Chad Copeland / Developer · Pilot · Visual storyteller
Flight. Code.
Uncharted stories.
From the aircraft to the interface. From the field to the finished film. A career built by making, testing and going further.
01 / Building what comes next
Experience, put to work.
In developmentCharlie Hanger
Charlie Hanger brings aircraft knowledge into a new medium: an F-15E Strike Eagle for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
Product in developmentFALCRIN
An aviation safety technology venture exploring connected pilot health, situational awareness and in-flight decision support.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Aviation QA and aircraft evaluation for Microsoft Flight Simulator, through Insight Global.
One career / Many perspectives
The connection is
curiosity.
I’m Chad Copeland. I’ve maintained military aircraft, worked in air traffic control, flown commercially, built aerial camera systems and taken cameras into extraordinary places. Today, that experience informs the technology I’m developing and the stories I choose to tell.
Follow the career timeline →
02 / Flight
Understand flight
from every angle.
Pilot. Mechanic. Controller. Tester. Each role changes what I notice, and what I bring to the next challenge.
Explore aviation →03 / Expedition stories
The field is the classroom.
Greenland · Songs of Giants
Ice, ocean and the possibility of understanding more. Greenland connects my expedition photography with Wild Actual’s Songs of Giants project.
Iceland · Fire & ice
From ice caves to the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption: a study in scale, change and working close to the elements.
National Geographic · China
Custom-built aerial camera systems opened a different way to see China’s extraordinary karst landscapes.
Tonga · Beneath the surface
Whales, water and the patience required to make an image from within the environment.
A life in the field
Stories with coordinates.
Selected project locations.
Explore a pin to open its story.
Representative project locations, not GPS tracks or flight routes. Coastlines: Natural Earth, public-domain land data; equirectangular projection.
04 / Film & photography
Show the story.
05 / Ventures & craft
Some stories become
places. Others, possibilities.
From Wild Actual’s documentary work to the historic bank that became 1892 Social Club, the idea is only the start. The work is making it real.
Explore the ventures →