Thanks Wiggy, knew I'd seen it somewhere but couldn't put my finger on it. . .

I have a still picture of Cpt R filming with his Camera, on AP at 100 feet over Disco Bay Greenland. He is filming the 300 foot high glacier ca 200 meters to the left of us!
A good idea. At the time, yes.
1994 , Be200, no SOP and no internet!
Happy Days

I see multiple benefits with allowing video imagery of departures and arrivals. But, like any aspect of operating an aircraft, common sense and airmanship must be used. IMHO it is pointless for companies not to have a policy on this, because as long as there are pilots in the flight deck, pilots WILL use cameras of some sort to film the AMAZING scenes that we are fortunate enough to witness.

As mentioned above, video of an arrival can allow critique of aircraft control which can sometimes be surprising! It also allows wannabes an insight into our world, hopefully motivating some of the best young guys and girls towards our profession. Sadly, visits to the flight deck are a thing of the past, but HD video footage of an arrival may be enough to swing a high achiever somewhere towards becoming a professional pilot and away from a mediocre existence in an office building somewhere. (Doing something ghastly like banking or government clerical work)

Years ago, I somehow survived holding a comparitively large camcorder during flight at low level in a fighter in order to film some hero footage to show my grandkids some day. This obviously has some serious implications on flight safety, but a GoPro suction mounted behind an airline crew is a far more benign scenario. Posting this footage on social media is another story entirely!!!

Jason

I must be missing something here. How can you not mount a GoPro on a window without impeding vision of some part of the sky/aircraft?
Just how strong are these suction cups? Are they affected by window heat? Will they let go in severe turbulence?
In a crash landing, do you really want one of these things embedded in the back of your head?
Passengers are strongly encouraged not to use electronic devices during takeoff and landing, yet we see pilots doing the opposite.

The GoPro FOV is such that it can be mounted behind the pilot and still capture amazing footage of the outside environment, the pilots, and the cockpit. Visibility is not impaired. The suction cup mount is designed to be attached to the outside of moving vehicles and remain secure at speeds of 150mph, so the cockpit environment is well within the design limits. Of course, no-one wants a GoPro embedded in their head, but there are often many other loose items in the flight deck which in a crash will be flying around. A colleague in my company was involved in a severe turbulence incident around 10 years ago, and the tech log ended up in the rudder well! Based on my experience with using GoPro mounts for downhill mountain biking, I would have no problem with trusting the security of the mount.

Sounds like he could have done the same thing with a thick book, or a thermos of coffee (Or the NVG case that caused the C-130 crash in Afghanistan) Doesn't seem to be particularly relevant to the topic of discussion.

So no good in Sichuan A319 cockpits then....

In 1991 we had a DC-3 crashing in Germany. They had filmed inside the cockpit for some TV show and had put yellow foil on the inside of the Cockpit windows to get better contrast for filming. The FO flew while talking to the camera and the captain was inside the cabin not on the flight deck. The aircraft took a wrong turn into some black forest valley and crashed. Only one guy survided: The TV sound engineer who sat in the back restroom, the quietest place he could find.

I'm just SLF and love watching these cockpit vids on YT but, if I were a non-exec director of the airline at a meeting considering a policy on this, I might put up my hand to ask is there not a risk of someone filming himself for public consumption being tempted to "put on a show" and thereby doing something contrary to best practice?