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Media treatment of GA (BBC Skies Above Britain)

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There is a new programme on the TV here called Skies Above Britain. (non UK people cannot get it online due to BBC’s IP blocking).

It was pretty good on the rescue and ATC (with some good tension thrown in for the camera, as usual) but as regards GA they started with a couple of homebuilt pilots, brothers apparently (I missed the first few mins) both independently crashing. And one GA pilot busting some airspace.

I guess it is easy to collect drama if you look for it in the obvious sections of the GA population, but somebody ought to write to the producers and tell them that the vast majority of GA doesn’t crash and gets great value out of it. I have just written in.

Normally one gets more mileage out of an “aspirational” approach, which the producer did for ATC and rescue, so why start with a totally negative “GA pilots are totally reckless idiots who put their families at risk” picture when it comes to GA?

The BBC2 Contact Us page is here

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Normally one gets more mileage out of an “aspirational” approach, which the producer did for ATC and rescue, so why start with a totally negative “GA pilots are totally reckless idiots who put their families at risk” picture when it comes to GA?

That’s a double edged sword. For parachuters and base jumpers, new members come soaring in whenever there is a lethal accident. It’s the same with all seemingly “high risk” activities. Safety does not sell, except for rescue organisations, which essentially is the same thing (bold men and women doing “crazy” things to rescue others).

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

And its sexist too. The watch supervisor says about the infringer: “All we can do is to play a waiting game with this chap, and waiting for him to leave controlled airspace.”

How can he know it’s not a “gal” but a “chap” if they are not in radio contact?

It was just a human interest angle on that particular bit, there’s another 4 programmes to go with plenty of other GA aspects. I thought it was a good overall production, loads of non aviation people I know have today been talking about it which I reckon is a good result for UK aviation!

Now retired from forums best wishes

I thought it was a really good show. Balanced and didn’t see the GA stuff as particularly negative.

EGTK Oxford

There is a new programme on the TV here called Skies Above Britain. (non UK people cannot get it online due to BBC’s IP blocking).

In case anyone would like to, apps like tunnel bear still work from outside the uk.

Last Edited by Fuji_Abound at 19 Aug 06:33

Brit expats also use(d) Onspeed.com for this purpose… which successfully brought that service down to its knees

Anyway I am glad that some think this programme is good for GA.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Must say I enjoyed it too, surely the aspirational angle on S&R and ATC must also have some positive impact on overall GA, people need to start somewhere right?

LFHN - Bellegarde - Vouvray France

From another thread:

Watch the current BBC series “Skies above Britain”…. An ATC woman explained that small planes don’t really have strict maintenance like airlines other than an annual “MOT”….and the scene with the small plane (with the implication of a bumbling amateur pilot) infringing Gatwick causing chaos….a few aerobatic pilots and other hobbyists….all risking their lives…. The only oblique reference to a business user was an ATC relaying how there was one guy who used to make regular trips to Ireland that they all felt they knew…until one day he died too… I’m afraid that’s how light GA is viewed…

I have thus far seen 2 or 3 episodes and basically every mention of GA talks about crashes and death and then like every “good human” reporter they throw in the “good human angle” where they look at how their families/colleagues were affected, and variations of that.

The BBC could have done so much more. They could have dug out an experienced pilot who flies all over Europe. Even one who flies his bizjet on business. Instead they have gone for the standard society tokens. You want a programme on blacks so head for the nearest drug dealing street. It’s a low budget production made by people who don’t do research and as a result it is full of clueless statements. It was probably subcontracted. That ATC woman’s comments should have never been aired because they are patently misleading (which doesn’t make NATS look so good either) and this shows that the programme was made by a load of muppets.

That some pilots are clueless just doesn’t do the rest of us any favours. And the ATC woman’s comments were her real views too, which doesn’t help us either. Fortunately very few experienced pilots speak to London Information where IIRC she was working, because without radar calling them up is close to worthless. But maybe that was why she held those views – she only ever spoke to a small % of GA.

A total lack of peer review usually produces rubbish.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

This thread seems seems to be about one particular show in the UK.

In Germany, GA has received quite a lot of favorable TV coverage this year, largely due to the flight sharing platforms. Virtually any channel/any boulevard style magazine has had a piece about either Flyt.Club or Wingly. The usual structure is that the reporter sits at home over a laptop or tablet, randomly selects a cool flight – say to Venice. Then they go on and compare the “price” to regular airfares and stuff like that. Eventually they put the reporter and the crew (camera and audio) into the poor pilot’s four-seat (not ) Cessna or Piper and off they go, throwing in some nice shots of the cruise flight and then a few minutes of the reporter enjoying the destination.

These short bits are usually quite favorable, maybe even overstating the utility value of such flights, not having enough time to discuss weather limitations etc. in detail.

Hungriger Wolf (EDHF), Germany
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