Becoming a Pilot YouTuber...
 

Hi All,

I am wanting to you know your thoughts on becoming a Pilot Youtuber? I have a huge VET debt now and I've heard it is the "new career" for new pilot graduates which are apparently making alot of money from it. Any thoughts or tips?

Thanks!
Nigel

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9f283706cd.gif

It’s a great way to earn the respect of your peers, just ask TC or NP.

To get monetised you need to produce a vid every week, and get a number of followers - like 100k or so.

Then you get about 0.1 cent per view. ... So a vid you spent a day filming and two days editing for that week gets 10,000 views - you get $1.

The only people who make enough money to justify it as a hobby have a million or so followers, pump out two vids per week and get 100k views per vid.

you should refuse any monetization from youtube and do it for free. You know, because you're building experience.

I see. I think Stefan Drury is making a full time living from it. I am only looking at it as a way of paying off my VET. I also see that Mentour Pilot is making more money from his channel than when he was a full time pilot.

You could be like this guy and record every accident and incident you have so the whole world can see them. He doesn't really get risk though....

Oh, I see what you did there - that is VERY funny!! :D

I don’t think people do it for the cash. Usually just a D!ck measuring contest isn’t it? Look at me Look at me etc...I have worked with these insta pilots before and the majority were nothing but wankers.

Stop giving people false hope also with all the videos. The profession isn’t what it use to be, it’s miserable, draining and full of management silos. I recommend it to nobody.

Be sure to wear a tight shirt and a short skirt, and mention “living my dreams” in every episode.

Once it is out there for everyone to see, come the time you want a real flying job, you can be certain that the HR people and Chief Pilot will have seen everything you have ever done under your own name. So, either get a very good alias and have face-altering plastic surgery, or forget it!
Video of your stellar achievements in a Piper Cherokee is equivalent of the old c.v. where pilot applicants mistakenly thought posing against a sports car in a uniform with 4 gold stripes made a good header photo. Most outfits I worked for binned any c.v. that demonstrated too much ego and/or over-conflated achievements.

You will get far more respect if you pay down your debt by producing something of use - aka work.

You need a drop dead gorgeous girlfriend and script your videos so that she can wear as little as possible. Beach landings and some topless water play will get you started........

No he is not making a living from it, because his views aren’t high enough. His views simply aren’t high enough to pay for anything more than some avgas and a couple of annuals... and therein lies the issue. YouTubers work hard to create the perception that they are someone important in the hope that more people will subscribe.... it’s what youtubers and instagrammers do. Then they approach companies for cash for comment and hope that the endorsements keep coming on in. If you look closely at his videos, he copies techniques from successful youtubers across the globe and pays attractive people to hang around him, like his “media publicist” he pranced around with at Avalon Airshow. You have to spend money to make money... she wasn’t hanging around in the 45 degree heat for the fun of it!

It’s been amusing to watch his “progress” in his quest to become a YouTuber including purchasing a $400,000? aircraft to make videos. What you don’t see is the issues that come up like when he made a video about Cirrus engine management and the distributor / maintenance org forced him to take it down as it was likely to damage engines if followed.

The other issue is that people complain about you constantly, same as Steveo1Kinevo in Florida, plus Tucker Gott in his paraglider, who are frequently being called by the FAA, but mentioning the FAA in your thumbnail is great clickbait!

Most aviation channel subscribers are teenagers who want to learn to fly, so they keep watching and the advertisers keep paying.... whatever pays your bills, so good luck, but it will be a hard road to become an actor and a celebrity, unless that’s your background.

I feel sorry for all the primary school kids growing up who all want to be youtubers because of the .1% of the population that are successful at it!

PS: you need 1,000 subscribers and a certain number of minutes of viewing to be monetised.

Even more difficult when your income stream runs dry with YouTube down

YouTube views are worth approximately US$2,000 for 1 million views and Youtube will take 45% of that revenue, then you will pay income tax on that. That is considered the minimum

Stefan Drury 84,000 subscribers, 10.5m total channel views since it was created = TOTAL channel income starting at AUD $16,500, less tax (it varies widely, but you can bank on somewhere around that much or more)
Mentour Pilot 642,00 subscribers, 82m total channel views = Total income starting from US $136k gross.
Ninja Kids TV 10m subscribers, 4.5B views - do your numbers on that! Net channel worth is US $11m!
Steveo1Kinevo - 429,000 subscribers, 58m views = Total income starting from AUS $67,000 after tax....

+ any endorsements.

Some of those channels have been running for a long time to get to this point, so as you can see, it's certainly not all roses as those are the TOTAL channel income, not annual!

There is a Jetstar pilot who has one of those YouTube and Insta channels, I’m amazed the company allows it.

I’m no management pilot, however doesn’t sit well with me and would get a tap on the shoulder from myself, or my mob anyway.

This is gold! :D

There is also the problem that what you are putting on the screen is horsefeathers, though you might believe it is true.

One US Army helicopter pilot has a series of videos called 10-minute aerodynamics, and the diagrams he draws are so wrong it is laughable. But the wannabees lap it up and think it is the Trump Truth, and write adoring and idolising comments. How this guy got through army training thinking this way, is scary, his instructors must have taught him the same way.

Sunny... You're starting to sound like a septuagenarian lech!