u/TempusFugit2020

Ok, so I've been flying for 37 years, and now my niece wants to learn. I'm not going to teach her, but I'd like to get her a couple of things....kind of like gifts that are useful and maybe necessary. I'm guessing that you all don't still teach with the old slide rule E6B, but is there something that has replaced it and if so what is that?

I bought her a logbook and a sectional, so I'm just looking to fill the gift bag. I also told her that if she was going to stay with it, I'm in for a nice headset and other stuff. The lessons, of course, are on her dad though 🤣

Thanks for your help!

I don't get why one would post a series of images here and ask for comment only to delete the body of the original post when they get comments that indicate they missed the mark. How does one improve if one can't accept critique. Taking down the original post also does a disservice to the general readers of this sub since they can't learn from the critiques.

Am I off about this? Why come here and post your work if you are not going to accept the critique?

I posted a question yesterday about buying a dedicated IR camera body (a converted Canon R100), and in that very helpful thread one topic came up that I'm a little unclear about is the details of a full spectrum body. I get the advantage of not limiting the camera to one wavelength, but in order to do that you have to use filters to decide what wavelengths you want to restrict. The only experience I have with IR filters is with a regular Canon body and a 720nm filter, and those exposures needed to be 20 to 30 seconds. I rented a converted 720nm Canon body and the exposures were about the same as an unconverted body. I liked the slowing down part when I used the filter, but I have to admit that the converted body was convenient.

So my question is with a body that is converted to full spectrum, when I use the various filters will the exposure times be similar to my experience with the 720nm filter or the rental I had above?

Newbie stuff, I realize. Thanks for your thoughts!

Hello All,

I'm a long time amateur/hobbyist. A few years ago I experimented for a couple of days with a 720nm IR filter, and I had a blast. That enticed me to rent a dedicated IR camera for a week (a Canon 6D Mark II) and again, I had a blast. So I'm considering buying one. With that cost is on my mind because photographically this isn't what I normally gravitate towards, and I don't want to drop a lot of money with something I'm going to use "occasionally". Think of this as a hobby within a hobby. I'm a Canon guy and a recent mirrorless convert, so I'm considering an R100. So my questions:

1. Anyone have any real issues with a crop frame for their IR work? Remember, this is a hobby within a hobby for me.

2. 24 MP seems fine since it's about what I had with the camera I rented. Other than the idea that "more is always better" anything that I should be aware of? BTW....I know "more" doesn't always equal "better, but I lack in depth IR experience so I thought I'd ask.

3. I've never shot a mirrorless for IR. Any hiccups I should look for?

Thanks much for the opinions!

A quick vent today. I keep reading stories of DPE fees being what I consider extraordinary. I think especially for the PPL, I think charging $1,500.00 is just abusive. When I took my PPL checkride in 1990, I paid $200.00 (about $500.00 adjusted for 2026).

I get the responsibility they hold, and they shouldn't do it for free. But if the checkride (oral, flight, and in between time) is six hours, that $250.00 an hour for an evaluation in a C-150. To me it's abusive.

If anyone wants to chime in and show me how I'm off on this one, I'm happy to change my view.

Ok...I'm sure there is a lot of this, but here goes...if you're starting off, what should one look for in a drone? Here's my intent:

I'm an amateur photographer, so I like taking pictures and editing. I don't do it professionally, I don't hold myself out for work, and I don't have any intent of doing that. It's just a big hobby that I want to add video and stills to from different perspectives. I'm looking at a few DJI units, but it's hard for me to accurately determine what the differences are (aside from the photo and video tech stuff). It also seems like this is one of those things that you can simply $100.00 yourself into a $4,000.00 package, and I'm trying to avoid that. 😂 I'd like to keep it close to $1,000.00 USD, so I'm currently comparing the Mini 3 and 4 as well as the the Neo 2.

10 years ago I helped on the regulatory side with a couple of guys that were starting an aerial survey company with the DJI Phantom and a DJI Mavic (I'm a professional pilot and was helping them navigate the 333 exemption stuff since this was prior to Part 107). I know the technology is far better now, so I guess I just don't know where to start.

Thanks for your help!

I try to start my posts with the disclaimer that I'm an amateur/hobbyist. I've been shooting sports for about 20 years, all at the youth through high school level. I have my culling and delivery process, and it works fine for me. But how do you working professionals cull and deliver efficiently?

This weekend I shot the morning of a basketball tournament for an organization I volunteer for. I overlapped with other photographers (both volunteer and paid) for time, so I shot the first five hours of the event. I did what I normally do which is come home, load the files, go through to make my picks, crop and correct for exposure (no huge editing), and then exported my final versions. While I edit I discard some as I take a second pass. All in all I am done in a couple of hours.

I can't imaging you guys/women are doing that. It just doesn't seem efficient with the volume you shoot at your events, so:

1. For bigger events (e.g. World Cup, professional baseball, etc.) are you doing the culling and editing or are you handing off cards/transferring files electronically to editors to deliver immediately? I see images online sometimes moments after the play, and I think that's pretty impressive but don't get how you do it.
2. For the single-shooting pros (maybe college athletics) are you rating in camera thus saving culling time? Are you editing and delivering after the fact? What is your usual turn around time for a game?
3. Especially for single shooting pros shooting multiple sports (e.g. college athletics), it seems like a herculean task to keep up and keep delivering. When do you sleep? 😄 In all seriousness, how do you find balance?

I'm trying to be more efficient, but really I'm curious how it works for you. Thanks much in advance!

Hello all...Corporate pilot here with a couple of procedural questions. On YouTube I just saw a video where the SFO tower's radar went down which caused all sorts of arrival and departure delays. The set up for this is that the weather was IFR (I think it was something like 600 overcast), and there was the typical string of arrivals spaced as they normally would be. When the tower's radar went down, the controller started sending the arrivals that were inside the FAF around, and then he did the same with the planes that checked in on the ILS telling them just to go back to Approach since he couldn't see them.

As a pilot I thought that this situation wouldn't be as big of a deal as it seems to be. I figured that the planes on the ILS would just continue to land, but I'm apparently very wrong. So after reading more about this, I think the issue is that without the tower radar, the tower essentially becomes a VFR only tower. If that's the case, IFR separation can't be monitored so you have a situation where only one IFR operation can be conducted inside the FAF. I'm saying the FAF because NORCAL's radar was working and IFR separation can be maintained by NORCAL up to the FAF. How am I doing so far?

The SFO tower can't depart anyone operating under IFR because, to summarize, only one IFR operation is allowed at a time. That would mean that a departure couldn't be released until the arrival was on the ground and there isn't another arrival inside the FAF. Another arrival couldn't be cleared for the ILS until that departure was seen by NORCAL ("radar contact"). Do I still have it right?

Since I go to a bunch of uncontrolled fields, I can correlate this to IFR operations there. Typically if there are a few planes operating under IFR and arriving at an uncontrolled field, the Approach or Center controller will only clear one plane beyond the FAF (or some other fix) until that plane cancels IFR. Again this would fall under the same principle as the SFO example above of "only one IFR operation at a time". In that case of a plane waiting to take of from that uncontrolled field under IFR, the controller has to wait to issue the IFR release until after the arriving plane cancels IFR and continues to hold the arriving traffic outside the FAF. Again...one IFR operation at a time. Is this correlation correct?

Finally, remember that this is not about weather; It's about rules.

I know this is long, and apologies for that. I find your gig super interesting, and knowing some of your perspectives and limitations helps me walk a colleague or two off a ledge from time to time 😉

Thanks for your comments!

So I'm consistently puzzled by this question, and I see it from time to time in this sub. I'm an amateur/hobbyist, and I got into photography because I wanted nice pictures of my kids. Once they started playing organized sports, I caught the sports photography bug hard, and shot all kinds of events posting my results for the teams' parents to have. It was work, but it was and continues to be fun. I look back at the early times and can see cool progress from where I was clearly learning to being fairly skilled.

But I never thought to charge for my work. I mean, everyone was appreciative but no one asked me to work for them. I just happened to be there.

I think if I wanted to make a career out of this, I would pull together the best images over my 20 years of shooting and market myself as a pro (freelance for a publication or something like that). If I wanted a side hustle, I would still make a portfolio and have to market myself on that level. For example if I became the club photographer for a youth soccer club, I would expect to be paid some amount for shooting a game and then maybe some agreement to make individual pictures for sale. But to randomly take pictures at a game and then try to "sell" the pictures after the fact seems kind of like ambulance chasing for an attorney. To me it's not an exceptionally effective strategy. I mean if someone came up to me after a game and said that they had "picture X" of my kid and I could have it for $20.00 I would most likely say that I just watched him for free.

So am I getting this "how much should I charge for this picture" question wrong? Anyone having real success with this strategy? And if you're having success, to what financial extent?

Again, I'm not a guy that after 20 years is going to start charging for my hobby, but I'm curious about other people's results, I guess.

Hello All...new to this sub. Promoted by another post in this sub I had this question come up: Why would one shoot a wedding exclusively with film today?

I get the aesthetic decision, but from a business standpoint I don't see the advantage. It seems to me that shooting digital would give you both more options in the event of a mistake, and that film would just inherently raise your price point because film has to be processed. To edit in post you either have to spend time in a dark room or you have to convert the negatives to digital files. Either way that adds time, which adds work, which adds, cost. I'm thinking it can't be delivery since prints can be made from both film negatives and digital files.

I get the artistic decisions to include some film, but I don't get it as a focus strategy.

BTW...I'm 58 and have been married for 35 years. Our photographer shot exclusively on film. He was exceptionally skilled and the results are great. But since that was in 1991, I thought I'd ask here. Thanks for taking the time to reply!