New programs

It was wonderful welcome Arik Air to the series. Filming a Nigerian airline in Nigeria was something we could not imagine but thanks to the dedication of Simon and some great folks over at Arik we got this done under extremely difficult conditions. It did help that Simon was actually born there but conditions are really dangerous and that was the case while we were filming this program. We ended up filming this over 2 trips of about a week each in order to get the A340-500 with the Captain in charge of the aircraft... and our thanks go out to HiFly who operate this aircraft for their great cooperation as well. In addition we were able to film some 737 and Q-400 domestic and regional flights to give you an idea of what flying is all about in Nigeria and show you some of the airports you probably will never get to visit in person.

Next came Air Austral. We've been very friendly with this great company for a long time and we waited for the company to take delivery of their new Boeing 737-800s and Boeing 777-200LRs to pay them a new visit and film their super modern fleet in High Definition. Having filmed the 737-300/500 and 777-200ER we would complete the series with the 777-300ER. For this aircraft I picked the St Denis-Marseille-Toulouse route because I knew that flying into Marseille in the morning would be a hit, and it was, and a domestic sector in France on the 777 was a nice bonus. We organized to feature one of the airline's best First Officers who really explained everything in extensive details on this flight.  For the 777-200LR I picked Paris to St Denis because the schedule would allow for a daylight departure from CDG and daylight landing in St Denis, that worked out well. We then moved on to the new 737-800s and for that I secured the 737 Chief Pilot, a really super cool guy who made the 737 part of the program a pleasure. In addition you will see some really nice destinations and scenery on the way not to mention some fantastic new angles Udo was able to capture using up to 6 cameras in the cockpit. I'm so delighted with the results of this program!

Now it was time to re-visit the airline you people have been asking the most... I guess 7 programs is not enough, which is a huge testament to what Air Canada has done in the series. You asked for some Canada destinations and we thought we combine it with some winter flying and the Embraer 190 was perfectly suited for that. At first we thought we were going to have to delay this till 2013 because as we all know 2012 was one of the mildest winters in years... but we lucked out right from the get go when it started snowing on our first flight and a trip to the de-icing facility became a must.  Our near diversion and then low vis approach and landing at Kelowna was another good subject for our winter ops program and the snow on the ground in Ottawa and special scenic arrival above the city completed yet another fantastic Air Canada program not to mention 3 great crews who as always took their time to explain everything that went on before and during the flights.

Last, but not least, I was super happy that we were invited to come back to Istanbul to visit Turkish Airlines again 16 years after we filmed their Airbus A340 on the New York JFK route. Ideally I wanted the IST-Los Angeles route but that came with some restrictions so I opted for the Tokyo Narita route which would give us a daylight departure and arrival at both Istanbul and Tokyo. Turkish Airlines' cooperation in planning and executing this project was amazing! As you can see on the You Tube trailer, the Captain and First Officer which were picked for our trip did a fantastic job informing you on all the details prior, during and after the flight. We also lucked out by coming into Tokyo during a really very strong storm and almost didn't make it in but on the 2nd attempt we landed. In addition, as so many of you always ask for cabin footage, we were able to film some really wonderful scenes of the cabin crew before and during the flight and services to give you an idea of why Turkish was now voted Best Airline in Europe for the second time in a row.

I am very excited with the next 3 programs that are now ready for release and I think you will really enjoy the continued quality of our programs, the variety of routes we picked for you and the awesome pilots we managed to get to present these flights to you!

Re-releases from VHS

I hope you're enjoying the Air Namibia 747SP DVD that we brought back this weekend. This is a classic and for just $15 I think many of you will enjoy this one in your collection. I plan on continuing to bring some of these programs back for a limited run.

Selling Out

Over the next few months we will have a dozen titles that will be selling out... as always we try to give you some warning so you can get the DVD before its too late but I urge you to monitor our Facebook page and our Twitter so you don't miss out. Some of the titles that will be selling out will not be coming back so you don't want to take a chance if it happens to be something you're interested in. We still plan on bringing back a few of the sold out titles however on a smaller scale than previously mostly because our warehouse now has more than 150,000 DVDs and with the addition of Blu-ray we are fast running out of space.

You Tube

Here is where we have accomplished some unreal results lately... With the addition of a daily video our channel is fast becoming the #1 Aviation Channel on You Tube!  in August alone we added 5800 subscribers, thats nearly 200 every single day!  At the start of 2012 our channel had around 400,000 monthly views, in August we were just under 1 million views and growing very fast!

The fact that we have been filming for nearly 22 years now means we have such resources to dig into every day to bring you a new video and this seems to be very well received out there. I hope you continue to enjoy our daily new video and subscribe if you have not yet done so!

Facebook

Our Facebook page continues to be the way for us to communicate things to you quickly and on a daily basis. Such as now as we post clues for our new program that will be released next Friday or a quick sale or contest we're running which you would be missing if you didn't tune in.

2012 is turning into our best year ever and I'd like to take a moment to thank YOU for making this all possible. Without your continued support we would not be able to travel the world and bring you all these programs so thanks again and I hope you continue enjoying our work!  I'll try to come back with another newsletter soon!

All the best and talk soon!