“Shot in rich, warm high-definition, the blue sky and the green grass and the yellow airplane made my television disappear, and replaced it with an open window. (Flying The Finch) ...captures the essence of flying for its own sake, especially the passionate finesse of flying an antique.
A documentary like this strikes a balance: it's part history lesson, part human interest, part pilot-talk, and part "Holy crow, would you just look at how beautiful that is! Really! Just look at it! Are you looking?!?! How do I rewind this thing?!?"
In so many cases, that balance is, well, unbalanced. Usually, the human interest and history bits are about right, the pretty bits are short-changed because it's cheaper to Ken Burns your camera across an old photo than it is to buy avgas, and the pilot-talk is just a tease, if it's there at all. Some films can talk about an airplane, but not really offer a look at the cockpit, never mention things like approach speeds or how soon you lift the tail up on takeoff, or, most unforgivably, not actually show a landing for goodness' sake. If you're going to tell me about an airplane, you had better tell me what it's like to fly it, or there will be trouble.
Flying the Finch pulls it off. Fearless Widget found the secret to producing a balanced documentary: include the right amount of everything.”
Hal Bryan. Microsoft FSInsider.com Halbryan.spaces.live.com
