All posts by Terry Pitts

Terry is a retired school teacher, retired Army Reservist, and retired civilian Department of the Army Civilian working about half the time as a pilot and flight instructor. He has been flying since age 19, adding gliders in 2011. He's been an FAA certificated flight instructor since 2013.
Flying, Photography, Technology, Videography

GoPro prep

I USE APPLE’S Final Cut Pro X for video editing. FCPX is pretty good at synchronizing multiple cameras based on the audio. However, when I do video in gliders or airplanes the audio can vary widely depending on whether a camera is connected to the airplane’s audio panel or I use an external microphone or just the built in microphone for “ambient sound.”

When audio fails to provide good cues for synchronization, the system tries to use clock info to sync. Working professionals use a “time code” setup to make this work. I don’t have fancy/expensive equipment like that!

Imagine two of three cameras have the right date and the third thinks it’s 2013. That’s not gonna work!

The clock memory in a GoPro camera is volatile – when the battery is dead or removed for too long, the camera resets itself to some date several years ago. Imagine two of three cameras have the right date and the third thinks it’s 2013. That’s not gonna work!

Before I go do a flying video with multiple cameras, I have gotten in the habit of doing three things: I charge all the batteries, whether in the camera or spare; reformat the Micro SD Card so all its space is available; and I connect each camera to the GoPro Quik software on my iMac. This automatically sets each camera to the computer’s clock. Perhaps they are not set to the nanosecond of each other, but it’s pretty close. Much better than being five years off!

Flying

A Cross-Country Proficiency Flight

THE TEMPERATURE has been 100 °F (38 °C) lately – much too hot. I am off work today. The last few times I’ve been flying I’ve been working on Commercial Pilot maneuvers. I wanted to do something else. I decided to do a short triangular cross-country flight to two airports I had not visited before. One of the guys I know from Civil Air Patrol is interested in learning how to fly; I invited him to ride along.

Detailed map.
The flight went from the airport at the lower right to the left to the upper center one then back to the lower right. The flight took 1.9 hours total.

The flight I planned/flew was from Daniel Field (KDNL) to Greene County Airport (K3J7, 56NM/110km) to Washington-Wilkes Airport (KIIY, 19NM/35km) and back to Daniel (46NM/75km). The initial heading was 285 with the wind 310 at 10, so a bit of a headwind. Ground speed was an “amazing” 85kt. Navigation by looking out the window at landmarks and using GPS actually was amazing. 🙂 You can tell it’s almost summer in Georgia. There was plenty of haze on the horizon.

View from final approach.
Runway 25 at Greene County Airport.

We arrived at the first airport, landed, and taxied back for takeoff. The next leg was very short, but had a perpendicular crosswind. This required about a 20-degree correction. We flew directly towards the sun, so with glare and haze I didn’t see the Washington-Wilkes Airport until we were about four miles away. Another better than average landing, taxi back and takeoff.

Over the nose, Washington-Wilkes Airport.
Landing at Washington-Wilkes Airport, runway 31.

Now, what had been the headwind became a tailwind. Instead of 85 knots we had a ground speed of 114. Much better! I had the airplane from 8:00 to 10:00 and landed right at 10:00, for a total of 1.9 hours of cross country flying.

Electronic Flight Book
The blue airplane on the top course line shows where we are on the third/final leg of the trip.

The flight was exciting, but it was rewarding for the precision and pleasant since it was not yet brutally hot out and was cooler at altitude. I need to do more of it!

PS I flew Augusta Aviation’s Cessna 172 N80842. I seem to have a lot of time in their airplanes! [Trivia – the Cessna 172 is the most produced airplane in the world.]