For those who have a plane... and friends with planes....

[D4VE 3LL]

Dear fellow aviator pistonheaders,

Some of you may have seen my low level (Mach Loop) thread, or my Salisbury plain helicopter thread or my various airshow picture threads. They seem generally well received on here, so I must be doing something good, well at least I hope so!

Now I'm looking to try my hand at doing some air-to-air photography. This is where the fellow aviators on PH would come in. I understand that running costs and fuel are not cheap and therefore would happily provide a set of free photos to the individuals for non-commercial purposes if they are willing to go along with the idea.

Obviously for air-to-air to work there would need to be a minimum of two aircraft. I'm not going to be picky with aircraft because I can't. Besides I love all types of aircraft and would absolutely love to give this ago with some PH help.

I'm based in the Midlands and am willing to travel in any direction.

My e-mail is [e-mail]
and to look at my photography work and my aviation to an idea of my standard you can view my flickr here http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidellins/

many Thanks,

Dave

(mods, i hope this doesn't violate any rules by offering a free product in return for some much wanted and needed experience!)

[eharding]

D4VE 3LL said:

Obviously for air-to-air to work there would need to be a minimum of two aircraft.

Without wanting to rain on your parade too hard Dave, it takes a bit more than that - specifically, if you want something more than long-range shots you could probably get from the ground, you need two pilots who are formation trained. Your average PPL - your average CPL or ATPL if it comes to that - will invariably have an ingrained loathing of another aircraft being within a few hundred metres of their own in the air - and rightly so. Close formation isn't an art which is generally taught to civilian pilots, although training is available if you know where to go.

Hence, your first question to the pilots of your prospective camera-ship and subject should be about their close-formation training & experience - if they don't have any, but are keen to 'have a go' - turn swiftly on your heel and depart, because they will be a pair of accidents looking for a grid reference, and you don't want to be a part of it.

IMHO camera-ship flying for air-to-air shoots is significantly more demanding than standard close formation - good formation positions don't usually make for good camera angles, and trying to juggle the requirements of the photographer - orientation and lighting etc. - involving rapid changes of formation lead, make for at least a 50% increase in workload for the pilots to prevent the whole thing going very badly wrong, very quickly.

To get into air-to-air photography commercially isn't easy, and it actually helps if you're a pilot yourself - some friends of mine are getting some very nice shoots as a husband & wife air-to-air photography team - the L39 shoot in Loop recently, as well as getting the Red Bull air-race helicopter for some of the races in the final couple of seasons, and a lot more besides - partly because they're good with cameras, but to an equal degree because they're both aerobatic and formation-trained fixed wing pilots, and rotary pilots as well. As a camera-ship pilot, that is the ideal choice - a photographer who understands exactly the task of the pilot, because they've been there and done it themselves.

Don't give up hope though, but please bear in mind the primary safety point above. Self-taught, ad-hoc formation - for photographic or any other purpose - is likely to end badly.

[R1_NUR]

If you find someone else experienced we can help.

G-KLAW.

[mattdaniels]

Also minor point but giving the pilot a set of pics in return for the flight would probably be seen as giving "valuable consideration", so you can forget asking a PPL to do it, you'd need a pilot with a CPL. And the aircraft air worthiness certificates need to be in the Public Transport category.