The Great Imaginary Aeroplane Escapade
It's been a few days since I emptied my head into the keyboard. I'm not quite sure how that happens. It's almost like the universe turns the tap on or off from time to time – sometimes the words pour out of me in a torrent, sometimes in a trickle, and sometimes I turn the tap myself and nothing comes out.
I've been busy.
Quite apart from attending end-of-year rugby team celebrations, going running, working, doing chores, grocery shopping, and all the other “usual” things, I've also been hitting pay-dirt with YouTube.
You might remember me mentioning many moons ago that I became engrossed in the world of “flight simulation” during the pandemic. I joined my Dad on several “group” events on the internet, flying pretend aeroplanes together at various virtual locations around the world.
Well... I started recording videos of my escapades, and uploaded them to YouTube for others in the group to enjoy. I didn't give it much thought after that until perhaps six months later, when YouTube informed me one day that I had enough “subscribers” to monetize my account.
I quickly enlisted the help of my teenage daughters, who obviously know everything there is to know about Youtube, Youtubers, and so on.
For the last several months the collection of videos have been earning a quite respectable amount of pocket money. Until last week.
While at a loose end at home and in need of an escape from work, I decided to “double down” on the video recording escapade. Over the course of perhaps 72 hours I recorded some new content, uploaded it, and watched as the viewers, subscribers and what-have-you started to increase.
It's kind of become addictive.
I'm now earning more per day than I was per month. It's difficult to put your finger on exactly how much, because the vagueries of advertising revenue on Youtube are not very transparent. It's more than I ever expected though.
Who knew that being able to pretend to operate an Airbus, a Boeing, or any number of general aviation aircraft would be worth something one day? Of course at some point in the near future my knowledge will be exhausted, and I'll quickly run out of things to record videos about. I'm not quite sure what I'll do at that point.
For an example of this rather ridiculous, and yet unexpectedly lucrative pastime, the following video might help somewhat: