My first ride in a helicopter
 

Saturday was my 1 year wedding anniversary and my wife and I decided to spend it in Niagara Falls, NY. This was my 3rd time to the falls, but last time I stayed on the Canadian side, which I thought was way better.
Sunday morning we decided to take a helicopter ride over the falls and take some photos and video. It was strange. I'm not afraid of anything, but waiting in line to get on the helicopter I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack. The guy asked if I was nervous, and I said "not at all". I wasn't, I guess it was just from the adrenaline induced prequel.
Here is 2 videos I took. If I feel like it after uploading the rest of the videos to youtube, I'll link them.

My first helicopter ride was a couple years ago in Vegas, took a tour into the Grand Canyon. They're not quite as stable as a 737 and that made my wife a little uneasy for the first 30 minutes, but eventually she realized we weren't going to crash and relaxed a bit.

Our pilot was super serious about giving a proper narrated tour of the other sights along the way, to the point that he seemed funny in a Ned Flanders sort of way. After we finished lunch in the canyon and were lifting off to fly back, he was playing the Airwolf theme on the intercom. :bowrofl: Sadly, none of the four other passengers in the copter knew the song. But that pilot definitely enjoyed his job.

That is great info as I am going to Vegas later this year. I just told my wife about the helicopter ride over the grand canyon and she is super pumped. Thanks for the suggestion!

Pretty cool.

My choppa:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p...801_185123.jpg

ujelly?

Get to zee choppa!

Fuck heli's, if there is a problem, you don't just glide down like an aeroplane. F dat shit.

We used a company called Papillon Tours. They have several options and we went with the one where they fly you to their private area down in the canyon with picnic tables and serve you lunch w/ champagne. You have time to eat and snap some pics and then they pack you up to fly back, not much time to hike around. Most of the other sights are before you land for lunch- Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, I forget what else. I guess they figure the less time you spend in the helicopter after lunch, the lower the likelihood that they have to clean up vomit.

I think they run discounts through the bigger hotels and they have shuttle buses that will pick you up. IIRC it was $500-600 for the two of us. I didn't comparison shop since it wasn't really my money in the first place.

Look up "autorotation." Just like gliding, 'cept you hit the trees at 0 forward speed instead of 60mph. Much better deal.

With the really big choppers, the rule is that as long as it's leaking hydraulic fluid, you're good to go. When it stops leaking, it means you're out of fluid.

I started out in fast jets, but have developed an admiration for helicopters over the years. Most of my work now is with helicopters. You want a good tour? Take a "tour of the star's homes" with the LAPD. Those cops know every nook and cranny of LA.

Some of the most fun shit I have ever done is ride in choppers. I went on a ride once in Tennessee with a fucking mad man pilot, took us buzzing cows in a field, maybe 10' off the ground at a high rate of speed. Also did some pretty crazy shit around trees. A bit scary, but loads of fun. One of the best ever though was a ride in a Huey at a Birmingham airshow, when we still had them in the early 90's. Pretty awesome stuff.

I got my EMT licence in high school, one of the instructors was buddies with some medics in Los Angeles. I scored a ride in this one afternoon... it was on a familiarity flight with a new pilot, so the veteran pilot did some shit in the mountains that had goats ducking for cover.

It's LA County Sheriff's Rescue5... H-3 Sea King. It's kinda famous in helicoptor circles.
http://static.flickr.com/45/150140423_5e1110527a.jpg

I've lost track of the number of H-60 flights I've been on going in straight lines from ship to ship over flat water trying to save gas.

I will say that trying to stand in the rotor-wash of a heavy H-53 is something you would think is cool until you try it. That was as close as I ever came in 2 years of working on the flight deck 10 hours a day to going over the side, and I was holding on to a jet that was chained down. The pilot got waved off at the last second by the airboss and added a shit-ton of power. His plane captain (guy in the yellow shirt waving) got blown down but was quick enough to lay flat and grab a padeye. I was the slow and too cool officer who damn near soiled himself and I was 100 feet away.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1312259870

Small world. I'm in Long Beach right now. I'll be flying with LASD in the morning (in their brand new AS350's, not the old Sea King). BTW, they're getting ready to replace their Sea King with Super Pumas. Something about 75 maintenance hours/flight hour.