MovieChat Forums > Flying Wild Alaska (2011) Discussion > Teaching Ariel to fly

Teaching Ariel to fly

posted 12 years ago by al-336
11 replies | jump to latest

Ok, I can't keep quiet any longer. Ariel has had all winter to read her books. Plus, the airplanes have spent most of the time in the hangars so she has had plenty of time to learn where things are inside the cockpit. I spent many an hour sitting in an airplane identifying all the knobs and switches and it didn't cost a cent. Then when flying it was much easier. She didn't know that you push the throttle IN to increase power when flying the Cessna 207. And why teach her to fly in an airplane that size? It's big and heavy and burns a lot of fuel. Surely there is a 172, a 182 or a Piper around she could learn in. She also couldn't find the flap button on the Super Cub. I like the show a lot and hope she learns how to fly before the series is over.

[–] mikejjordan 12 years ago

I think they use the 207 because she's simply tagging along on scheduled runs. When her Dad and Ponts took her out it was simply because they were already going so she could get a little "free" practice as they were already burning the fuel. You are right about the studying though, she's got a wealth of pilots and planes hanging around so she should take advantage of that.

[–] al-336 12 years ago

"she's simply tagging along on scheduled runs"

Agreed. I was able to log a good bit of flight time in my early flying days by doing just that. Thanks for the reply.

[–] atkinsonproductions 12 years ago

I wonder if she really is as "flighty" (no pun intended) as she shows on the program. I can't help but suspect that the producers kind of embellish some things to increase the drama in the show. For instance, I just saw an episode in which a pilot is given a last-minute birthday cake to take with him to a remote village. It shows him getting the cake, shows him just setting it on the floor(!) behind a curtain. Then they hit some bad turbulence during the flight. The big mystery--did the cake come through intact? Then we see video of it during the flight, and the cake goes flying through the air and lands upside down. Oh, the drama!
Come on. They made a point of filming the handoff of the cake to the outgoing pilot. They set it on the floor with nothing near it to secure it. Then they even put a camera on it to watch it during the flight. Are we to believe that they truly expected it to NOT get airborne during the flight? It seems to me a pretty obvious contrivance.
So it makes me wonder if Ariel is being instructed to act a little ditzy when she gets behind the yoke--just to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Don't get me wrong--I really enjoy this show. It's just that some of the "false drama" annoys me.

[–] al-336 12 years ago

"some of the "false drama" annoys me."
I'm with you on that point. I couldn't believe they put that cake on the floor with nothing to restrain it. I have hit clear air turbulence so bad that I bumped my head even with my seat belt and shoulder harness on. The ruined cake was all planned in advance. Who knows, it could have been 'pilot induced' turbulence.

"Ariel is being instructed to act a little ditzy when she gets behind the yoke"
Could be. At least they brought in a Cessna 150 for her to take flying lessons.

[–] Diaeresis 11 years ago

Yup, the cake farce was easily the lowest point of the whole show. Obviously created for some "drama", but was so utterly stupid. Like the pilot wouldn't normally have anchored it in some way...

[–] joegerardi-1 11 years ago

Some of the downright misinformation annoys me. There was the episode where the pilot's PTT (push-to-talk) button failed, and they were acting like it was a do-or-die issue just because there was a man in the plane with chest pains they were transporting and needed an ambulance to meet them. Well, what was the big deal? Pull the headset wires out of the pilot side and plug them in the copilot side. Granted, he'd have to reach over to depress the PTT, but anyone that's flown more than 20 minutes has figured that one out... There's dozens of issues like that.

And much of the Ariel flying lessons is pure crap. If Ponts is letting her fly without basic knowledge of her flight deck, then he's risking losing his CFI ticket: she a crack-up waiting to happen.

My CFI would constantly quiz me on where everything was, "what-ifs," recovery, simulated engine outs, and a host of other things.

And how is she NOT doing stalls yet? That ought to be an episode not to miss!

..Joe

[–] donald-vanvliet 12 years ago

It's just that some of the "false drama" annoys me.

I agree.

They are unnecesarily trying to find things to make the show more intresting, like the hunting trips and the "pranks" between the pilots (one pilot crawls into an animal cage and tries to scare another pilot, who then "takes revenge" by hiding the snow scooter of the former...HAHAHAHAHAHA)

[–] GrammarMatters 12 years ago

She is very cute and fun to look at - but ditzy and stupid is not attractive.

I'm watching the episode where she changed the radio channel and "forgot" what channel she should be on and everybody started to worry that she was dead. That fake drama wears thin pretty quickly with all the pathetically awful fake scripted reality shows out there.

[–] wlh-210-530336 9 years ago

I agree and ditzy and stupid does not mix well with flying. The fake drama has turned me off to all of these so-called reality shows.

[–] JKW 11 years ago

She's an idiot. I thought she was cute when I thought she was 16ish.

[–] rickenbacker69 11 years ago

She didn't seem all that motivated to learn, no. But most of the oddities can be explained: She tagged along in the 207 because her dad didn't think she was serious enough about it to let her go up on a dedicated training flight. And there is no 'flap button' in a Super Cub, it's a handbrake style handle on the floor, quite different from modern Cessnas with their simple panel switch.