Helicopter Flight Up the Yakima River

A scenic flight video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Hop into the cockpit with me for a scenic flight up the Yakima River Canyon between Yakima and Ellensburg, WA!

This is the first half of my May 23 flight from Yakima to my summer base of operations in Malaga. I start at the ground at Yakima Airport, get clearance from the tower controller to depart, and take off, with a glimpse of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier in the distance. I fly over Yakima, through the gap in the hills there, and then to the mouth of the Yakima River Canyon. I follow the canyon’s twists and turns, chatting along the way, until I emerge in the Kittitas Valley southeast of Ellensburg.

I’ll release the other half of this flight sometime this summer.

A quick note here: if you noticed that the opening credit have a new look, it’s because I created this video with new video editing software: Filmora Pro. I needed software that could edit 360° videos and Filmora can. I’ll be switching to it as my primary video editing package over the next few months. It takes time to learn these things, so I’ll be fine-tuning along the way.

Helicopter Cockpit POV 360° Interactive Video

A very cool cockpit POV 360° Video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

THIS IS COOL. I used a GoPro Fusion mounted upside down on the inside of my helicopter, positioning the camera right where a passenger’s head might be. I then flew from the side yard at my house, out near the Three Lakes area of Malaga, and then back to my landing zone at an orchard in Malaga.

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE VIEWING!!!

If you’re watching on a mobile device, be sure to load it into the YouTube app — not your mobile browser — and turn and tilt to change the view. If you’re viewing it on desktop or laptop computer, use your mouse to drag the image in various directions to look all around. On a smart TV, use the arrow buttons to change the view. This is the revised version of the video, which does not change the view by itself.

Don’t forget to check out my pups in the back seat.

HAVE FUN!

Helicopter Thank You Flight

Another cockpit POV Video on the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for a quick flight from one orchard to another while I thank channel members and identify points of interest in flight.

I want to give a big shout-out to channel members. These are the folks who chip in to help me cover the costs of flying and maintaining the helicopter. As I mention in this video, I was pleasantly surprised to see that so many members had stuck with me throughout the winter, despite my failure to produce new content. Their loyalty gives me extra motivation to keep installing the cameras and editing the video from every flight I can. If you can’t or don’t want to become a channel member or patron, please join me in thanking them for helping me out.

You can learn more about becoming a channel member here: https://youtu.be/sHSqlQqeP1A It’s a short video full of bloopers that explains what channel membership is all about and why it’s vital to me.

If you don’t want to give money to YouTube/Google, I get it. I opened a Patreon account for folks just like you. Find it here: https://www.patreon.com/FlyingMAir Be aware that Patreon might add sales tax to your contribution — for reasons I still don’t understand.

You can also support the channel through the purchase of a hat, t-shirt, sticker, or magnet on my etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingMAir

And if none of these things appeal to you (for any reason), you can also support me by subscribing to the channel, sharing my videos, and commenting when you see something you like.

Thanks for all your support!

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying for about 20 years. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
  • The helicopter is a 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo at the beginning of the video. You can learn more about them here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ I own this helicopter. It 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

I try to drop cockpit POV videos on Sunday mornings 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 and turn on the notification bell so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. I’m trying hard to deliver good videos and grow my subscriber base.

Some links on my channel are affiliate links, including all links to Amazon (https://amzn.to/32PLHTD) and MyPilotPro (https://mypilotpro.com/shop/?wpam_id=13). If you click one of them and buy something, I get a small referral reward. It doesn’t cost you anything so I hope you’ll shop with one of those links. Thanks.

Want to support the FlyingMAir channel? Here are four suggestions:

Cross-Country Helicopter Flight from Malaga to McMinnville, Part 1

A cockpit POV video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for the first 20 or so minutes of my flight from my summer base in Malaga, WA to McMinnville, OR. In this flight, I take off, climb alongside Jumpoff Ridge, cross the ridge toward the Colockum and Mission Ridge, then continue on to the Kittitas Valley west of Ellensburg. Along the way, you’ll see basalt columns, high desert grasslands, forests, farmland, wind generators, and even Mount Rainier, off in the distance. I had three cameras rigged up for this video and I switch from cockpit cam to nose cam with occasional inset views of me looking at the camera. Audio is from direction connection to the intercom so you can hear me talk and make radio calls plus dialed down volume of the helicopter’s engine/rotor noise.

I should mention here that “cross-country” in the world of aviation is any long flight. For airplanes, it’s 50 miles or more; for helicopters, it’s 25 miles or more. This is only part of a 178 nautical mile trip.

You can see all of the videos for this flight here:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/pgKDciGP4eA (this video)
Part 2: https://youtu.be/CmupuFDXa4Q
Part 3: https://youtu.be/vyveMEm_MhQ
Pups in a Helicopter: https://youtu.be/eEVq9sRlJK8
Part 4: https://youtu.be/3KXR_D3SliA
Part 5: https://youtu.be/eghRyzhPigg