PilotsEYE.tv: Barcelona

After reviewing PilotsEYE.tv DVDs with flights of Lufthansa and Swiss, it's time to give Austrian some love on this VIE-BCN-VIE run with Cpt. Hans Peter Klikovich and F/O Cornelia Ollinger. Both legs take a special routing above the Alps, making this flight one of a kind.

One cockpit—Two pilots—Six cameras

Since almost eight years, PilotsEYE.tv creates high-quality documentaries directly out of the cockpit of airliners—in HD quality using six cameras mounted behind the cockpit windows and on the glareshield. To date, PilotsEYE.tv is well-known for accuracy and high quality productions.

This episode is about a VIE-BCN-VIE run from November 1st, 2007. As this is a holiday in Austria, ATC made a scenic routing through the Alps possible. The Airbus A320 departs VIE on runway 29, and we see some great shots of Vienna and the surrounding area with an awesome cloud ceiling during climb. The routing is SZG, INN, GVA, TRN, NCE and MRS, with F/O Ollinger flying and Cpt. Klikovich pointing out many geographic features along the route. The DVD contains some breathtaking shots of famous mountains, like the Großglockner, Zugspitze, Silvretta, Matterhorn and Mont Blanc, taken from a relatively low altitude. The inbound flight to VIE takes a more southern routing along the French Riviera (St. Tropez, NCE, Monaco and MIL). The flight ends with a blooper reel and F/O Ollinger explaining the pilot recruitment at Austrian Airlines.

Resume

Honestly, I have mixed feeling about this episode. All other episodes I've reviewed so far are longhaul flights, and convey a certain feeling of travelling and exotic destinations. For me as a European, BCN is just a short hop around the corner. There are no scenes from Barcelona, because there is no layover for the crew. We get compensated with lots of great landscape footage, showing Austrian and Swiss towns and villages which are familiar to many Germans as popular skiing resorts (Kaprun, Mayrhofen, Gaschurn, St. Anton, Gstaad and the like), thus raising emotions of a different kind. In my personal collection, this episode still remains the odd one.

However, these are just my two cents, and your opinion may vary greatly—especially should you live on another continent! The quality of the DVD is excellent as always, with a soundtrack ranging from the usual cool ambient music to even some traditional Yodeling… :D