Three lessons have been cancelled since my last post, due to the poor weather. To keep up my motivation I’ve been watching quite a few clips on YouTube of people learning to fly. Particularly inspired by the excelling GoPro Flying channel, I decided I’d like to be able to record my own lessons, so I ordered some kit…

The GoPro is a tiny battery powered HD video camera, with a fish-eye style lens that is particularly suited to filming within the plane. I already had a GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition, so I just needed to buy some extra to get it set up within the cockpit.

GoPro Suction Cup Mount is a strong mount – apparently capable of withstanding speeds of up to 150mph – so perfectly strong enough for holding the camera steady inside the plane.

One of the things I particularly liked about the GoPro Flying channel is the way that cockpit audio (including radio transmissions) are recorded alongside the video. After researching various ways of achieving this, I decided to record it directly on the GoPro by using its external mic input. Firstly, you need an adaptor like this to connect to the headphones socket within the plane. It converts the headphone signal into a standard 3.5mm microphone jack, which you connect in to the GoPro using the 3.5mm Mic Adaptor cable.

It’s worth noting the GoPro camera doesn’t come with an SD card, so you’ll need to order one separately if you don’t already have one. I have a 32GB Class 10 card, which is large enough to store over 2.5 hours of high quality HD video – more than enough for my usual lessons, which are around 1.5 hours. If I want to record more video, I can easily reduce the quality.

I’m now eagerly awaiting my next lesson so I can try it out!