Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is a clip from the latest Flight Chops episode - It is dedicated to Rob Holland. There’s a ton of his #aerobatics and #airshow footage out there; however, my hope with this one is that it immerses the viewer into the less seen experience of participating in an aerobatic training camp. It is the non-glamorous behind the scenes grind that pilots like Rob are dedicated to tirelessly working on to perfect their craft. It was an honour to be invited to this camp and I spent a lot of time with Rob. I didn’t ever put a camera in his face though - I wanted to be present as a pilot, not a YouTubey / film guy, for the time I got to engage with him. He was a man of few words, but what he said was measured and carried weight and wisdom. I truly thought I’d get another chance in the future to work with him as a filmmaker, but I don’t regret that I spent this week with him as a fellow pilot. As soon as I heard the news about his crash, I lost focus on what I was currently working on and found myself reliving this experience through my phone’s camera roll. Most of what I shot there was tall mode for quick and dirty Instagram stories (if sharing at all) as I was there to fly, not film. But I saw there was something I could make out of this to share now, so I set aside a bunch of other post production projects to get this one done ASAP. This was a very tough one to edit, I hope it helps share a part of the world that Rob loved so much.
DISCLAIMER: Regarding the couple of vertical cloud busts that I shared in this video…. Being the only Sportsman level pilot at the camp, I had the highest floor (1500 AGL), and as a result, I needed the highest ceiling to fly my sequence. The day of the coached flight covered here had juuuuuust enough for me to make it work… mostly. But as you’ll see I hit the ceiling twice, and called the end of the flight after the second bust attempting a hammerhead (which I turned into a sloppy humpty bump to get out of the cloud).
This is a clip from the latest Flight Chops episode - It is dedicated to Rob Holland. There’s a ton of his #aerobatics and #airshow footage out there; however, my hope with this one is that it immerses the viewer into the less seen experience of participating in an aerobatic training camp. It is the non-glamorous behind the scenes grind that pilots like Rob are dedicated to tirelessly working on to perfect their craft. It was an honour to be invited to this camp and I spent a lot of time with Rob. I didn’t ever put a camera in his face though - I wanted to be present as a pilot, not a YouTubey / film guy, for the time I got to engage with him. He was a man of few words, but what he said was measured and carried weight and wisdom. I truly thought I’d get another chance in the future to work with him as a filmmaker, but I don’t regret that I spent this week with him as a fellow pilot. As soon as I heard the news about his crash, I lost focus on what I was currently working on and found myself reliving this experience through my phone’s camera roll. Most of what I shot there was tall mode for quick and dirty Instagram stories (if sharing at all) as I was there to fly, not film. But I saw there was something I could make out of this to share now, so I set aside a bunch of other post production projects to get this one done ASAP. This was a very tough one to edit, I hope it helps share a part of the world that Rob loved so much.
DISCLAIMER: Regarding the couple of vertical cloud busts that I shared in this video…. Being the only Sportsman level pilot at the camp, I had the highest floor (1500 AGL), and as a result, I needed the highest ceiling to fly my sequence. The day of the coached flight covered here had juuuuuust enough for me to make it work… mostly. But as you’ll see I hit the ceiling twice, and called the end of the flight after the second bust attempting a hammerhead (which I turned into a sloppy humpty bump to get out of the cloud).
