Twilight Landing At LAX (Cockpit View) [Video]

First-person view of a twilight landing at LAX set to the tune of “Los Angeles” by Sugarcult.

Also: Pull up! Pull up! Oh, wait. Nevermind.

General response to comments:

It was an amazing night and the combination of the Sadde Six approach, the sunset, the visibility, and ATC allowing us to drop down to 2,000 feet all worked together. I'll probably never get that chance again.

Here are some general responses to the many comments:

The video is sped up to somewhere between Mach 1 and Mach 2 (depending on actual airspeed about 8X). The original idea was to a) compress a 30 minute approach into three minutes; and b) to see what it would look like if you you were riding on the back of a cruise missile. There will also some minor timing issues to get it to "fit" with the song.

The camera was a Canon S95 which is a great pocket low light camera. This video simply wouldn't have been possible with any other pocket camera. If you want a great travel camera, be sure to check it out. $369 on Amazon.

The video was shot in 720p at 24 FPS. I'm not sure why YouTube dumbed it down but I'll see if I can correct that. It's stunning in HD (see latest updates at top of notes).

The camera was mounted via a small tripod with velcro out of our way and line of site. Ultrapod I think it's called. Nothing fancy.

I realize a lot of you think the song sucks and that I'm a douche bag but I'm not posting the video in real time with the ATC track. Not gonna happen. That's not fair to the other pilots and controllers on the frequency.

To keep the video from being totally dull I added a music soundtrack. Again, I realize it's not for everyone but that's just the way it is.

That said, there's so much interest from the flight simulator crowd I might republish the approach in real time and no sound. Check back later.

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