British Airways pilot shares his incredible view as he lands an A380 at Vancouver airport
The only thing better than watching an A380 take off or land from the flight deck? Watching it take off or land from the flight deck and the ground outside simultaneously.
That’s what Dave Wallsworth, the British Airways A380 pilot who’s posting Youtube videos of his flights has engineered for this, the third in his series of flight deck videos.
His three-and-a-half-minute video of a landing at Vancouver, shot in September 2017, is cut with a film of the same flight taken on the ground by avgeek (aviation geek) Kent Matthiessen. The crew were unaware that they were being filmed, says Wallsworth – not that they would have felt any kind of performance anxiety.
“You fly each landing to the best of your ability,” he says. “I’m more concerned about landing the aircraft safety and smoothly for the 469 passengers onboard.”
Wallsworth’s film kicks in shortly above 1000 feet, with Wallsworth at the controls before he hands over to first officer Jon Leggett for the landing. It’s a camera-friendly approach with the plane skimming over water and mountains to the east.
As in Wallsworth’s other videos, the calm atmosphere in the flight deck – they even have time to talk about the view – will be sure to help nervous flyers.
Wallsworth has further plans for Vancouver. “It is a beautiful approach over the mountains on the way in; I hope to be able to film that later this year when BA returns there in the A380,” he says (currently a 747 is deployed on that route, but the A380 picks up again in May). “If the weather is kind and we see the spectacular mountains I’ll post a video of that for everyone to see.”
As for the success of his videos - which were among The Independent’s most popular travel stories last year – Wallsworth is delighted. “It’s been lovely to read the positive comments, especially from people who have said they now feel less nervous about flying,” he says.
And as the filming progresses, it might get a little more interactive.
“So far we have deliberately ignored the cameras, but I’m now keen to start talking to the camera a little during certain stages of flight in order to explain what we are doing and why,” he says. Stay tuned.
Follow Dave on Twitter for more views from the flight deck
