- Rock and roll time.
(upbeat music)
Do you like to go low?
- Let's see how low you can go?
Oh my God! Oh my God!
We're below the water almost.
Whoa!
(dramatic music)
- I mean the amount of money sitting there is just crazy.
(dramatic music)
You're flying sir, you're flying.
- Yeah
- Whoa, whoa!
- That's wake turbulence.
- We're all going to die!
- No we're not.
(dramatic music)
Wow that's all of the passenger ships sitting right there.
Look at that.
(dramatic music)
We're now coming over the LAX at 4,000 feet.
(dramatic music)
- Well, John I can tell you a secret now.
- Welcome back, today for the love of aviation
a lot of general aviation pilots came out with me.
We're going to do an Aplick neat air formation
with three planes.
(upbeat music)
- Here's the plan for our flight today.
We've got three aeroplanes ,
so its a formation flight.
Obviously our number one priority is safety.
And in order to maintain safety,
we have to maintain separation.
If someone's leading the flight,
they are doing navigation and communication
and making sure we stay out of any air space
we shouldn't be in.
If people are the wing men,
they are focusing entirely on separation.
They should be looking at the lead at all times
and everyone here knows how to do that.
When we meet the photo ship,
the photo ship is going to become lead
in some of the cases,
so we're going to have an exchange of controls.
We're going to fly to Mohave and do a few orbits above,
figure out where all of the aeroplanes are.
Then we're going to call,
the photographer's going to call the tower
and we're going to descend down
and do whatever orbits we need.
When we're done, we'll exit there and head
east towards Victorville.
And Victorville, we'll do the same thing.
We'll do some orbits above the airspace
to get the lay of the land
and then we'll do some low passes
over Runway 2-1.
And we'll be at the direction.
Whenever this is happening,
the photo ship will be lead
and they'll be directing us and telling us what to do.
- Ready to go!
- Good, you're it.
You're going to be doing everything.
- Yeah (laughter).
- You're going to be flying us today.
So we start off with the brake,
park brake is on.
Throttle is closed
and then over there,
we'll switch on two lanes.
We've got our...
Avionics booted up...
Prop here.
(engine turning)
And you can close your doors.
Sam, just grab it in front then pull it down.
- Very, very spacious inside. - Yes, yes.
Your feet's on the rudder pedals,
this hand here
and apply a little bit of power
and steer with your feet and let's go down.
- Okay
- Turn right to go right, push with your feet.
- Yep
- A little bit less power, less power.
- Yep. Oh wow I'm getting it!
- You're getting it quickly.
- Dude, I can't totally speak right now.
- And then, right here - Okay
- At this hand, you can put on the brake if you want to.
- Uh huh - A little bit harder right
and we're going to go right down there.
- Okay
- And catch up with the guys.
- Okay
- Okay good!
You're a pilot!
- (laughter)
- Easy as that.
Here we go, beautiful, well done.
- Wow! I can't believe I'm doing it.
- And the apply brakes. You're doing it, you're doing it!
- Wow!
- Okay, we've got to do some checks.
Take the stick and go all the way left,
back, check the controls.
- Yep
- That's it. Nice.
- Check the controls. Yep
- Good. Sam, what you're going to do is,
I want you to do the takeoff.
- Oh, me?
- Well, with me.
I'll be there,
but I want you to do it.
We're going to do a formation takeoff.
All I want you to do
is concentrate on the runway,
apply power and when your speed gets to 55,
a slight pressure on the stick to pull us back.
But very slight
and we'll just let the aeroplane take off
and we'll maintain in these formation
with these guys.
Okay, let's go.
All right.
You ready?
- Yeah
- Okay so this hand on the power,
and ease the power on and lets go, let's go.
- Full throttle?
- Yes, go all the way, all the way forward,
all the way, keep it.
- Oh let's go!
- There you go, we're going to go.
- Let me know when to when to rotate.
- Yeah, and it's a very small movement,
and you can start easing the stick back a little bit.
And let's go fly.
You're flying sir, you're flying!
- Yes!
(dramatic music)
- Wow, wow.
- That's wake turbulence.
- Yeah, wake turbulence from the taxiing.
Yeah, good.
Amazing, airborne now.
- [Radio] Technum doesn't have visual of the both flights.
Roger, we both got two visual,
I got visual of the TF-5.
- That Technum looks even sexier with the gear up.
Wow it looks so nice with the gear up.
- Yeah
(dramatic music)
- So flying formation like this is quite difficult.
You really just got to concentrate, you know?
- Yeah
- You're, you're closing speed
cannot be so quick and sudden.
- We are, we're just coming over
the LAX at 4,000 feet.
- Very quiet down there.
A lot more aeroplanes sitting on the ground than flying.
- Yeah, it's quite amazing,
cause normally when you fly over here
and you look out on the approach part,
there's a row of aeroplanes
and there's just almost nothing now.
- Wow, that's incredible.
I've never been so close following
a plane like this.
This is a new record for me.
Really, thank you so much.
- You want to try and fly?
- Uh, okay I'll try a little bit.
- The main thing is if anything goes wrong,
we'll escape route is down and left.
- Okay.
- Don't focus on him too much,
but just keep an eye on him.
Make sure you take control.
- Okay, I have control.
- Again and if anything goes funny,
you'll just relax and I'll grab it.
Keep left, don't don't let us start getting close.
Try to stay.
Got it?
See how quickly
it gets out of whack.
- Yeah, sorry about that (laughter).
- No, no, no problem.
- Oh my God, this is very advanced,
like, this is something
you wouldn't normally do.
- You see, you see my movements,
I'm using two fingers,
and I'm just like a joystick all the time.
Slight movements.
And then if you look at one of,
you change the scale there,
here at 24 miles and just search around for Nine Mike Bravo.
- Yep, Nine Mike Bravo found.
- You've got it, excellent.
- I'm going around 20 miles.
- [Narrator] So, we were looking out for our camera ship,
which is a Cessna 172,
operated by a father and son team.
From their Cessna,
they will film our formation over the desert
and Blooming Flower Fuse.
That was our plan.
- (upbeat music)
- You know the pilot reported extreme turbulence
which I don't often do.
- [Narrator] As we're heading towards Mohave,
it became really windy and bumpy.
So, we decided to split up
instead of continuing the formation.
At this point,
the Cessna photo ship went to Victorville first
with a Whistling trainer aircraft.
They've managed some awesome
air to air footage ahead of us.
- (upbeat music)
- Ted and Choi 0-2-5 Whiskey Tango
is joining left base
for runway 2-0 low pass.
- Clear to low approach,
I'm going to get a left turn on Southbound
is approved to be advised or received at par
or above turbulence of extreme.
- Look at that two pass and its turbulence.
Very very steep turbulence.
- (dramatic music)
- Oh yeah, extreme turbulence today.
A challenge.
Oh look at all the aeroplanes in graveyard.
- That's amazing.
- I was in the middle of that graveyard about a month.
- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah.
I was deep style all these aeroplanes actually.
- Wow.
_ Yeah. Its good to see all of them still here, yep.
- Wow, look at that.
- (dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Under heavy turbulence,
we made two rather poor attempts
over Mohave aeroplane graveyard
and we didn't catch much.
We decided to move on quickly to Victorville afterwards.
- Hi Victorville tower 1-3-5 Whiskey Tango.
Good morning.
Ah, we're inbound from Mohave,
and I wondered if
you could accommodate us joining in
and having a flight
over runway 2-1 at about 500 feet?
- [Operator] Five Whiskey Tango for pictures
maintain Att above 5,500
and you can take all the photos
you want Att above 5,500.
- Victorville tower didn't like our initial request,
instead of letting us fly in low over the airfield,
the ATC put us at 5,500 feet,
which outside of his control area.
- Wow, look at that, hey.
- The 2-1 is the one where the runway,
the planes parked like a V shape.
- Yeah.
- And then you got a bunch of Southwest
next to them on the taxiway.
So, it would be really cool to fly past.
- I'm just thinking.
Can we go back,
and we do a full stop landing?
- We can land, yes.
- Victorville tower, 1-3-5 Whiskey Tango,
We've got 5,500 feet,
I wonder if you can accommodate full stop landing,
runway 1-7, please?
- [Operator] 3-5-2 Whiskey Tango,
left traffic going 1-7, report downwind.
You'll be number two to fall all the way in.
- We'll land 1-7 number two
and copy the wave turbulence Five Whiskey Tango.
(dramatic music)
- Ah, the wind is to bad,
Wow, look at how many aeroplanes there is here.
- It's impressive.
- Yeah (laughter)
- First flap speed,
left on Delta this frequency,
and we'd like to taxi to Million Air.
- [Operator] 3-5 Whiskey Tango turn right on taxiway
and cross only two more.
- [Narrator] Without much luck,
we decided to land in Victorville
and take a short break
at the Million Air facility
and form a new strategy.
- Wow.
So here on the ground, at Victorville,
it's really amazing.
There's just tonnes and tonnes of aeroplanes ,
new aeroplanes , old aeroplanes
and also those retired aeroplanes that are let.
Everything is here so the Max,
737 Max those really
have zero hours on the clock.
Right here, this lot,
Southwest in the background,
and also right behind our plane,
Fly Dubai, LOT Polish, Cayman Airways.
You can see GOL Air,
Europa T'way, China Southern.
All the brand new MAX
are stored in Victorville
because of the low humidity.
Then you see the the Delta,
they occupy the whole runway,
about, I would say,
about over 100 Delta aeroplanes now
parked in a V shape very tightly,
follow each other.
So, we're going to try our luck now.
We're going to try get airborne
and to do some filming,
if the tower approves us.
To see from a top down view,
from the bird's eye view,
that will make you to appreciate
how the scale of the aeroplane storage
happening right now in Victorville.
After this short break,
we decide to do a box climb
over Victorville airfield,
so we can slowly climb up to the 5,500 feet
and capture all the footage underneath our plane.
- (engine turning)
- Here we are, parked there.
We've got to be taxiing onto Charlie,
out Charlie and we're going to get Charlie
to our departure from there.
And then we're going to try
and take 3-5
and do a round of box flying right here.
- (dramatic music)
- 9-1-3-5 Whiskey Tango Victorville tower approve.
We're only three,
Five Charlie Two clear for takeoff.
- [Operator] Okay, Charlie Two cleared for takeoff
runway 3-5 right end box cut approved,
thanks Five Whiskey Tango.
- Roger.
- All right, here we go,
we've got it sir.
Rock and roll time.
- (dramatic music)
Just crazy, just the sheer number of aircraft.
- Yeah.
- Volume.
I mean the amount of money sitting there,
is just crazy.
- Victorville tower, 1-2-5 Whiskey Tango
upbound to the South.
Thank you very much.
Have a good afternoon.
Okay, so...
San Bernardino,
we could go over there 3,200 feet.
- [Radio] And on target tower,
Sling 1-3-5 Whiskey Tango good afternoon.
We've got Charlie
and we'd like to be inbound
for a touch and go, runway 2-4.
- [Operator] Five Whiskey Tango,
traffic departing runway 2-4
cleared touch and go.
- Copy that and departing.
Departing clear touch and go,
runway 2-4 5 Whiskey Tango.
(plane touchdown sound)
Hello tower 1-3-5 Whiskey Tango going around.
- 5 Whiskey Tango (mumble)
- See South African Airways there?
- Oh.
- Yeah.
- They got stack here.
- [Narrator] At San Bernardino,
there were also lots of planes
parked in the middle of airfield.
We did our very best to capture
by doing touch and go,
and box climb in the circuits,
but it wasn't quite easy.
- (dramatic music)
So, where are we heading now?
- We're going to go over the field...
- Uh huh.
- And then to King Harbour
which is a nice area to start,
and then we can fly down the coast.
- (dramatic music)
- Do you like to go low?
- Yeah, let's see how low you can go.
- Accepted.
- (laughter)
- We are at 660 foot.
(dramatic music)
Wow, very pretty.
Wow, it's beautiful, beautiful flight.
Oh my God.
Shit (laughter)
- You want to go lower?
- Oh my God, look at it, it's red,
it's red here (laughter).
It's red.
We're below the water almost.
Oh my God!
Whoa!
South African Bush Pilots!
(laughter)
Lovely, I love that, love it.
- (dramatic music)
- Have you seen one person on the beach?
- Not one.
- Zero.
- They're all closed.
- Wow. Really enjoyable.
Beautiful.
- Wow, so there's all the passenger ships
sitting right there.
Look at that.
- Wow.
- The shipyard parking.
- Yeah.
- Parking lot for ships.
That is crazy.
- (dramatic music)
Harbour traffic, Five Whiskey Tango is low level,
Queen Mary area manoeuvre.
I think that was perfect, yeah.
- Oh my God
- There's a go-kart track on the top there.
- Yeah, it's like there's a rollercoaster,
like a waterpark on top.
- Yeah.
Great.
- Unbelievable.
- Alright, should we head home?
- Head home, man.
- Okay, good
- This is incredible, incredible flight.
So, John, I can tell you a secret now.
- Yeah.
- I think that I'm going to sign up
a PPL after flying with you,
it really bring the best of aviation,
I love aviation!
The spirit of that and I...
- Excellent!
- And I really want to be flying just like this.
It's just total freedom
and just pure enjoyment.
- Excellent, well, you've come to the right place.
- Do you want me to land the plane?
- You want to?
- We could do a home run away.
- Oh really?
- Yeah, you want to?
- (laughter) You're really a push pilot,
you can let me do anything I want to.
- Yeah
- All right, I'll try to guide to the runway.
- Yes, good.
- And I'll let you land then.
- (radio chatter)
- Dont.
Push the stick to the right.
- It's going to be hard to control.
- Just cut this,
look at that,
oh we're going to die.
Now we're not.
- (laughter) Oh my God.
- Oh maybe we got to...
Go with me on that.
There we go.
You're going to make a quick correction...
Till you feel, now
- All right, I'll let you take over.
- Go with it, go with me,
stay with me.
- Whoa, we got birds.
- So you see now,
I don't try to put it on the ground.
I try and stay airborne,
stay airborne.
Stay airborne, stay airborne.
- Ahhhh, it's like slowly like pushing it in.
- Yeah, you're trying to stay airborne
and then when the airplane's
run out of speed and energy,
it'll land by itself.
Good sir, that was great!
Thank you very much!
- Amazing!
(dramatic music)
(whoosh)
(clink)
(pop)