Flew over Denali

[natdm]

The park was gorgeous. I put on a 360 mount to do some recording, and it turned out great. We only flew in it for an hour. We went up Ruths Glacier, flew around a little in that area, and then spiraled up to pass Denali, then down another glacier (not pictured). Most of the other passes were fogged in, so we kept it pretty conservative.

The other pilots flying were super chill and gave us tips. I kind of wish I had recorded that. Overall, I wish we did it longer, and I wish we could do it again. The weather is shot for the next few days, and then we need to head back to MN.

I forgot the cowl flaps on some of this. I climbed from 6,500 to 16,500 and forgot to close them when we reached the top. Oh well.

[Echo]

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.

[Flyler]

Amazing.  That 360 view is just perfect for the scenery.

[AndreiC]

@natdmCan you please share your exact camera set up? What mount, what camera, etc? I’d love to be able to film like that my more mundane flights. Thanks!

Beautiful videos btw, very envious. 

[Danb]

On 7/25/2025 at 9:40 PM, natdm said:

The park was gorgeous. I put on a 360 mount to do some recording, and it turned out great. We only flew in it for an hour. We went up Ruths Glacier, flew around a little in that area, and then spiraled up to pass Denali, then down another glacier (not pictured). Most of the other passes were fogged in, so we kept it pretty conservative.

The other pilots flying were super chill and gave us tips. I kind of wish I had recorded that. Overall, I wish we did it longer, and I wish we could do it again. The weather is shot for the next few days, and then we need to head back to MN.

I forgot the cowl flaps on some of this. I climbed from 6,500 to 16,500 and forgot to close them when we reached the top. Oh well.

+*#$”’ AWESOME

D

[midlifeflyer]

Incredibly beautiful.  Thanks for sharing that. 

[dkkim73]

Well-done. Love the cloud cap, too! 

[Bunti]

Great video with fantastic views!

Could you tell us how exactly you installed the camera. Good would also be  a picture of the install.

Which camera did you use?

Thanks, Stefan

[natdm]

On 7/26/2025 at 11:12 PM, AndreiC said:

@natdmCan you please share your exact camera set up? What mount, what camera, etc? I’d love to be able to film like that my more mundane flights. Thanks!

Beautiful videos btw, very envious. 

 

22 hours ago, Bunti said:

Great video with fantastic views!

Could you tell us how exactly you installed the camera. Good would also be  a picture of the install.

Which camera did you use?

Thanks, Stefan

Thanks! I have an Insta360 video camera attached to a FlightFlix mount. I don't have a picture of it at the moment, sorry. It mounts to inspection panel screws and you can get it signed off by a mechanic since it's not 'temporary' (screws). Mine spans two different inspection panels.

https://flightflix.aero/collections/360-camera-mounts/products/maui-flight-surface-pole-mount

Some notes:

1. The cameras battery, at a moderate 360 setting, is still only like 1 hour. I have a second battery but don't feel like crawling out to the wing to change it mid-flight at 16500ft, so I just create clips
2. The connection to the camera is wifi so it's not terrible, better than bluetooth.
3. The camera, by default, will turn off after 3 minutes of no video. That sucked, I changed it after missing some glacier overflights.
4. Fligitflix has a fan-powered charger you can clamp to the mount. They haven't released it just yet, I don't think. It'd be another $400 or something... but better than a bunch of backup batteries that take forever to charge.

The editing process:

1. Connect to insta360 with the insta360 app and make a lot of tiny clips based on the videos you took. The app editing process is ok, but it crashed a few times on me and annoyed me.
2. Export them to your phone/wherever you want.
3. Use LumaFusion (paid app) on iPad to edit videos together. You can use any video editor you want but I like LF, and I think they do really great work for editing videos on the go. You can also post directly to Youtube from LumaFusion which is cool.

I also have a ton of gopros because I thought videoing our trips would be amazing. Editing is terrible and I hate it, for any camera. So I have tons of gopros if anyone wants them for pretty cheap, and more batteries than you'll ever use. They work great but the insta360 is more of a "one and done" video. I have a gopro hero max (360) which is cool but this just had a better form-factor.

[midlifeflyer]

6 hours ago, natdm said:

 

Thanks! I have an Insta360 video camera attached to a FlightFlix mount. I don't have a picture of it at the moment, sorry. It mounts to inspection panel screws and you can get it signed off by a mechanic since it's not 'temporary' (screws). Mine spans two different inspection panels.

https://flightflix.aero/collections/360-camera-mounts/products/maui-flight-surface-pole-mount

Some notes:

1. The cameras battery, at a moderate 360 setting, is still only like 1 hour. I have a second battery but don't feel like crawling out to the wing to change it mid-flight at 16500ft, so I just create clips
2. The connection to the camera is wifi so it's not terrible, better than bluetooth.
3. The camera, by default, will turn off after 3 minutes of no video. That sucked, I changed it after missing some glacier overflights.
4. Fligitflix has a fan-powered charger you can clamp to the mount. They haven't released it just yet, I don't think. It'd be another $400 or something... but better than a bunch of backup batteries that take forever to charge.

The editing process:

1. Connect to insta360 with the insta360 app and make a lot of tiny clips based on the videos you took. The app editing process is ok, but it crashed a few times on me and annoyed me.
2. Export them to your phone/wherever you want.
3. Use LumaFusion (paid app) on iPad to edit videos together. You can use any video editor you want but I like LF, and I think they do really great work for editing videos on the go. You can also post directly to Youtube from LumaFusion which is cool.

I also have a ton of gopros because I thought videoing our trips would be amazing. Editing is terrible and I hate it, for any camera. So I have tons of gopros if anyone wants them for pretty cheap, and more batteries than you'll ever use. They work great but the insta360 is more of a "one and done" video. I have a gopro hero max (360) which is cool but this just had a better form-factor.

Not 360 (actually, I'm not a fan, but yours don't go crazy)  but on flights like that I use a Drift Ghost X. The reason is that it actually has a 3-hour battery. Set it before climbing into the airplane and forget it. I won't post the whole video here (this is your thread), but this a snapshot of a Cessna 172 flight we took out of Squamish, BC and around Whistler. (I should have mounted it on the other side, away from the pitot.

[natdm]

4 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

Not 360 (actually, I'm not a fan, but yours don't go crazy)  but on flights like that I use a Drift Ghost X. The reason is that it actually has a 3-hour battery. Set it before climbing into the airplane and forget it. I won't post the whole video here (this is your thread), but this a snapshot of a Cessna 172 flight we took out of Squamish, BC and around Whistler. (I should have mounted it on the other side, away from the pitot.

I have the same camera! I also had it mounted, no idea how it did. But I can turn it on, fly an hour, go and eat, sight-see, fly back home for an hour, and then realize it's even there and it's still recording. Makes me want to turn it on in case something happens to the plane if people move it when I'm at an FBO.

[jeremyc209]

16 hours ago, natdm said:

I also have a ton of gopros because I thought videoing our trips would be amazing. Editing is terrible and I hate it, for any camera. So I have tons of gopros if anyone wants them for pretty cheap, and more batteries than you'll ever use. They work great but the insta360 is more of a "one and done" video. I have a gopro hero max (360) which is cool but this just had a better form-factor.

Which insta360 did you get? I'm considering getting an X3

Interested in one of the GoPros

[natdm]

18 hours ago, jeremyc209 said:

Which insta360 did you get? I'm considering getting an X3

Interested in one of the GoPros

I got the x5. And yeah I can definitely get you some details on the gopros and you can pick some stuff. Might not be now (not home) but in a few days.

 

[Skates97]

On 7/29/2025 at 11:49 AM, midlifeflyer said:

Not 360 (actually, I'm not a fan, but yours don't go crazy)  but on flights like that I use a Drift Ghost X. The reason is that it actually has a 3-hour battery. Set it before climbing into the airplane and forget it. I won't post the whole video here (this is your thread), but this a snapshot of a Cessna 172 flight we took out of Squamish, BC and around Whistler. (I should have mounted it on the other side, away from the pitot.

I have a few Drift Ghost X cameras. One I use with the Nflightcam cable to capture the radios. The Drift Ghost XL will give you almost 7 hours of battery if you have the wifi off on it, I love it for the longer flights under the wing. I just recently bought a DJI Action Pro 5 and the stabilization and picture quality is amazing, a huge step up from the Ghost. They claim up to 4 hours battery if wifi is off on 1080 with stabilization but I am seeing about 3 1/2 hours.

[midlifeflyer]

1 hour ago, Skates97 said:

I have a few Drift Ghost X cameras. One I use with the Nflightcam cable to capture the radios. The Drift Ghost XL will give you almost 7 hours of battery if you have the wifi off on it, I love it for the longer flights under the wing. I just recently bought a DJI Action Pro 5 and the stabilization and picture quality is amazing, a huge step up from the Ghost. They claim up to 4 hours battery if wifi is off on 1080 with stabilization but I am seeing about 3 1/2 hours.

I literally bought the Ghost for the battery life when mounting outside the airplane. Inside the airplane, I don't care; I run the cameras off an external battery, so battery life is not an issue.  I only care about camera WiFi capability to make sure they are pointed where I want; otherwise it's set and forget. 

I wasn't aware it's compatible with the NFlightCam cable,  Good to know.

[Yetti]

Awesome video.  There are people who have visited Denali multiple times and never seen it due to clouds.  You are blessed.   I wish I could find it, but there is an account of a sightseeing Beaver that got in some turbulence around Denali,      

[Skates97]

3 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

I literally bought the Ghost for the battery life when mounting outside the airplane. Inside the airplane, I don't care; I run the cameras off an external battery, so battery life is not an issue.  I only care about camera WiFi capability to make sure they are pointed where I want; otherwise it's set and forget. 

I wasn't aware it's compatible with the NFlightCam cable,  Good to know.

This one with the USB mini fits the Ghost X.

https://www.nflightcam.com/products/nflightcam-gopro-audio-power-cable

The XL uses a USB-C port and I tried the NFlightCam cable that has that connection but could not ever get the XL to pick up the audio.

[Flyler]

Denali is 20,160ft and often argued as the tallest mountain on Earth.  My wife and I are hikers and have hiked a few "mountains" but in the Northeast US.  Our nearest mountains are about 3000ft if we are lucky.  Often discussed in hiking is the prominence- how tall the peak is away from the base.  Denali is a monster. The mountain is not too far from the sea.

It's wild to think the Piper I'm renting tomorrow has a service ceiling of 14,000ft.  Denali is a very large pile of Earth!

Absolutely a bucket list item for me to view it and your video, which I've now watched a second time, is inspirational!

[kortopates]

Denali is 20,160ft and often argued as the tallest mountain on Earth.  My wife and I are hikers and have hiked a few "mountains" but in the Northeast US.  Our nearest mountains are about 3000ft if we are lucky.  Often discussed in hiking is the prominence- how tall the peak is away from the base.  Denali is a monster. The mountain is not too far from the sea.
It's wild to think the Piper I'm renting tomorrow has a service ceiling of 14,000ft.  Denali is a very large pile of Earth!
Absolutely a bucket list item for me to view it and your video, which I've now watched a second time, is inspirational!

Sources vary but i believe it’s height is 20,310 making it’s the highest peak in North America. But you are right about the highest rise from base to summit. At over 18,000’ it’s the phighest in the world.
Stay away from those low and slow pipers though and get a Mooney, even the J’s service ceiling is much than that 14K!


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[Flyler]

3 hours ago, kortopates said:

Sources vary but i believe it’s height is 20,310 making it’s the highest peak in North America. But you are right about the highest rise from base to summit. At over 18,000’ it’s the phighest in the world.
Stay away from those low and slow pipers though and get a Mooney, even the J’s service ceiling is much than that 14K!


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Yeah... It's a long story but I currently own my second Mooney.  I think I've owned a Mooney for about 1.5 years and only flew twice, total of 3.1 hours.

 

Renting the Piper while I wait for my m20j to get out of the shop so I can fly it back home with an instructor.  I am a long winded person who can be hard to shut up at times.  When I flew the Mooney for the first time, I was speechless.  I did not think it would be *that* much nicer to fly than the Piper!

[kortopates]

Yeah... It's a long story but I currently own my second Mooney.  I think I've owned a Mooney for about 1.5 years and only flew twice, total of 3.1 hours.
 
Renting the Piper while I wait for my m20j to get out of the shop so I can fly it back home with an instructor.  I am a long winded person who can be hard to shut up at times.  When I flew the Mooney for the first time, I was speechless.  I did not think it would be *that* much nicer to fly than the Piper!

So sorry to hear what your going through! Hope you’ll get back into your J real soon so you can start enjoying it for real.
Sounds like you’re renting an arrow - essentially the same engine as your J but absolutely no comparison in performance!


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[Flyler]

An Arrow would be nice.  I'm between a Warrior (160hp) and an Archer (180hp).  As much as I like to complain about how beat up and smelly they are, I'm still flying, and it is marvelous!