"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"C Kingsbury" wrote:
Who would've guessed 20 years ago there would even be such a thing as
the
"Discovery Wings Channel?"

...or that an aviation nut like me would almost never watch it?

Maybe if they did a bit more interesting programming rather than recycling
"bizarre machines of Nazi Germany" hand-me-downs from the History Channel...
I wonder how many hours of programming per month is new? I'd bet no more
than 5-10.

"Learning to Fly" is a nice idea that would have benefited from (1)
following multiple students with different personalities and (2) editing. Of
course that means jacking up production costs, which have to be covered
somehow. Digital tech has brought post-production costs down enormously but
it still costs real money to put a film crew on-site. This probably explains
why there's still so little original content.

What Wings lacks is a signature show that people like us make a point of
watching. They ought to do something like the back page of AOPA Pilot, or
Lane What's-Her-Name's column in Flying, where they do a 50-minute feature
on interesting people, places, and planes in aviation. It could appeal to a
wide audience and thus also be run on Discovery, Nat'l Geo, or whoever.

I also wonder whether anybody's ever tried to make a movie of Rinker Buck's
book Flight of Passage. It'd be cake to turn into a screenplay and it has
enough mischief to keep it contemporary (think about the kids getting high
painting the plane with nitrate dope) but ultimately "heartwarming" enough
to become "the feel-good hit of the season for the entire family."

Best,
-cwk.