YouTube Flying Videos by Jan Nademlejnsky

 >> HOME <<

January 23, 2024

|  2024  |  2023  |  2022  |  2021  |  2020  |  2019  |  2018  |  2017  |  2016  |  2015  |  2014  |  2013  |  2012  |  1974-2010  | Video Index |

You could search this page by pressing Crl F

 | BC Fires | My Tubespace |

 

 
84. Trike Flying to Knutsford and North Ridge, Nov 12, 2014

This was first, really cold day in Kamloops, but the blue sky lured me up. I almost did not make it to the Knutsford airstrip, because my fingers were very numb. Once I passed the half point I had to make it there to put another gloves on. I hit occasional turbulence, but I am used to them now. I do not fight them, I just fly with them.

After short chat with my fellow pilot and with another gloves on, I took off towards Kamloops downtown, then to North Ridge for some buzz around, chasing my fun



83. Good Flying Day, Nov 2, 2014

Weather was forecasted as one of the still relatively warm days. I had to do it. Flew over the famous North Thompson river sand bars, then river upstream towards Kamloops center and eventually ended up in Knutsford Flying Club airstrip. Chatted with my fellow Beaver pilot Cam Villeneuve during excellent sunny warm weather. We took off west, while I continued towards Kamloops airport and Cam turn south to search for his ventures. It was very good flying day especially considering the next day which was just opposite: cold, rainy and miserable. I was glad that I did not wasted my day.



82. Trike Flying to Deadman Road Valley, BC. Oct 9, 2014

This was one of the best and the most beautiful flights. The flight took 2 hours to cover 140 km, through extremely beautiful mountain valley. Leaves were in full colors in spectacular scenery. I encountered several very heavy turbulences, but I had fun with them. I explored that region the following week from the road. It is definitively very beautiful area.



81. Trike Flying to Ski Resort Sunpeaks, BC. Oct 8, 2014

It was my true first cross country mountain flying through potentially very hostile and quickly changing weather conditions. The weather was perfect, but still with occasional heavy turbulence. Eventually I enjoyed those challenging flying conditions and even sought some thermals under mountain clouds. I gained a lot of confidence. I had to repeat this experience the next day with flying another mountain cross country.



80. Trike Relaxing Flying above Kamloops Rivers, Sep 28, 2014

It was very unusually turbulence free day for very relaxing flying above and along the South and North Thompson rivers. The visibility was not the best and especially the low sun position on the western horizon did not help either.



79. Kamloops Flying Trike to Buse Lake Area in Heavy Turbulent Air, Sept 12, 2014

It was beautiful, a bit crispy day with no wind, while sun heat started to slowly change the tranquility of the still air. Originally my flying goal was much more ambitious, but turbulence did not allow me to reach it. It was getting unpleasant and fear of air sickness was very real for me. I was pushing my comfort envelope with hope that I will have very good video from my bumpy experience. I was not disappointed from this aspect. You could see from the video how the terrain is complex below and around, and how many potential sources of thermals and downdrafts are there. Kamloops is beautiful, but also dangerous or at least challenging to fly in very light aircraft.

I used special post processing software, where the video from the wing camera is transformed into more realistic viewers experience. Instead of background moving around and the trike stationary in one place on screen, the software reverses it. The trike is realistically moving in the air and the background is relatively steady. It looks like someone else took the video of me. It is very tedious process, taking hours, but very cool effect.

I speeded up some sections up to 4x to show the beauty, but eliminated boringness of the normal speed flying, which sometimes looks like I was stationary there.



78. Trike Flying to Tranquille Farms, North Ridge and Thompson River Sand Bars, Aug 31, 2014

I flew west over Tranquille farm to take pictures of newly created corn maze. Continued NW over the Kamloops lake cliffs for those spectaculars views to capture on my camera. Flew then NE over the North Ridge which had the peaks covered in clouds. Played a bit around those clouds. Final stage was over the South Thompson river sand bars, which are again growing up covering larger and larger areas as the river water level is going down. 



77. Trike Flying to East of Kamloops, Aug 5, 2014

Early morning flight in smoky sky from BC forest fires, following South Thompson River East. Very tranquil flight up to the last minutes. It was turbulent above city on the way back. Strong sun heat created many local up and down drafts based on the ground colors. Overall it was very good flight.



76. Trike Flying to S-W of Kamloops Lake to Tobiano Golf Course, July 25, 2014

Just short, 50 min flight to get my flying fix.



75. Trike Flying from Kamloops to Merritt and Back, July 12, 2014

I was thinking about this flight for a long time. I was watching very carefully the strange Kamloops area weather and finally I decided to go for it. The final point to convince me that it might not be too bad was the fact that most of the time I will be flying above very wide 4 way highway, which is much more safer to land on (provided that drivers will let me) that somewhere in the bush.

I felt almost like Lindberg when he decided to fly solo across the ocean from Canada to France. I too could not sleep while going through all those negative possibilities. The life could be much more complicated in just few seconds.

I was ready to take off at 5:45 am. It was just 19C, which was very pleasant compare with those 40C hot days. It took a lot of pushing "up hill" from 1100' to 6000" to cross the mountain peaks. I do not like to rev up my Rotax 582 too much, which I no not think it is healthy for it.

I was following more-less the Coquihalla highway, the famous highway from Discovery channel series Highway Thru Hell.

Government in July of this year increased speed limit there to 120 km/h. This was met with very vocal opposition, because it is dangerous, people will die and all this normal nonsense. I was ready to document all those dead people and vehicle pile ups along the highway. Fortunately and of course there was nothing of this gore stuff to photograph.

The weather was perfect, no wind and no turbulence, which does not happen very often here. I landed in Merritt Municipal airport (2090') after 75 min flight. Took some pictures, refuelled from my spare fuel can, and took off again further south towards Merritt town. I did not spend too much time there, because I wanted to enjoy the same perfect weather on the way back. It was already 25C, so the heat was on...

I was enjoying the scenery even though the visibility was not the best. It was actually the first day this summer with hazy sky. The flight was very uneventful and I was almost day dreaming when suddenly I received several jolts of unexpected turbulence. I still had about 30 min to go so I was hoping that this will not be my fun spoiler. Luckily it lasted just about 5 minutes, but I decided not to go exploring, but head straight home. In 45 minutes of in bound leg flying I was back at the Kamloops airport. It was 9:30 am and already 28C.

This was my milestone flight, the longest cross-country so far.



74. Flying Trike in Kamloops to Mt. Peter & Paul, Knutsford, Ajax Mine, June 30, 2014

It was one of the best flying days. Warm, no wind and no turbulence, which is very rare combination. Flew over Kamloops North Shore residential area, Mount Peter and Paul and then landed at Knutsford. Flew for some pictures and videos over Ajax mine. It was very good flying day.



73. Flying Trike to O'Connor Lake, NE of Kamloops, June 22, 2014

This Sunday morning was perfect day to do some flying. Checked the flooded areas near Tranquille Farm and then turned East and eventually NE to follow North Thompson River upstream. Saw some interestingly looking mountain areas on the West ridge so I decided to investigate. Found O'Connor Lake and surrounding areas which look spectacular from the air. I am taking my dual sport motorcycle there to check that spot from the ground too.



72. Flying Trike in Knutsford Mt Peter and Paul, North Ridge Grasslands Park, May 14, 2014

Warm morning was ideal time for some fun flying. Flew North to Knutsford airstrip then South around and above of Mt Peter and Paul. Did some low flying over the North Ridge "Lac Du Bois Grasslands Park" which is very beautiful place.



71. Flying Trike in Kamloops NW Ridge, May 7, 2014

It was beautiful weather with almost no wind. Turbulence grabbed me as soon as I was air borne. I fought it for several minutes, but eventually gave up, because it was dangerous. I was back in my hangar in just 5 min, where I discovered that I forgot to turn my video cameras on.

Tried again in the in the evening and it was fun. Explored NW of North Ridge where I had to stay due to skydivers activities in the NE region. Tested Garmin sport camera "VIRBelite" which I forgot to set in the same format as the other two GoPro Hero2 cameras. It seems to me that the stabilization of Garmin is better and it appears that it stabilizes background (horizon) and the trike is moving as this is how it supposed to be. I do the same with my GoPro camera in very lengthy and time consuming process with Muvee TVS (see http://youtu.be/GT1MQhoJxK8 for explanation). GoPro has overall better and more natural colors. Garmin colors are bluish especially under contrast or low light conditions.



70. Flying Trike to NW of Kamloops North Ridge with Power OFF Glide, April 25, 2014

Flew to NW of beautiful region of Kamloops North Mountain Ridge with spectacular view of 150 m deep Kamloops Lake. Turned east above Mara lake to 4900' for power off glide back to airport. This was my long time adventure consideration to do it one day. This was the day. Glided almost exactly 5 minutes down to runway at calculated 5.2 : 1 gliding ratio. I received many questions from people wanted to know the gliding ration. Since I did not knew I decided to find out. It was a bit apprehension to do it into fully functional and sometimes very busy airport. I felt that the conditions were right with almost no wind and very mild turbulence. It was better than I expected and it turned me back 40 years when I started flying Rogallo hang glider. It was very peaceful fun.



69. Flying Trike to Knutsford, Rose Hill and NE Mountain Ridge, Apr 5, 2014

I am getting better now in handling turbulence. I came from Northern Alberta, where terrain was flat and weather predictable. Kamloops area is very challenging weather-wise. The terrain is complex with many micro weather abnormalities. That day the air was turbulent, with no wind. Friend was grounded 1000' below me, because as he said the wind sock was horizontal. It is weird here. I had fun and took many pictures from this beautiful country site:



68. Flying Trike to Ajax Mine, Knutsford and Downtown, Mar 23, 2014

It was very good day for flying. Check the Kamloops region beauty.



67. Flying Trike in Turbulent Air, South Ridge, Kamloops Mar 14, 2014

Very light wind and ideal flying conditions at the airport turned into 22 km headwind and unpleasant turbulence. Half way to my original place to fly I had to turn back, because it was not fun to fight the elements. The video shows the effect of turbulence on this light aircraft.



66. Trike Flying - Chasing Clouds in Kamloops, Mar 9 2014

It was very promising day for enjoyable flying. Low clouds hanging above and around the peaks which I liked to explore. Flew east following the North Mountain Ridge towards Mt Peter and Paul. Noticed that my neck camera was low on juice, so I turn back to get fresh batteries. I encountered some bumpy right around to Mt Paul. Flew NW of Kamloops Lake to check the "Sediment Wall", which I discovered a few days earlier on my hike. Did some low flying above the Frederick road. I brought back 5.5 hours of video files from three on-board cameras. The 19 min excerpts show how beautiful it is here.



65. Flying Trike around Mt Peter and Paul, Kamloops Feb 26, 2014

This was the first movie which I edited in updated version of MovieMaker 2.6 for Windows 7. It allows to take default of GoPro HD 4:3 format (widest viewing angles in 1280x960), edit it and save it into the same format. Up to now I always had to use several different packages. I like 4:3 format because you can see it perfectly on iPad which is in 4:3. Majority of people watches YouTube videos on mobile devices which are mostly in 4:3 format. The industry is pushing 16:9 format, cameras follows and editing softwares all ignores millions of mobile devices and the majority of users. The resulting 16:9 video viewed on iPad loses 25% of pictures with black stripes above and below the video. I processed small section from the wing camera in Muvee Turbo Video Stabilizer, which stabilizes background so the trike is moving instead, normally and unnaturally other way around.



64. Flying AirBorne Trike in Kamloops in Heavy Turbulence, Feb 13, 2014, Version 2

I re-edited the previous version into 16:9 format. I used 2 GoPro cameras at 4:3 format and ActioPro at 16:9, The original version did not look good. I spent several days to fiddle with this nonsense. Millions of people are using GoPro cameras which is set by default to 1280x960. It is the best format for flyers, skiers, bikers, because it captures the most info. Every other format is in camera cropped result. Majority of people watches the YouTube videos on iPad and similar devices which is in 4x3 format. There is nothing on the market (as far as I know) to just take HD 4:3 format, edit it and save it into lossless original format. 16:9 is the best on TV, for minority of YouTube watchers, 4:3 is the best for mobile devices, which is the majority of people.

1. I processed ActionPro (wing camera) in Muvee Turbo Video Stabilizer, which stabilizes background so the trike is moving instead, normally and unnaturally other way around.

2. I used AVS Video Converter to Crop the upper portion of video files from 2 GoPro cameras mounted on the control bars. I changed it from 1280x960 to 1280x720 to have the same format like the wing camera. I could set GoPro to 1280x720 in the first place, but there was very good chance that it would crop wrong portion of the frame. I cannot see what camera see, I just estimate the aim.

3. I used MovieMaker 2 (I am PC guy), which is very simple, free and produces excellent video quality, but unfortunately, it is in *.wmv format which is then butchered by YouTube by their conversion.

4. I then process complete video from MovieMaker in Corel Video Studio X6, by following procedure from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZmFhm_yoSc to get the best video quality on YouTube.

It was very nice weather, almost no wind, just ideal conditions for flying. I took off with 3 cameras mounted to get different views. The tranquil conditions changed very quickly. As soon as I  was over the North Mountain Ridge, the turbulence started to bounce me around. It was still bearable, so I continued to North. It got really bad. I was searching for some better conditions to go higher, lower, in the valley, above valley... Nothing worked, but it was getting increasingly worse. I was like garbage bag in the wind. Eventually I made it back close to the airport, but my timing was wrong. I had to wait for 3 airplanes to land while I was kicked up and down like a yoyo. It was the most scary flight so far.

Finally I could cross the airport to partially frozen South Thompson River. It was very peaceful there. I flew very low over the frozen sand bars towards downtown and then follow North Thompson river for some picture taking. I saw at least 15 eagles. Eventually it was very good day and I have very good video to prove it.



63. Flying AirBorne Trike in Kamloops in Heavy Turbulence, Feb 13, 2014

It was very nice weather, almost no wind, just ideal conditions for flying. Took off with 3 cameras mounted to get different views. The tranquil conditions changed very quickly. As soon as I  was over the North Mountain Ridge, the turbulence started to bounce me around. It was still bearable, so I continued to North. It got really bad. I was searching for some better conditions to go higher, lower, in the valley, above valley... Nothing worked, but it was getting increasingly worse. I was like garbage bag in the wind. Eventually I made it back close to the airport, but my timing was wrong. I had to wait for 3 airplanes to land while I was kicked up and down like a yoyo. It was the most scary flight so far.

Finally I could cross the airport to partially frozen South Thompson River. It was very peaceful there. I flew very low over the frozen sand bars towards downtown and then follow North Thompson river for some picture taking. I saw at least 15 eagles. Eventually it was very good day and I have very good video to prove it.



62. Flying AirBorne Trike in Kamloops, North West Mountain Ridge, Feb 12, 2014

Finally, after month and half of unusually cold weather in Kamloops, the weather looked very inviting for flying. Meanwhile  I bought another GoPro camera, so I was looking forward to see the result of the final video from three cameras. Unfortunately, I forgot to press Record buttons on both GoPro Camera. The result is from ActionPro wing camera and re-stabilized with Muvee Turbo Video Stabilizer. You can see my demo clip what it does here: http://youtu.be/GT1MQhoJxK8. The weather was perfect so I did some low flying through the mountain range.

 

Flying Videos in 2013