DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) – Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be the person getting the beautiful shots of the Daytona 500 from high above the race track?
Captain William Bayless is one of just 15 Goodyear blimp pilots in the world.
“It’s always been the best view in the house, no matter what we’re doing,” said Bayless.
Bayless is a Daytona 500 blimp veteran. This year, he gets to fly a brand new airship, Wing Foot One.
“This new model of airship, it’s so quiet you can actually hear the engines going around the tracks… That’s awesome.”
The screen with all the read-outs becomes a TV to watch the blimp’s camera.
“The cool thing about this new ship is with all the propellers, if the network directors requests a certain angle, we can hover a lot easier than we could in the old ship,” Bayless said. “So, we can just pause it and get that shot as long as they want it.”
“I remember getting game-winning home runs and maybe one of the cameras didn’t get the right angle, but let’s see what the blimp got [and] Boom… perfect!”
