The Camera Gear Behind E3 Aviation’s FX3 Build

Most pilots have been there. You finally nail a scenic mountain pass approach, the terrain is wild, the light is perfect — and you land to find your GoPro died forty minutes ago. Dead battery. The footage is gone.

For E3 Aviation, that problem wasn’t just frustrating — it was a genuine obstacle to the mission. When the team set out to build their Ultimate Backcountry Camping Aircraft and document every wire, system, and flight for their YouTube audience, reliable camera power became non-negotiable. The aviation camera mount and power solution they found is worth every GA pilot’s attention, whether you’re a content creator, a flight instructor, or simply someone who wants to bring the trip home on video.

This is the story of that partnership — between E3 Aviation and FlightFlix (now part of MyGoFlight) — and what it means for how GA pilots document their flying.

E3 Aviation’s CubCrafters FX3 — The Ultimate Backcountry Build

The aircraft at the center of this partnership is a brand-new CubCrafters FX3, picked up in Washington state and finished in a custom camouflage paint scheme. The spec list reads like a serious backcountry pilot’s wish list. Level 1 IFR panel, lithium batteries, a dedicated instrument backup battery, Starlink, and a belly fuel tank for extended range into terrain where fuel stops simply don’t exist.

The build isn’t just about capability — it’s about documentation. E3 Aviation’s core mission is pilot education, and that means capturing every system install, every test flight, and every real-world use case on video well enough to teach from it. The aircraft came pre-wired to run cameras, an induction stove, and all onboard systems simultaneously. Before a single frame of footage could roll, though, two problems had to be solved: reliable camera power on long flights, and an aviation camera mount tough enough to bolt to the outside of the airplane.

The Two Problems Every Pilot-Filmmaker Actually Faces

FlightFlix President Dominic Martinez — whose company recently became part of MyGoFlight — sat down with E3 Aviation CEO Brian Johnson to walk through the gear behind E3’s documentation goals. According to Martinez, the entire FlightFlix product line was built around two pain points that GA pilots consistently hit when they try to film their flying.

First: camera positioning. A pilot might want a GoPro on the strut and an Insta360 on the tail on the same flight — two completely different angles, simultaneously. Standard consumer mounts weren’t built for that kind of flexibility, or for the vibration and airflow loads that aircraft put on exterior hardware. An aviation camera mount for real aircraft use has to be modular, configurable, and built to actually stay attached.

Second — and far more commonly complained about — is power. Short battery life is the top issue FlightFlix hears from pilots. It means rationing your filming, choosing between capturing the departure or the arrival, or attempting in-flight battery swaps at exactly the wrong moment. For a cross-country backcountry flight, that’s not a minor inconvenience. It fundamentally limits what you can capture and bring back.

How the FlightFlix AirFoil Generator Solves the Power Problem

The AirFoil Generator is a wind-powered charger that turns airspeed into camera power. It mounts externally — directly to a camera or to compatible FlightFlix aviation camera mount hardware — and uses forward motion airflow to feed action cameras via USB-C throughout the entire flight. No batteries to swap. It keeps cameras running as long as you keep flying. There is no ceiling on total footage length.

It Starts Generating at 60 Knots and Touches Nothing in Your Airframe

The standout feature is what the AirFoil Generator doesn’t require: zero changes to the aircraft’s electrical system. Pilots attach the unit, select the right turbine for their airframe and cruise speed, plug in, and fly. The high-speed turbine option begins producing usable power around 60 knots — viable for a wide range of GA aircraft. It ships with both a high-speed and a low-speed turbine, and they swap easily depending on your airframe or cruise profile.

For E3’s coast-to-coast debut flight from Washington to Florida, the FX3 ran on the AirFoil Generator the entire way. Every system got tested. Every mile got captured. No battery anxiety, no rationing, no missed shots over terrain that took hours to reach.

Our take: The “no electrical changes” part is bigger than it sounds. Anything that touches an aircraft’s electrical system means paperwork, inspections, and potentially squawks. The AirFoil Generator sidesteps all of that entirely. It’s a plug-and-fly accessory, not a modification — and that distinction matters when you’re operating a serious IFR-capable backcountry aircraft.

Beyond power, FlightFlix built the aviation camera mount system around one principle: camera positioning is never one-size-fits-all. Different shots require completely different placements — strut, tail, wingtip, belly, cockpit interior — and the FlightFlix mount hardware reconfigures for each one. For a long-term build like the FX3, that modularity matters. E3 Aviation plans to run multiple camera angles across several months of content, and the mount system needs to flex with the project.

Why One Mount Position Never Captures the Whole Story

Most pilots who start documenting their flying begin with a single camera in a fixed position. Over time, they realize they want more angles, more coverage, or a fundamentally different perspective for a specific flight. Swapping to an aviation camera mount system that can’t adapt means buying new hardware from scratch. The FlightFlix system avoids that entirely — the same base hardware reconfigures for a GoPro or an Insta360, for interior or exterior use, without replacing what you already have.

Specifically, a pilot might run a GoPro on the strut and an Insta360 on the tail simultaneously — two cameras, two angles, one flight, one power source. That’s the kind of backcountry aircraft filming setup that would have been logistically complicated just a few years ago.

The Washington-to-Florida Shakedown — A Real-World Test

The FX3’s debut flight from Washington state to Florida was essentially a full-system shakedown at cross-country scale. Varied terrain, changing weather, long cruise legs, and the kind of accumulated hours that expose any weak link in a build. For the FlightFlix aviation camera mount and AirFoil Generator setup, it was the closest thing to a real-world endurance test short of intentionally trying to break it.

Consequently, it proved the concept cleanly. Cameras powered throughout. Footage rolled without interruption. No in-flight swaps, no dead batteries over remote terrain, no missed shots across the mountain passes and flatlands between the Pacific Northwest and Florida.

Martinez — clearly taken by the build as a whole — noted that the custom camouflage paint job alone was worth the trip out. He also admitted he was eyeing E3’s onboard induction stove for his own use. That’s the kind of reaction that carries more weight than a standard press quote.

We’ll be straight with you: E3 Aviation doesn’t put its name behind gear it hasn’t actually used and tested on its own aircraft. When you see FlightFlix hardware on the FX3, it earned that spot on a real airplane during a real coast-to-coast flight. That’s the standard for every product partnership we take on.

What’s Coming Next for E3 Aviation and the FX3

The debut flight was just the start. Over the coming months, E3 Aviation will be fabricating custom carbon-fiber parts for the FX3, integrating additional FlightFlix mounts, and documenting the entire build process for their YouTube audience. A time-lapse of the build is already in production, along with a closer look at the interior modifications that make this aircraft genuinely capable of extended backcountry camping operations.

“Most of the next couple of months are doing the build on this plane,” Johnson said. “So we’ve got tons of filming to do.”

Indeed, every step of that build — the carbon fiber fabrication, the avionics integration, the real-world backcountry flying the FX3 was designed for — the FlightFlix aviation camera mount system and the AirFoil Generator will capture it — running entirely on forward airspeed. Pilots following the series will get a complete, documented look at how a serious backcountry aircraft comes together from the ground up.

Follow along on the E3 Aviation aircraft builds archive and the E3 Aviation backcountry flying section for updates as the project progresses. All product coverage lives in the E3 Aviation products section.

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Published by the E3 Aviation Association editorial team. E3 Aviation is dedicated to pilot education, safety, and community. Explore more at e3aviationassociation.com/aviation-articles.