We can’t always be flying. Weather, money, and life often get in the way. But the good news is that, thanks to YouTube, you can virtually fly with some awesome, entertaining pilots in some amazing aircraft.

The flying content on YouTube runs the gamut — but there are a few channels that consistently put out top-notch flying videos. Today, I’ll show you four of my favorite YouTube pilots:

1. Flight Chops

I can’t talk about flying YouTubers without putting Flight Chops front and center. Steve, the man behind the chops, makes the best flying videos on the internet — and in my view, he’s one of the best GA ambassadors we have today. He’s a video editor by trade, and he’s brought that professional level of production quality to aviation videos as well.

Some of my favorite videos from his channel include this flight in a TBM 850, his awesome series on TFP’s mountain flying course (which is now on my bucket list!), and his series on learning to fly a World War II-era Stearman.

Whenever one of Steve’s videos come out, I usually save them so I can watch them on the 65″ TV in my basement — they’re just so high quality that they’re worth watching on the big screen.

I personally think that AOPA should just hand Flight Chops a big budget and let him make flying videos full-time — but in the meantime, I’m a proud supporter of his channel on Patreon.

(Note: He also runs a great monthly contest for viewers — check it out here.)

2. steveo1kinevo

Ok, onto another YouTube pilot named Steve. Steveo1kinevo is a professional pilot who flies a corporate TBM 850 as well as a Cessna Grand Caravan, with most of the flying happening down in Florida and the Bahamas — the scenery is pretty hard to beat.

Steveo1kinevo’s channel is a VLOG format, and it’s definitely fun to watch him carry out flights in that pair of very capable aircraft.

3. Guido Warnecke

Guido is commonly referred to as “the most professional pilot on YouTube”. He’s another working pilot, and his channel features everything from hard IFR in business jets to ferry and pleasure flights in single-engine Cessnas and Mooneys. He’s a great resource for watching best practices, and crew resource management.

4. Backcountry Pilot

It’s really, really hard to limit my list to only four channels. But if I’m limiting it to four, Backcountry Pilot needs to be one of them. This channel is just what it sounds like — flying in the backcountry. I’d really love to experience some real backcountry flying, camping out under the wing of a Cessna 180 with tundra tires, but in the meantime, this channel helps to scratch the itch.

These guys do a fantastic job showing the feeling of flying in the backcountry. The cinematography is utterly beautiful, and totally makes you wish you were there. Backcountry Pilot also runs a fantastic website for anyone interested in more about this amazing flavor of flying.

Do you have a favorite aviation YouTuber that I missed? Share them in the comments!

Update: Since posting this, I’ve stumbled across some more great aviation YouTube channels. Check them out here.