Pilots Eye TV

[c2lass]

I am a very nervous flyer, when I say nervous I am in bits inside but will have a brave face on the outside. However, I also have an obsessive fascination with aeroplanes, airports and the industry.

When I was a small girl I lived near Manchester and a great treat for me was a day out at "Ringway". I have always wanted to work at an airport as I find them fascinating.

Last year flying back from Munich, in one of the airport shops they advertise "Pilots Eye TV" available to purchase as a DVD or BluRay. I regretted not buying it. Well we were back in Munich last weekend and this time bought the BluRay and all I can say is wow wow wow. We have just watched it and it is brilliant.

We bought the Vienna to Barcelona with the route flying at lower than normal altitude over the alps. Absolutely stunning. More importantly, seeing what goes on in the cockpit makes me feel less nervous about flying and on my next flight in September I will remember what I have seen. Yes, you get the pilots eye of take off and landing with all the bits in between.

Not cheap at 40 euros but we have just got so much enjoyment from the experience that I would say to anybody who has seen this and is thinking of buying it is go for it.

By the way I experienced my first aborted landing at MUC a couple of weeks ago which was quite scary for me, as I instantly thought something was wrong with the plane. However, I am very grateful to the BA Captain who announced shortly after we were back up in the air it was due to another plane on the runway not being able to get out of the way in time!! Interesting to see on the Pilots Eye TV that plans are made before approach for incidents like this.

[Hartington]

It's expensive, but have you considered a ride in a simulator? You get to "fly" the plane yourself. One company is Virtual Aviation.

[c2lass]

Thanks Hartington, never really thought of that but that would probably be something that would suit hubby more than me!!! Far too many buttons, switches, dials etc for me!!

Incidentally the First Officer on the Pilots Eye was female and she flew the plane. I couldn't believe how young she looked although I think later on she said she was 30 (didn't look it at all) and I was totally and utterly impressed, as I am with anyone who flies us safe and sound all around the world. Thank you.

[Tim00]

Last year flying back from Munich, in one of the airport shops they advertise "Pilots Eye TV" available to purchase as a DVD or BluRay. I regretted not buying it.If you like this kind of thing, then these people http://www.itvv.com (http://www.itvv.com/) sell some really excellent cockpit DVDs. Of those I own, Concorde (2 discs) is superb, Virgin Atlantic 747-400 also. There is a great deal of explanation in both of them (both before and during the flights) - the crew procedures are very clearly shown, and in both, the crew also spend lots of time talking to camera explaining what's happening.

The A320 simulator one is interesting for its demos of handling engine failure at V1 etc - this one is basically a captain playing in the sim, & is not attempting to fully demonstrate how it's 'really' done.

I also have the Virgin Atlantic 747-200: very good, but camera work and commentary not quite up to the first 2. Finally, I have the Cathy-Pacific 747-400. Camera work is limited in this, & indeed the Capt. apologises since they had some technical problems on the day when installing the cameras. There's much less 'talking to camera' in this one cf. the first two, & I found it slightly disappointing as a result. However, there's a nice sim section in the middle, showing the effects of high altitude, low speed, engine hot-starts etc.

Sorry - does this count as advertising? Am I allowed to do this? I've no contact with the company, other than having bought some of their DVDs.

[PAXboy]

I'm not a nervous flyer but know some who are and this sounds like a very good idea. I had several of these tapes/discs but they were not returned by a lady when she 'took an alternate routing' to me following some turbulence. :hmm:

(Speaking out of turn) I don't think PPRuNe objects to recommendations of this kind and I dare say that our fabulous moderator TS [doffs cap] will add this info to the Nervous Flyer thread in the forum FAQ.

[c2lass]

Tim00

Thanks very much for the information and the link and I will have a look tonight when I have more time.

I would be very interested in the 747. The Pilots Eye TV is in German with English subtitles so if the above are in English that would be brilliant.

I now see a new interest coming up :cool:

[amanoffewwords]

Concorde (2 discs) is superb, Virgin Atlantic 747-400 also.

Got both of those too - concur that they are very interesting - esp. the Concorde in and out of NYC - the cockpit workload is phenomenal (for a member of the SLF fraternity anyway).

[c2lass]

Tim00

Thanks very much for letting me know about the vids. We bought the VS 747-400 which we have just watched and it is absolutely brilliant. Alot of techie stuff which was a bit above me, however hubby was enthralled as he could understand the technical bits much better than me.

This video is a real eye opener and extremely well explained about what goes on before, during and after a flight. I was totally amazed at all the pre flight work and all the contingency plans. Hopefully this will now go some way into alleviating some of the fears I always experience when flying.

I have the utmost admiration for all you crew who carry us SLF to our destinations safe and sound and now I have a better understanding of what is involved in a flight I think I can now begin to enjoy flying. Most SLF will not have a clue what goes on behind the scenes but thanks to videos like this, wow what an experience.

One question though. In the video you saw the Captain doing a visible inspection of all the exterior of the aircraft. Is this something that happens before every flight, in that the Captain will walk around looking at different parts of the aircraft exterior? I have never noticed that before, although I may have just thought it was ground staff.

Sad to read in the PPrune archives that FO John Cullom died a couple of years ago.

Our next purchase will be the Concorde one so looking forward to that.

[c2lass]

WingoWango

Thanks for that. I never realised that the Captain/FO does a visual inspection.

By the way the Virgin 747-400 DVD was acutally much better than Pilots Eye as it gave you so much more information. Pilots Eye TV was more about the views over the alps, although that was absolutely stunning as well.

By the way is there a problem with the site today and yesterday, I keep getting a white page with "unable to connect"?

[bfisk]

c2lass: I have the same problem with the forum...

I must say I'm glad that you, being someone in the general public, are learning about how flights are conducted and how safety is achieved. I'm a pilot myself and most of my nonflying friends seem to think piloting is a matter of getting into any aircraft, "kicking the tires and lighting the fires"... Your appreciation of the "backstage work" pleases me :)

[nicolai]

One I've got that I can't recommend is "DC-8 Cockpit World Mighty Freight Dog!" (various web retailers) - it's a fascinating topic, but nearly all the audio track has voices barely distinguishable over the background noise and the video quality isn't great either. This may be a real taste of what it's like to be in the cockpit of a DC-8, but I found the effort of trying to pick the voices out of the background roar to be too great to make the DVD at all enjoyable, and I still haven't managed to stick through it to the end.
So thank you to the above comments of which other similar DVDs are good quality.