India Four Two, thanks for your response! Can I ask you under what conditions would it be acceptable for you for a student to record his flights on video? The reasons mentioned here are indeed valid, but the concerns can also be addressed as I've tried to highlight in post #32.
With regard to the Cirrus video, you've just proven my point! By recording his video, he was able to highlight an issue that was important to him (reaction time) and you have highlighted other issues that he may not even have considered (wrong radio call? calling ATC too late?). All of these may very well not have been identified if he did not record video and audio of the incident, but because we have this recording, we can scrutinize his flight and identify areas where he can improve. This is exactly my aim with my exercise!
I could do a "perfect" flight from start to finish and proudly show it off to one of the instructors who would then proceed to tell me how I can tighten up this "perfect" flight! I may have not made a mistake per se, but I'll still end up with being able to review and learn from what I would've thought was an uneventful flight.
AlexJR, thanks for your input! I will admit that there will probably be parts of my video that I will want to show my friends and family. Aviation is a passion and I don't think I should be sorry for wanting to share my passion. However, that is not the main goal for now and yes, 95% of the video will more than likely be duller than watching paint dry. However, that 5% which could be a perfect learning opportunity, that is why I do this. I cannot predict when that event will happen so best to be prepared, at least that's what I think.
Note that the idea for now is for two cameras, one with 50/50 instruments view and out-the-front view, with probably more favor given to instruments, and the other camera pointed at the pilots, so this isn't really for sightseeing or wallpapers but rather more for review and assessment of flight performance.
Another point is that for this to be a "normal" thing for me, one that will be proven to work time and time again so that it just becomes something that's there and not something to pull out of the bag and figure out and fiddle with on the rare occassions that it's needed. If I'm doing this in 1 out of every 10 flights, then I fully agree that it will become a distraction, an annoyance. If I do it as part of my regular flying, then it just becomes normal. At least that's how my reasoning goes.
golfbananajam, was he really giving a running commentary? If you look at some more videos, a lot of pilots talk to themselves during flying. I don't know if this is the norm or if they do it just for the camera but I know I talk to myself (whisper, more like, but still) whenever I go through my morning checks before a list. Aren't flight crews encouraged to verbalize what they're doing both to record the incident and so that both pilots are on the same page in all phases of flight?
I would like to pose an issue to those that do not or have not encouraged video recording while flying:
Suppose you had to do this but obviously you had your concerns as raised above, what parameters should be in place, what rules or policies would you ask to be implemented in order for you to do this?
Would you ask that camera mounting points are secured to the cockpit via a screw or bolt?
Would you ask that a policy be introduced whereby an instructor can terminate a flight if the student is flying for the camera and that his head isn't in the game, but that the instructor can still charge for the full hour?
What would it need for you to consider this a safe and acceptable condition?