You might think, “What an exciting job to be a helicopter pilot!” Some days are pretty routine for Sky 10 pilots. But when breaking news hits, that gets the adrenaline pumping.

Sky 10 has two helicopter pilots – one has the early morning shift and the other has the afternoon/evening shift. The day starts off with a review of Sky 10 — checking to make sure all parts are in working order because safety is their main priority. Then they go into the station and check to see if there are any notes left from the last pilot. They also need to log all their flights and who goes up with them.

The average flight for Sky 10 is an hour when they cover weather and traffic for a newscast. The longest flight they usually do is about two hours when there’s breaking news. The average speed is 75mph and they can get up to 120mph if they need to get to a location fast. After every flight before returning to the station, they fill up the gas tank at the closest airport.

One of the pilots, James, described his most exciting flight covering a car chase to the border. While in flight, he’s constantly communicating with air traffic control, law enforcement and the other news helicopter pilots. The driver in this particular car chase drove down to the border then made a couple of u-turns so James had to communicate his flight plan to not get in the way of law enforcement while working with the news photographer to get the best shot for 10News. Fortunately, there’s a special camera that’s mounted Sky 10 that can zoom in from far distances and get a clear shot of the subject.

That’s a basic look at a day in the life of Sky 10 helicopter pilots. If you have more specific questions, let us know.

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Hey Everyone!

This is the beginning of my Blog. My first Blog. I am very excited about sharing my life and job and my thoughts with you. I don’t know where to start. Ok, from the beginning. I Started working for 10 News about 10 years ago. I can’t believe how fast time has gone bye since I first arrived here. They say time flies when you are having fun and this applies to my life here in San Diego. I feel very fortunate to come into your house’s every day and personally give you the weather. I used to live out in Texas. Completely different weather. So hot and so humid. I feel very blessed to live in a place like this. I just love the cool ocean breeze. Except when we don’t have one and it gets hot and feels like Texas again. Don’t get me wrong. I love Texas! It’s just hot.

I will keep blogging and I invite you to ask questions or to make any comments and I will always do my best to answer questions about myself, work, weather or life. So we begin the journey. Take care my friend and have a great day!

Submitted by James Quinones, 10News Weather Forecaster

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Throughout my internship here at 10News, I have tried to become familiar with the “television station lingo.” I now know that “b-roll” is video footage and a “white balance” balances and adjusts colors for a video camera, but the words Digital Correspondent still had no meaning. So in order to find out exactly what a Digital Correspondent (DC) is, I looked to KGTV’s South Bay DC, Joe Little.

With technology constantly changing, it is important for a newsroom to be able to react, adapt and improve on a constant basis. Advances in technology such as fast laptops and light weight cameras have created new positions in the newsroom, one of which being a DC.
                                                             
A DC is a shooter, reporter, writer and editor all in one! Working by himself or herself, the DC is free to go wherever the story goes. DCs are the “wave of the future.” In contrasting DCs with traditional reporting, they are cost efficient and provide instant news to our community.

A DC has ownership of everything they do. If a story goes well, they get all of the credit. However, if something goes wrong, they are the one to blame. Another downside of being a DC is it gets lonely and there’s also a safety concern.

When asking 10News DC, Joe Little, what he would recommend to someone who might want to pursue a career as a Digital Correspondent, he replied, “Be a sponge!” He noted how important it is to learn everything, talk to everyone and really respect all of the skills involved with being a DC. “Be pushy, take classes and actually APPLY the skills,” Little stated.

Here at 10News, a typical workday for a DC involves arriving somewhere between 8:00 and 9:00 am. At 9:00 am, the newsroom meeting starts and stories are assigned. Immediately after being assigned a story, the Digital Correspondent starts making phone calls and driving to the site to interview and film. The story must be submitted by the Digital Correspondent’s deadline, being the evening news.

According to Joe Little, the most challenging part of his profession is, “Staying on point.  Staying sharp.  Keeping your mind straight on your story.  We sometimes collect information from several different sources, at the same time, under deadline, and it’s done while traveling from place to place.  It gets very, very stressful some days.  If we don’t stay focused, we could slip up, get information incorrect, mislead the public, mislabel someone, or just screw up royally.  Under the most stressful circumstances, we still have to perform at a high level.  That is one of the most challenging parts of this job.”

Although it is uncertain how technology will advance in the future, one thing is certain…Digital Correspondents are here to stay!

Submitted by 10News intern, Ashley.

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