Aviation
As far as I can remember, alongside my interest in cars and motorsport that led me to my commentary career, there has always been an undying love for aviation and aircraft.
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This also stemmed from my Dad's interest in it - he's been an aviation photographer (as a hobby) for over 40 years. He's travelled to, seen and photographed some incredible things.
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At a young age he started taking me to airshows all over the UK - places like RAF Woodford, Cosford, Waddington, Yeovil, Shuttleworth and Fairford were second homes on weekends, with seemingly no grey area between blisteringly hot sunshine and torrential rain. The main sights there were military aircraft, from forces all over the globe, depending on the airshow. The sights and sounds of aircraft like Tornados and Hornets on afterburner, will never get old.
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As I've grown up and gotten more interested in taking pictures of said aircraft, I've been lucky to use my Dad's camera equipment to get used to it, eventually buying my own in 2023 after realising a love for a much more "anorak" corner of the aviation world - planespotting.
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In September 2022, a simple trip down to Heathrow to "just go and watch and take pictures" turned into an 8-hour long stint of writing down registrations on a notepad. I still can't quite describe why but it's very rewarding and interesting to the right person. Knowing exactly what aircraft you've seen, and when, adds another angle and context to what you're looking at, instead of the planes being "just another EasyJet Airbus A320".
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Collecting die cast models and building a model airport has followed, naturally, but I've continued to learn more about the industry, how air traffic controlling works and of course, how to fly the planes in the simulator.
Through this, aviation has been the main reason my YouTube Channel has seen such a rise in subscribers in 2023. The popular game Tower! Simulator 3 has seen the majority of viewers, with my Microsoft Flight Simulator content also drawing in decent numbers, as I cause major headaches at virtual airports all over the virtual globe.
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Tower! Simulator 3 is a semi-realistic simulator that puts you in the control tower of some of the world's best airports, handling AI traffic and giving commands very similar to the real world controllers do. It's a big challenge, but great fun at the same time, giving you a real insight into how hard air traffic controllers work. With the ability to modify the schedules and operations as well, there's no shortage of fun.
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On the Microsoft Flight Simulator side of things, I've been learning to fly a couple of different aircraft with great proficiency, eventually feeling competent enough to make it on to VATSIM - the go-to multiplayer network that ties together real-time flying and air traffic control. There's no closer simulation than this, for flying virtual planes. All has been documented through YouTube videos on my channel, while maintaining a sense of humour alongside the professionalism.
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I will soon be bringing a bit more Follower and Subscriber interaction to my Microsoft Flight Simulator videos, giving viewers chance to charter a flight / request flights for me to take on, within reason of course.
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Anyway, I decided to add this section to my website as it's another string to my bow that I'm very passionate about, yet don't feel that I share often enough. With the versatility and depth of the aviation industry, you never know where it could lead to more content-related work.