint of a problem.

NO paper maps. No room for them in a Spitfire. But I did do a careful flight plan before each leg. I needed the basic comms and such written on a piece of paper (jot notes) in case of electronic failure.

Dave

Thank you