Good for you - I’m sure you’ll have a blast! Enjoy, but be careful it’s addicting.

The GoPro camera has a gps and records telemetry with the video file. I use software to pull out the gps telemetry data and produce the gauges on a green background. Then I use chroma key in the video editing software to blank out the green part and overlay it on the video. Synchronizing the overlay to the underlying video is a bit of a hassle, but is doable.

@@simtopilot3952 Ah… that’s very cool. Job well done, love the on-screen gauges in your video!

I took a guess at your gmail address based on your KZbin ID and sent an email. If it’s you, reply and we can connect.

OK, well my email address guess did not work. I created a temporary email address. Contact me at [email protected] and then I’ll reply with my personal email. The temporary address will be good for 2 weeks.

I did my PPL in Cirrus SR20s from Independence Aviation at Centennial Airport. I trained in the SR22T at the same place and rent planes from them as well.

@@simtopilot3952 Great, thanks for the info. SR's are great planes. The 22T's are really nice to have over those Rockies.

Thanks - I was glad to have my instructor with me!

To be honest I was a little disappointed that I couldn't do the 15 approach I have done many times in sim, but it was an exciting approach hugging the mountains. There's always next time.

Totally agree! Also I had to smile when at KCOS Tower cleared me to land number 2 behind the Boeing 737.

Thanks it was exciting!

Thanks!

Congrats! I hope your cross country flight went well. If you have any questions about what happened (or didn’t) on my checkride let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them.

My DPE was Craig Thighe and I highly recommend him.

Thanks and good luck!

A few reasons, some of which were the outfit and some of which were my instructor. The flight school felt to me more like just a rental outfit that has a scheduling system for instructors. Part of that feeling to me may be because they are much larger and I felt like I was on my own rather than the school taking an individual interest in helping me. They didn't try to find me the right instructor, one of the kids at the desk just gave me a piece of paper with 3 names/numbers on it. 1 of the names wasn't active, 1 didn't have openings for new students so I ended up with the third. My instructor didn't prep me for lessons and didn't seem to have an actual curriculum. He and I showed up and we went flying. While flying he had me do the standard maneuvers, but I had to ask him what the next lesson would be so I could prepare. When I asked him how to improve my landings he didn't have any helpful advice so I researched on the internet and found some helpful information. Finally, my instructor did not value my time. He canceled lessons while I was on my way to the airport - and I knew he lived more than twice as far from the airport as me so he knew he wouldn't make it before I left my house. I did discovery flights with 2 flight schools and initially chose Aspen mainly because of price. The new flight school feels more like an actual flight school. There is a curriculum with a syllabus for what you will do each lesson to up to PPL check ride. I have flown with 5 or 6 instructors in addition to my main instructor and all have been helpful My instructor does a pre-flight brief on what we will do on the flight, we do the flight and then we do a de-brief to talk about what we did and what I can work on for next time. I also really like flying the Cirrus planes. It is also, however, significantly more expensive both for instructor time and plane rental. I also don't want to say that Aspen is bad - they have lots of successful students. But, this was my experience and why I switched. For what it's worth, my instructor is no longer teaching at Aspen.

@@simtopilot3952 thank you for the detailed explanation I think I will probably end up flying with Rocky Mountain Flight school at KBJC since they are significantly cheaper than aspen. Have you heard anything about their outfit? Thanks again for your time

No sorry, I don’t know anything about them. You can always switch if you don’t like how things are going. Make sure your instructor has a plan, spends time before and after the flight, lets you know what to prep for the next lesson and has you do things the same way every time to build primacy. I think my first instructor was mainly trying to build hours.

Good luck!

Thanks! I have used both X-Plane and MSFS and both benefits and weaknesses. The Torquesim SR20/SR22 in X-Plane is excellent and planes and plane systems in general are great and airport taxiways have correct letter designations. The SR22 is MSFS is garbage, most systems don't work, etc. and most airports use an algorithm to assign taxiway letters so many are mislabeled. The scenery in MSFS, though, is amazing and looks very much like what you will see in real life. I'll also say, sight picture and plane systems in sim really prepare you well for real world flying, but the actual feeling of flying is totally different and really not much use. I don't have any Cirrus specific hardware, but I do most often fly in VR on the sim. One other plug - if you are in flight training Pilotedge to learn and practice radio comms, airspace, airport ops, etc. is invaluable.

@@simtopilot3952 thank you. Good advice. I have used fsx and msfs over the years

Thanks for the comments! The speed shown is miles per hour ground speed from the GPS, not indicated airspeed. Indicated airspeed was 80-85 knots on approach. For takeoff, the plane says 71-77 and lightly loaded the plane wants to go at 71 knots, which is where I rotated. You can see how fast I started climbing when I left the ground. If you’re looking at the speed shown, again you have to adjust for MPH from the GPS.

A lot more than average - 50 hours. It took a couple of back and forths with the FAA on my medical, which delayed things by a few months and the Cirrus flight school I am at pushes the first solo flight pretty much to just before solo cross country.

I passed my checkride and I have my PPL! Mine was scheduled out a couple of months, but the DPE had an opening after a few weeks so I got to do mine earlier than originally scheduled. I'll have my cross country video posted soon.

@@simtopilot3952 Congrats! That's exciting news!.

@@simtopilot3952 Mind if I ask who you used for a DPE?

Craig Thighe - he was great and I highly recommend him as DPE. No tricks, straightforward and by the book and he's just a cool guy. Both the oral and flight parts were quicker than I expected. I was well prepared and maybe that played a part in the time. He was booked out about 2 months, but he had a cancellation so I only had to wait 3 weeks. If you'd like to see my notes or if you'd like to talk about it sometime, let me know.

It's not uncommon at Centennial. The airport is so busy you rarely get the same approach instructions twice and often they are so busy they stop taking new requests for a short time. If they are really busy I tend to wait until I am 10 miles or less away and I think it helps if you sound like you know what you're doing. (i.e. crisp, succinct call)

I use a program called RaceRender. It reads the GoPro video files and pulls the GPS data out to generate the telemetry and then you can select/customize the overlay. RaceRender can do the overlay over a video in the app, but because I edit together multiple views I render with a green screen background and then do the overlay in Davinci Resolve.

Hi! I landed at KBJC during my night cross country flight. I like to connect to chat or go flying together some time.

Thanks!