On Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at 3:37:34 PM UTC+3, Casey wrote:
Just wondering how others feel about sport cameras in the cockpit. Does it help with learning or is it a distraction? Would it help in accident investigations? I've seen some speculation with accidents and if a camera had been on pilot then that could help determine if a medical emergency was the cause.

I know a CFIG that does not like students to have a camera in the cockpit because he thinks it is distracting to the student.

I know that my learning curve of flying and non-flying sports have been helped by me seeing any slight error in my technique.

I know some just don't want to learn another piece of electronics, but its much easier to download and just view. One does not have to edit or post, and the price of sport cameras are cheap for some of them out there.

Could definitive proof of pilot error cause legalities for the pilots family if others were involved in the accident?

I see a lot of cool soaring videos on youtube and most seem to be coming from Europe. Of course some of these have a lot of editing involved. I don't seem many instructional type soaring videos online though. Just yesterday I did see a video from Europe that a pilot did a bungee launch with spoilers open and landed out with near accident, which was informative/instructional.

Casey

I record many or most of my flights with students (including trial lessons) with a GoPro. I have it set to automatically start recording when I turn it on, which I do when I strap in. I turn it off after landing.

I've found reviewing them useful to improve my instruction, and many students have found them useful to spot things they did wrong during the flight. It's amazing for example how easy it is to figure where that thermal really was afterwards, when it wasn't obvious (to the student) during the flight.

One of my earliest recording attempts as a fresh instructor 3 1/2 years ago is going to hit 50000 views in another day or two (it still gets 70 - 100 views a day with occasional spikes to maybe 250):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDZN21xzsRo