A video from the FlyingMAir YouTube Channel.
SIT ON THE NOSE OF MY HELICOPTER as I take a professional photographer over Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, WA to shoot photos of Boeing 737 MAX airplanes parked there. There are over 100 planes, parked in three big areas, and this video gives you a good view of all of them.
The video starts with a cockpit POV radio call requesting permission from the tower to make the flight. We’d taken off at sunrise from Wenatchee, so it was still early when we arrived and there was no other aircraft traffic. The tower told us to “proceed as requested,” giving us free-rein to conduct the flight as needed. The view then switches to an unobstructed forward view from the helicopter’s nose. The photographer was sitting behind me so we both had the same view; that made it easy for me to get into position for his shots. Iit also meant that the best shots were off the right side of the aircraft and not the nose where my camera was. Still, I think you’ll agree that I got some good footage of a lot of parked planes.
A few more notes about this video:
You can find the photos David Ryder took that morning here: https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?photographer=david%20ryder&assettype=image&events=775425765&family=editorial &phrase=David%20Ryder&sort=newest#license His photos are AMAZING and I highly recommend taking a look.
David also flew with me back in 2016 to shooting aerial news photos of the aftermath of the Sleepy Hollow Fire that destroyed 25 homes in a Wenatchee subdivision.
The big runway at Grand County Airport is 13,502 feet long and 200 feet wide. This is big enough for 747 airplanes to land.
(When I did an air-to-air photo flight with the Global SuperTanker some years ago, this is where the crew landed to refuel between passes. You can learn all about that flight and see video of the inside of the Global SuperTanker here: https://aneclecticmind.com/2016/06/25/flying-with-the-global-supertanker/)
You can learn more about the retired Quantas 747 at Moses Lake here: https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Qantas-747-final-flight-14540153.php
About Me and the Helicopter
- I have been flying since 1998. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
- My helicopter is a 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo near the beginning of the video. You can learn more about R44s here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ This is the third helicopter I’ve owned since 2000.
- My helicopter has ADS-B Out and is picked up by radar facilities. You can see my track for recent flights on Flightradar24: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n7534D This is a great site for tracking any almost any flight, including the airlines.
About the Video
- The video was recorded with a GoPro Hero 7 camera (https://amzn.to/2Lxyzwl) mounted on the nose of the helicopter. Audio, which includes wind, engine, and rotor noise, comes from the camera’s built-in speaker and has been incorporated into this video at 25% normal volume.
- The brief cockpit footage at the beginning and end of the video was recorded with another GoPro Hero 7 camera (https://amzn.to/2Lxyzwl) mounted on the bar between the two front seats using a MyPilotPro (https://mypilotpro.com/shop/?wpam_id=13) Helicopter Mount (https://mypilotpro.com/product/helicopter-gopro-mount/?wpam_id=13) with a few customized RAM mount components. Audio in these clips comes from the helicopter’s intercom system, which was connected to the camera with an NFlightCam audio cable (https://amzn.to/31syLTm)
- Narration was done using a Røde Podcaster microphone (https://amzn.to/2IFnbNr) connected to a Macintosh.
- The video was edited on a Macintosh using Screenflow software. Learn more about it here: https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm
- The intro music is by Bob Levitus, famed “Dr. Mac.” You can find him here: http://www.boblevitus.com/
I try to drop cockpit POV videos every Sunday morning and “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. (Some channel members get early access to some of these videos.) I also host occasional livestreams with Q&A chats. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. The more subscribers I have, the more motivated I am to keep producing videos.
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Great video, Maria, and great photography! A lot of planes. Do you know who was responsible for accepting the MAX with it’s fatal flaws? Maybe a group decision.
Good question Mike.
With all the benefits of hindsight and the limitations imposed by my woefully poor grasp of engineering, my guess is that there is a fuster cluck of causes.
1) faulty AOA indicators triggered MCAS to push the nose down (-and hold it down, over-riding pilot input) when there was no stall.
2) out-sourcing of software work to poorly paid subsidiaries. (See WSJ)
3) cosy relationship between Boeing and FAA which gave Boeing ‘most trusted status’, effectively allowing Boeing to self-certify aspects of its own product.
4) some say that the Max has a ‘dynamically unstable airframe’. Implying that software moderation and control was essential to routine performance.
The MAX was apparently Boeing’s attempt to stay competitive against Airbus without designing a new aircraft from the ground up. There are a lot of problems with the plane and you listed some of them.
According to one of the commenters on the video on YouTube who works at Moses Lake, there are about 100 planes there waiting for upgrades so they can be shipped out. Boeing has a facility there. These are new planes that have not yet been delivered.
The cost of parking all of these brand new unsold aircraft must be eye-watering.
The irony about MCAS is that it was intended to prevent the scenario which destroyed Air France flight 447 on 31st May 2009. That Airbus flew into icing conditions at 35,000, in a high altitude storm, at night. The pitot heads filled with ice and the computer could not reconcile high power and apparently no forward airspeed. The two crew fought for control. The right seat pilot struggled to climb by raising the nose, the pilot in the captain’s chair tried to lower the nose to break the stall.
The Airbus, now with an angle of attack of 30 degrees and at full power, stalled into the south Atlantic four minutes later, killing all on board.
MCAS was designed to make it impossible for pilots to enter a stall under such conditions. The only problem being that the designers created exactly the opposite scenario. Under some conditions of faulty sensors, MCAS prevents crew from raising the nose when the computer erroneously ‘interprets’ a safe climb rate as a potential stall.
I think one of the big problems was lack of training. Yes, the system is flawed, but if you don’t teach pilots how to recognize a failure, disable the system, and recover for a safe landing, you’re just asking for trouble. Too many balls were dropped on this project. I sure hope it’s fixed soon, though. Not only is it negatively impacting Boeing, its employees, and its stockholders, but its hurting the airlines that depend on these aircraft to make schedules and stay profitable.
Agreed. The Max is actually a fine, powerful and economical airliner. This is why so many customers are waiting for it.
But pilots new to the a/c must have proper simulator time, not just updates on their iPads. Training to type seems to have been rushed.
I am assuming that by now the software has been de-bugged and that we are just waiting for FAA approval and an industry-approved training programme?
I think it’s still a little more involved than that. But I guess we’ll see.
Pretty much agree with what’s been said. Want to drop some thoughts by a commercial pilot and a very frequent flyer in a aviation forum I follow on the Max. Pilot states Max had over 80,000 flights most with high time pilots who have flown for years and figured out the MCAS and how to override it. Boeing didn’t take advantage or ignored this. The pilot and co pilots of the downed planes were very low time pilots with minimal training. Frequent Flyer flies 2-4 SW flights weekly most on the Max and has confidence in the pilots compared to pilots when he flys on 737s in the Orient. Some interesting MCAS You Tube videos here.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=MCAS
This was just released the other day.
https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-flight-computer-redesign-delay-simulator-2019-11
Useful and informative links. Thanks Dan.