Why are my videos dull?

Hello, my dear friends!

I’m very happy to see you, I hope you had a nice weekend and I wish your upcoming week will be also really great!

If you watch my Youtube videos, you may have noticed, that I often call my videos dull. Today I want to tell you the reason, the underground why I do so.

The history of my ‘dull videos’ goes back to several years, when I only began writing my Russian blog, http://www.denokan.livejournal.ru .  I watched a video of a b737 approach in Sochi – the pilots filmed it in a very nice weather, they were very relaxed and enthusiastic, and this video brought its viewers lots of emotions. Really, when you fly to Sochi and the weather is great, you receive lots of positive emotions – this Russian airport is located on a shore of the Black Sea, so the sea is on the western side of the field, and high nice mountains are to the west.

So, the pilots put the camera on a glare shield, the autoflight was on and the airplane flew the ILS approach. The autopilot was doing its job very good, as it is doing in most of times. and an interesting discussion was held in the cockpit. Approaching the decision altitude, they got busy discussing a military ship, and after passing this height they switched their eyes towards the people, lying on the beach and discussed this fact with voices full of humor. And finally they switched off the autopilot at a rather low altitude and successfully landed.

Yeah, it was a very nice and positive video, so it received lots of likes from the viewers. But not from me – I looked at this video from the position of rules and procedures. And these guys, rules and procedures, wouldn’t be happy with what was happening during that approach.

Landing is the most critical stage of flight. Even if you’re flying with the automation on, even if the weather is very good – you must monitor what’s happening in the cockpit but not on the beaches. You should be ready if something goes wrong – for example, a bird strike which can immediately turn all whites to blacks and revert your emotions to very negative state. The autopilot works great in 99.9% of time, but it also can do harm. If it all happens rather high from the ground you have a lot of time to handle the situation, but if you’re flying low and continue descending, you have to be prepared for a quick response. Most incidents and accidents happened when the airplane was taking off or landing.

Do you think that these pilots were happy with my reply? Maybe, you think that their viewers who had put likes on the video were happy? No, you’re mistaken.

I was called as a ‘dull pedant’, as ‘robot’. I was told that nothing could happen because the autopilot was switched on. I was rather disappointed by the fact that people do not think about the risks of being so unserious while being doing this very serious and demanding work.

And then I uploaded a couple of my inflight videos. They showed our routine procedures during takeoff and landing. And with an intention to include a piece of humor, I named them as ‘dull cockpit videos’. The idea was to show, that even if a pilot follows procedures and rules, flying is not dull really, so, you may do your work as it is required to be done and still get fun and pleasure from this routine.

So, several years has gone since that days, and I see, that it works. It really works! Flying is never dull, even if you’re doing your best to follow all that rules and procedures. Moreover, if you know what to do in every moment of the flight, and what to be aware of, if you then do it and if you aware it, if your colleague is working the same way, then you cope easily with most of routine flight situations, even when the weather is not at the best, and the airport is not the easiest.

So, the fact is - doing your work correctly may bring you even more fun and pleasure, than when you’re playing a macho role, looking at girls who are 300 feet below you instead of flying the airplane. If you want to be a macho pilot, then just buy your own airplane and do everything you want, but not very close to normal people. If you decided to be an airline pilot, you have to leave your machism somewhere outside of the airplane.

This was my little secret. Now you know why I call my inflight videos dull, though, of’course, flying is never dull, even if you’re an airline pilot whose work is restricted by narrow borders of rules, procedures and limitations.

That’s all, my friends! Enjoy your lives, enjoy your flights and

Fly Safe!

About myself

Hi, everybody! 

This is a video in which I briefly introduce myself and the airline I'm working for

New videos - Flying to TIvat and back to Moscow

My first officer was very young. His experience on B737 was close to nothing, he had just finished the transition course. And all his pre-B737 experience was equal to the CPL course, which in Russia requires only 150 hrs.

Nevertheless, I liked his work.

Ok, click to get the videos and pictures.

One more dull inflight video

It was an ILS approach at Domodedovo. The First Officer was the flying pilot.

The air over DME is rare calm, though I cannot say that conditions are very often as terrible as to make flying totally uncomfortable for a flight crew. It was a usual, or, 'standard' approach at RWY 32R, with winds, gusts and a light windshear over the trees.

Enjoy and
FLY SAFE!

Classic flying.

It was... year 2013, if I'm not mistaken. 

We had 4 737-400 at that time and 8 NGs. Our new pilots learned to fly NGs first (just because of their quantity) and then we gave them a short difference course. The first officer in this video is performing his first 737-400 leg as a pilot monitoring. It was a straight-in visual in Anapa.

Hi, everybody!

I rarely experimented with self videos, but maybe it's the time for a new start-up? :)

All the best, friends! FLY SAFE!

Sergey. A perfect first officer.

Sergey is one of the pilots with whom I enjoy flyingl. Severall years ago he was my student for a couple of months, learning to operate B737NG under my supervision.

He is a very determined person, his life story is full of challenges and he got used to successfully solve the problems which arise on his way throughout the flying career.

If you want, you may read his story at http://denokan.livejournal.com/56460.html And you may find more postflight reviews in that blog if you look for a tag #серега

Nowadays I like flying with him mainly because it is a great opportunity to train my English. Sergey speaks as an American, he is a real fan of learning English. One of my goals is to improve my skills in English (that was the main reason of starting writing this blog). Thus, regular flights with Sergey help me understand my abilities and encourage me to keep moving.

And, of'course, because Sergey is my former student, a really talented one, but, as all clever guys he has some issues in his character, I try to keep in touch with his progress. I enjoy flying with him, answering his questions, and trying to make him believe me if our opinions are not the same.

Here goes a short video, which was made in flight from Simferopol to Moscow, Domodedovo. Enjoy the film!

Getting out of the storm

Thunderstorms... Hm, no. THUNDERRRSTORRMS!

My trip to Novosibirsk has lasted more than 10 days already. I've made several flights from UNNT, our second base, and all the flights happenned under pretty nice weather conditions. If there were any thunderstorms, they actually were flashing somewhere out of my routes. If I could always fly in such a "sand box", maybe I can save some nerves for my future grandchildren.

But.. Weather is the weather. It is a woman, and her mood is subject to change. I know.

Back to the Nest. Part 2.

This is the second part of the story. The beginning is here (click to go).


May be, from the first part, you have got a question about this photo on the right?

Well, you probably know that lots of hotels have laundry and iron services. Usually these are paid services. If we will talk about business trips which happen regularly often, and an employee (a pilot in my case) usually stays at the same hotel, a good employer signs a contract with the hotel, wich includes a payment or discount for these services.

But only 10 years ago a common russian pilot could not even dream that it is possible! Often, he had to live in such conditions where a dry roof above his head was cosidered to be a good service! And nobody was dissapointed or, moreover, angry about it! It was the part of pilots' life, pilots were already happy if they had the job, the salary, and there was no need to be night taxi drivers.

As for me, I've caught these times in the beginning of my career. These were very romantic times.

Back to the Nest!

This story is about my visit to Novosibirsk which happened in the middle of May, 2015. My airline had set me a task to check some pilots from our Novosibirsk base, so I selected three Captains and planned routes to deal with this order.

Happy New Year, dear readers! Happy new challenges!

First of all I'd like to wish you all the best in the New Year! Let all your sweet dreams come true, all the challenges be achieved, and new ones (only good and interesting!) appear ahead!

As for me, I have some.

ENGLISH

I kept silence for a long time, but it was a busy period. May be you remember, that I have started this blog in attempt to train my English?

Really, it was the first reason. But why do I want to improve?