Learning to Fly TV episodes
Phil Samuels
hope that the series will go on. BUT, from what I see, I'm under the
impression that the show has stalled somewhere.
In the past, several quality series had the same fate:
Aileron with only 2 productions
ABC Wide world of flying with only 23 productions
If Sporty's and the Kings haven't made anything for TV yet (although they
have the ressources to do do it) they must know something.
Anyways, I hope that we will see the other "missing 6" episodes.
I noticed that Kyle Pauline Guyette (any realationship with producer Scott
Guyette?) , according to FAA's database she is still a student pilot, which
is not a good sign for the show's ending which as filmed in the summer 2002.
Kyle Guyette is also no stranger to the aviation community. She is in fact
the Aviation Foundation Development Programs Manager at the EAA
headquarters. EAA also happen to be the main sponsor of the series.
take a look at this EAA website:
http://www.eaa.org/communications/eaanews/000121_b17.html
and here as the B-17 Enroute Tour Coordinator and EAA HISTORICAL Society
Coordinator:
http://pulsar.westmont.edu/aeronca/digest/TOURSTO1.DOC
or better yet, why not ask her, her business e-mail and contact info is in
this letter she wrote:
http://pulsar.westmont.edu/aeronca/digest/TOURSTOP.DOC
As for the instructor Dave Lammers, he is a highly experiences pilot. As a
matter of fact, according to this website, he is a Gold Seal CFI:
http://www.nafinet.org/news/04_30_02%20-%20April%20Master%20Instructors.html
According to this website he was also the vice president of the EAA Aviation
center "International Aerobatic Club":
http://www.richstowell.com/quotes2.htm
Presently he is the chairman of IAC Hall of Fame Committee. His e-mail and
other info is found here: http://www.iac.org/programs/hof_history.html
Interesting info I found is that, just as the EAA HISTORICAL Society
Coordinator Kyle Guyette, instructor Dave Lammers loves to pilot historical
aircraft such as the one of EAA's replicas Spirit of St-Louis registered as
N-X211 : http://www.eaa48.org/membership1.htm and
http://www.eaa.org/communications/eaanews/pr/020815_lindbergh.html
he also flew the Spirit of St. Louis replica for a National Geographic
production called THE ADVENTURERS:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/credits/NGP0050.html
Last, but not least: Here he is at the controls of another historical
aircraft, the 1930 Pitcairn PA-7S Mailwing:
http://www.eaa.org/communications/eaanews/020815_goodoldays.html and another
close-up here: http://www.eaa33.org/members/showmember.php?lookupId=98
As for the producer of the series, Scott Guyette, EAA TV Executive Producer,
has produced something good for us that that will also get aired at
Discovery Wings, just before Christmas 2003.
http://www.eaa.org/communications/eaanews/030220_centennial_minutes.html
Scott Guyette has produced some micro-budget productions for EAA Productions
such as "Wheels and Wings", "Learning to Fly" and "Centennial Minutes"
segments.
All of them work for the EAA, all of them have produced aviation related
material in the past and all of them love historical planes.
Lets hope that the series "Learning to Fly" will continue and better yet:
"Kyle, let's see you on TV earning your *REAL* PPL!". I'm under the
impression that producer Scott Guyette will fake it in the last episode....
which was hopefully filmed(?) in the summer 2002.
If one of you guys e-mail them, let us know what happened to "Learning to
Fly" and Kyle's PPL status!
James M. Knox
news:2B0ya.9741$7B6.1...@wagner.videotron.net:
> In the past, several quality series had the same fate:
> Aileron with only 2 productions
> ABC Wide world of flying with only 23 productions
There was also a short-lived "Out Of The Blue" tape series - similar to
ABC WWoF, but with a little more emphasis on homebuilders.
An attempted TV series was called "The World Above" and was taped for
PBS. I saw two episodes, but then no more.
Yes, on the average such series have about the life expectancy of trying
a sequal to "My Mother, The Car".
> If Sporty's and the Kings haven't made anything for TV yet (although
> they have the ressources to do do it) they must know something.
>
> Anyways, I hope that we will see the other "missing 6" episodes.
Me to. Compared to the over and over and over and over reruns on
Discovery Wings, I would *love* to see even advertising promotional
videos. The kind that the homebuilder kitplane mfr's all seem to have.
I think they could be very interesting, and coupled to some actual
"educational" reviewers comments.
> I noticed that Kyle Pauline Guyette (any realationship with producer
> Scott Guyette?) , according to FAA's database she is still a student
> pilot, which is not a good sign for the show's ending which as filmed
> in the summer 2002.
Maybe... Personally, I'm hoping it's just a real SLOW update rate for
the FAA database.
-----------------------------------------------
James M. Knox
TriSoft ph 512-385-0316
1109-A Shady Lane fax 512-366-4331
Austin, Tx 78721 jk...@trisoft.com
-----------------------------------------------
Brien K. Meehan
news:2B0ya.9741$7B6.1...@wagner.videotron.net...
> In the past, several quality series had the same fate:
> Aileron with only 2 productions
> ABC Wide world of flying with only 23 productions
It's a conspiracy, of course. An anti-general-aviation conspiricy.
I'd speculate that ABC's died because of internal policy conflicts. The
show was probably informative and somewhat accurate. There's every
indication that the policy of ABC News is to keep the general public
uninformed / misinformed about general aviation. The news department
pointed out the "error" to the programming department, and the show was
gone.
I'm having trouble coming up with a similar theory for Discovery
Communications, although they do have a strong relationship with the BBC,
which seems to have a similar anti-GA policy.
TTA Cherokee Driver
>
> I noticed that Kyle Pauline Guyette (any realationship with producer Scott
> Guyette?) , according to FAA's database she is still a student pilot, which
> is not a good sign for the show's ending which as filmed in the summer 2002.
It took me 2 years to get my PPL, 2001-2003. So there's still hope for
Kyle :)
I watched one episode of that series with my wife, hoping she would get
some insight on what I did when I was training. However, she refuses to
watch it again because the sound quality is so poor -- someone get that
instructor a better headset, or at least use a better sound setup so we
can hear him clearly. Either that or tell him to take the mic out of
his mouth. I can't tell exactly what the problem is, but when he's
talking on the headset (which is most of the time) it's pretty much
unwatchable IMO.
Mike
--
PP-ASEL
PA28-161
http://www.wingsofcarolina.org
Note: email invalid. Respond on newsgroup
Ken Finney
news:vci5104...@news.supernews.com...
Is anyone aware of "official" (e.g. having the president of EAA, AOPA, etc.
write a letter) correspondence to ABC or Discovery about the lack of GA
programming? Or to Discovery about the repeats? "Never attribute to greed
or avarice that which can be explained by ignorance" seems a pretty
appropriate
comment.
Joseph Brown
> instructor a better headset,
The headset that Dave Lamers wears is a Sennheiser. One of the leaders in
sound, second best to Bose, which Kyle suddenly switched to on later
episodes.
> or at least use a better sound setup so we
> can hear him clearly.
In the cockpit, while the engine is running you're pretty limited. The
sound setup probably consisted of capturing the sound directly from the Comm
panel via a matching transformer such as the Tranor aviation to mic adaptor.
> Either that or tell him to take the mic out of
> his mouth. I can't tell exactly what the problem is
Being a television producer and aviator myself, I can tell you what the
sound problem is: The TV crew itself. The concept and the idea are
excellent. the TV crew lacks experience. Compare their sound with the one
of Sporty's, Kings, ABC WWoF. Also compare the picture quality of these
episodes with the ones from ABC Wide World of Flying. Chances are that the
producer of "Learning to Fly" is not a real producer, but rather somebody
with minimum editing experience. They haven't used a single reflector,
haven't used gamma compensation on their in-flight cameras at all, just to
mention a few [serious] mistakes. The sound wasn't equalized at all, they
didn't use band-pass filters at all, this is why it sounds a bit harsh. I
also suspect that they used several computer web cameras with plastic lenses
inside the cockpit.... if they knew better; they would have done it
differently.
The problem is not Kyle/Dave. The problem is from the lack of experience of
the ENTIRE video production crew.
Although ABC WWof used U-matic 3/4" antiquitated equipment for nowadays,
unlike EAA Television, experienced cameraman David E. Jackson used the
camera at its full potential, with a picture and sound quality that beats
hands down "Learning to Fly"
Joseph Brown
> PBS. I saw two episodes, but then no more.
Both episodes premiered on Sun Feb 27 1994 between 14:00 - 15:00 back to
back.
Joseph Brown
This explains why they used a "vintage C-172" with a equipped with a vintage
"Gyro-horizon"
> Lets hope that the series "Learning to Fly" will continue and better yet:
It will, complete schedules are listed here:
http://www.eaa.org/communications/eaanews/030418_learntofly.html
The show will end on August 23rd 2003. Four repeats will run till September
27 2003.
James M. Knox
$7B6.1...@wagner.videotron.net:
Fine... so I'm waiting for more episodes!!! Get with it.
[Seriously, the episodes where quite good, and would be of interest to the
"non-aviation" community as well as to pilots. After MUCH urging to our
local PBS station they finally aired them. They aired non-prime time, and
the ONLY note in our TV schedule was the single word "above". If I hadn't
of gotten a "heads up" from a friend at the station even I would not have
seen them. Hardly a fair chance at the ratings.]
Alex S.
This results in the propeller "standing still" while the plane cruises at
2100 RPM ! Amateurs! I still don't understand how it passed Discovery's
quality control.
TTA Cherokee Driver
Alex S. wrote:
> True, I also noticed that on their they used a wrong high shutter speed.
> This results in the propeller "standing still" while the plane cruises at
> 2100 RPM ! Amateurs! I still don't understand how it passed Discovery's
> quality control.
Discovery's quality control? I love DWNGS and many of the other
Discovery channels, but this isn't the only program they run that shows
that they are often so desperate to fill airtime that they aren't too
picky about quality control.