Bring back the old days of Flight Test!

Mr.Grinch

Well-known member
As I sit here, scrolling through FT YouTube videos (no new one this week), I can’t help but feel a longing for the old days of FT...
New videos were coming out usually twice a week (as advertised) and they were more about the RC community than the YouTube advertising. The old style without all the production and flashy, over animated reactions was more in tune with what I liked to see. They even reached out within the community and showed what others were coming up with, like the P-38 with working Fowler flaps. Now we have click bait videos and slow rolling of new products, not to mention that there isn’t any communication with the forums anymore.

I’m not trying to be super negative on FT, just not thrilled with where things are at right now. I’m still on these forums every day because this is whee I feel like things are still the way they should be. Great content with FRIENDLY communication! I just would like to see FT get back closer to their roots and get back involved with us.
 

clolsonus

Well-known member
It is fun to one-up yourself in each new video, but it's not necessary. A big part of what I enjoy about the videos is just seeing the FT family goofing around and doing airplane stuff. I am happy to see what new project or idea you are working on, or the new toy you are playing with. I don't care if it's bigger or faster or insaner than all previous projects put together. I also agree that I don't mind a more casual level of video production.

If FT is feeling short on ideas for any given week, please notice that people within the community are doing tons of cool stuff too. (So wtihin the constraints of wise/careful covid behavior) I think it would be cool for the FT team to bring their fun-style treatment to different projects within the community. I like the videos when people visit Ohio and bring something cool/interesting they are working on, or FT visits other people and places. That's a lot of extra work probably for travel, but you will never run out of fun ideas if you expand out the sphere. Every person has cool/interesting stories if you take the time to ask and listen. And like I say, I would happily give ground on video production quality to get more content out there. I do appreciate all the video skills team FT has gained over the years, but no need to stress on the details too much ... I really enjoy a casual tone and a casual production quality.

Keep the videos coming! Please bring back the Swede, his tri-copters, and maybe rocket-knife! :)

Oh, and thanks for all the other fine stuff you guys do ... stem, ft store, ft community, and on and on ...
 

Mr.Grinch

Well-known member
I guess part of the issue for me is with all the COVID stuff going on, I’ve been swamped at work and have very little time to work on any of my hobbies myself, so when I see everyone that was stuck at home and making huge strides on various projects, I get some vicarious thrills. With the FT crew stuck at home and
Mr. Overstreet’s amazing work I was hoping to see more coming out rather than less now that things are settling down and people are moving about again.
 

Tench745

Master member
I just wanted to say that threads like this come up every so often. I usually make a comment or two. And every time one of these threads comes up a bunch of people say how much better it used to be, and then a bunch of people who recently found FT say that they love what it is now.
I wonder how much of these feelings are nostalgia and how much is a disappointment that FT didn't fulfill the hopes we had for it back when we found it ourselves.

The feeling of Flite Test has changed over the years, yes. Some of this is out of either a real or percieved necessity, some of it isn't.
 

alan0043

Well-known member
The Flite Test guys could mix things up. Could go with some newer type content and then later put out some nostalgia content out. Or go back in their vault and pull up some of the old content. This could make for a nice mix of things.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
I loved the old content with the two Joshes. I liked the transition to adding Stefan and the evolution into the video podcast era. I REALLY miss those. I was not however a big fan of the anime big eyed screamy little girl era. I get the need to keep things up beat and it was great with the banter of the two Joshes or the enthusiasm of a new project. What I dont get is the forced effort to portray that excitement when it is already naturally there.

I know its hard to constantly "meet or exceed the bar" in the you tube world and I also understand the needs to finance a multi million dollar Golf Course to Air Park conversion. What I dont get is selling out to a company that is actively seeking to destroy the hobby with government regulation to secure their future with the partnership with DJI. By doing so they are actively supporting the very thing that could destroy the whole dream that is Edgewater.

The transition away from the forums to only Facebook and Instagram was a HUGE let down. Not only do people here feel left out but it also brought in people that like taking advantage of others. That whole "Im so poor" gimme gimme generation of Flite Testers. That can be partially blamed on Mr. Steele dropping that whole "Kwad Share" bomb in our lap to deal with then walking away not supporting his own project. How "Ethixcal" of him.

Seeing so many posts now saying Im poor I cant buy toys frustrates the bejeebus out of me. Come here tell me you cant buy bread or milk or a can of soup and I will have sympathy. Crying poor every post over toys when so many struggle for food and shelter is just poor form and pathetic. But that is what expanding does like everything else It brings those that prey on others to better themselves.

Makes it seem like the focus is more on what can be gained from the niceties of others then how can we help grow the hobby and get people safely into aviation as far as the original mission statement goes.
 

varg

Build cheap, crash cheap
There are still projects that have the old flite test style to them; water rocket plane, circle biplane, plunger plane, paper airplane mothership. Yeah the old videos had a comfier and more natural feel, and we all miss Josh Scott, Peter, David, Chad, Eric. There were always product reviews and product videos. Yeah the old projects like microwave and decaplane were more interesting than "let's build a tank because we have a tank game sponsor" "let's build a plane that's in a game because we have a plane game sponsor" and "giant sized version of [insert plane]" but there's still the old spirit there. Just more commercialized now. And Peter has a pretty good channel of his own now, I just hope he doesn't take any more advice or inspiration from that awfully annoying William Osman guy (Peter, you have your own way and it is better). Yes I miss old flite test but new flite test still has a great video once in a while.

Hi Guys,

I some times wonder if the Flite Test guys read any of the threads or post.

No. Though I'd happily eat my words if any of the main guys were to pop in and give me a "you're wrong." Flite test is too big to care about the old forum now, facebook (which is generally terrible and should not be used at all) is apparently the more active and paid attention to thing these days.
 
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alan0043

Well-known member
Hi Guys,

I have looked at Facebook and I don't see anything interesting there. I might be missing something but I don't think so. I don't see anything new.

I think they need to do a rerun of the flying Cozy Coupe. Maybe even fly it in Flite Fest combat!
Maybe the Flite Test guys could do something like, what is old is now new again. Show the old video and then re-do the old project the way they do things today. Just an idea to kick around.

Al
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
When COVID first brought us to lockdown FT did do a few throw back vids to help us cope with the loss of new content. That has been done. In the past a lot of the content and ideas the FT team fed from was by going to events like Joe Nall and FF itself. This is where i seen them interact the most with the general public. But the events just aren't there anymore.

Maybe I got onto the forums later then the time when they did correspond on the forums, I think I might have seen Stefan with a couple posts here but that's it.

Other then that they seem to be pumping out the models as per usual. They had a nice run of Master Series and have released some new products as far as the BNF micros and the Freedom Fox. They have even thrown the "Simple Stick" to give us a recent basic build. I would like to see a release vid on that one actually. That kinda makes the premiere of a launch i would say. Kinda feels like we got tossed a bone on that one. But it is there nonetheless.

All said and done, the times they are a changin…
 

Tench745

Master member
Maybe the Flite Test guys could do something like, what is old is now new again. Show the old video and then re-do the old project the way they do things today. Just an idea to kick around.
Al

There was some discussion in the look-back videos Battleaxe is referring to about retrying the flying brick plane, and a few others. Don't know if it will go anywhere.
I was just thinking today that the new videos feel a lot longer to me than they used to. The numbers don't entirely support that feeling. The flying cinder block episode was just over 11 minutes long. By contrast the gender reveal plane had almost a 16 minute run time, but felt a lot more that 5 minutes longer. At the start of the channel there were a couple 3- 9 minute videos, most of the shorter videos being reviews or beginner tips. While it doesn't make much sense to remake how-to videos you already have, the last time they made a video less that 10 minutes long was 7 months ago. Perhaps we're being over-saturated with a big dump of content all at once, and it's somehow not as satisfying? On a related tangent, FT has said at one point or another that they want to show the whole process. But to me it feels like the footage is treated as too precious in the edit. When there's not much of the process to show (I'm looking at you gender reveal plane) cut it down!
So much of this is subjective, your mileage may vary.

Hi Guys,

I some times wonder if the Flite Test guys read any of the threads or post.

Usually Stefan or someone will pop into this type of thread to say that our concerns are being seen.
 

clolsonus

Well-known member
It's my understanding that making a youtube video longer than 10 minutes allows for more ads to run and that typically translates to greater revenue. So across the board you will see lots of youtube videos that are just slightly longer than 10 minutes.
 

Slick1855

Active member
The longer videos don't bother me, the build process is cool. It just seems like all of the flying is missing.

Like I said in my thread a few weeks ago. Shoot a simple flight only video to release on Tuesday, and then release the big one on Friday.

Shoot a simple hey I'm so and so, here's what I'm flying, and go nuts. Fpv flight through the golf course with a trio of random planes, awesome! Andres going nuts flying 3d for a few minutes, sick! Have an x-class race down a few of the fairways!

Hell do the big projects as a multiple video series over the month, build some anticipation around it. Would be cool to see a quarterly video of the giants all flying together in an epic combat or something.
 

alan0043

Well-known member
There was some discussion in the look-back videos Battleaxe is referring to about retrying the flying brick plane, and a few others. Don't know if it will go anywhere.
I was just thinking today that the new videos feel a lot longer to me than they used to. The numbers don't entirely support that feeling. The flying cinder block episode was just over 11 minutes long. By contrast the gender reveal plane had almost a 16 minute run time, but felt a lot more that 5 minutes longer. At the start of the channel there were a couple 3- 9 minute videos, most of the shorter videos being reviews or beginner tips. While it doesn't make much sense to remake how-to videos you already have, the last time they made a video less that 10 minutes long was 7 months ago. Perhaps we're being over-saturated with a big dump of content all at once, and it's somehow not as satisfying? On a related tangent, FT has said at one point or another that they want to show the whole process. But to me it feels like the footage is treated as too precious in the edit. When there's not much of the process to show (I'm looking at you gender reveal plane) cut it down!
So much of this is subjective, your mileage may vary.



Usually Stefan or someone will pop into this type of thread to say that our concerns are being seen.

When was the last time anyone saw a comment from the Flite Test crew ? Right now, I can't remember when I saw a comment or too. I know that Flite Test is growing. You can see the hard work that is going on at Edgewater. Josh is a pretty busy guy these days.
 

ACE62

New member
I get where you are coming from. It seems like the FT purpose fell off the radar and it's about being a business like XYZ places.
I haven't seen the Flite Test Crew come out with a new plane in forever. Yes, there has been releases of Master Series planes which are absolutely gorgeous and kudos to John Overstreet and his work but what happened to the educational, building videos, Josh build along videos and nee subjects for different skill levels, etc....?
I love what FT has done and it's mission but it's delivery is a bit lacking in my opinion.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
These threads pop up once or twice each year and we all have our different ideas of what we want or get out of watching them do what they do. However It is a business and it is growing and becoming more expensive for up keep and growth specially for Edgewater. It is good to air opinions out so the Core Team can get an idea what we all want. After all we ARE the stable part of Flite Test when it comes to actual loyal fans and not just users of their content or plans and such.

I too am kind of put off by lack of participation here by the core team but as I was told this is NOT a Flite Test endeavor. These forums have been put up and maintained by FlyingMonkey. It is the unofficial Flite Test forums with Josh's blessing because it maintains the family friendly element and supports Flite Tests mantra Entertain, Educate and Elevate the world of flight.

Any inter action from FT core crew in the last two years has been pretty much word of mouth passing to the core crew about a need to address a specific thread by moderators and admins of the forum.

Josh has also stated that Facebook and Instagram are the official methods for communication FROM the Core Team. If you need want or desire to contact them directly then those are the two options. Or even maybe thru FT support if it is product related.