Learning to fly, one mistake at a time
There's an assumption that anyone with a YouTube channel is quietly making a fortune. I've got another YouTube channel that's actually monetised, been through the Partner Program properly, and it earns me about enough for a GoPro battery a month. Meanwhile the KK costs three figures an hour to fly before I've filmed a thing. YouTube has just doubled the watch hours you need to get monetised in the first place, so this seemed like a good moment to show you some numbers, and to answer something I got accused of a few weeks back.
Read more: What It Actually Costs To Make An Aviation YouTube Video
I bought a carbon monoxide detector for the aircraft, got it out to KK, got the cables sorted, and then discovered it needed a nine volt battery I didn't have. So this isn't a review. It's a first look at a device that has never once switched on in my hands, and an honest account of what I can and can't tell you about it yet.
I had to pump up a tyre on KK recently. She was looking a bit flat. Somewhere around the twenty minute mark of faffing around I realised how much I really hate these spats.
I've flown plenty of times in commercial aircraft, and the flights rarely surprise me. A recent Delta from LAX to Orlando gave me more seatbelt announcements in one trip than I've had in every other flight combined. It wasn't even rough. And then it got me thinking about a habit of mine that a few of you keep pulling me up on.
The CAA has opened a consultation on making electronic conspicuity mandatory. Every aircraft below FL100 would have to transmit its position, and the owner pays for the privilege. KK's transponder can't do it, so I spent a happy hour working out what this was going to cost me.
It was one of the hottest days of the year. Again. KK stayed tied down on her pad, because she's a flying greenhouse at the best of times and she would have been an oven. We all see these CAA driven webinars pop up on the forums from time to time, and being a sucker for punishment, I signed up for one. Was it going to be as boring as it first sounded, or a gold mine? Honest answer, yes to both.
Read more: Runways and Realities review: the boring webinar that became a gold mine
If you've been following along, you'll know I've had plenty to say lately about pilot medicals. Health, honesty, the lot. You'll also know I quietly took the soft option and dropped to a Pilot Medical Declaration. Well. Turns out preaching is the easy bit and practising is the hard bit. So I stopped talking about it, bit the bullet, and booked a Class 2.
I love the smell of 100LL in the morning. Apologies to Colonel Kilgore. But my lot may be the last pilots who get to say it. Our KK runs on leaded fuel - 100LL and its soon going to be confined to the dustbin of history.
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