Flying machines at rest as the sun sinks low...
I was on a cross-country flight with my student, and landed at the airport where the helicopter ambulance I fly at my full-time job is based.
I'm so foolish... I carry my camera with me much of the time, then leave it behind and frequently miss the chance to take some very interesting pictures.
That's gonna change... I'm going to make a concerted effort to remember the camera and start taking a bunch of pictures, then delete those that are not worth keeping, and share the good ones online.
I like this one, although this perspective is not good to compare the size of two machines I fly most...
The R22 in the foreground is the machine I teach in, and it's also my "goose chasing" helicopter. It can carry two people, and it weighs about 850 pounds empty.
The BK117 in the background is set up to carry me, my nurse, paramedic, patient, and maybe a ride-along observer. It weighs just over 5100 pounds sans fuel, cargo, and passengers.
The smaller bird chops it's way through the air at 115 miles per hour. In the bigger machine, I carry sick and injured people to get the help they need at 150 m.p.h.
A neat vocation. Neat machines and a neat photo... don't you agree?
6 comments:
Hi GB,
Thanks for the pictures of the helos you fly. We have a friend that just recently retired from Lilly who is flying for Methodist Hospital.
Any time you have the urge to chase some geese head over to Olive Branch Rd., we have quite an inventory that I would LOVE to have chased!!
Bo
I'm having a Dickens of a time keeping the photo showing on the blog!
I post it and it looks great. Then I return later to find the stupid little box with the red X in it in place of my photo. Frustrating.
Also, on some browsers you can click on the picture and get some amazing detail... on others it won't allow you to enlarge it. I wish I knew more about what makes these magic boxes work, so I could more easily fix problems that pop up. Hope you aren't having the same problems as me!
Love the pics.
I remember my first flight in one. My husband had to almost bodily drag me onto one the first few minutes were a total white knuckle ride, but by the time the hour was over, I was having such a great time, he just about had to bodily drag me back off. I had been put into the front with the pilot with a partial clear floor and the sights were amazing. Oh yeah, our pilot was a ole Viet Nam pilot and such a hoot, he sure knew how to put some excitement into the flight, like nosing up to a mountain, then dropping off the other side with amazing speed. Would do it again in a heartbeat.
Very interesting, indeed.
I know nothing about helicopters and I've never been in one, not even sat inside one. I'm always reading your blogs, here and on Pitchpull, about planes and helicopters and I'm learning a lot.
I've only flown on the big commercial jets and they don't give me a sense of height and since I'm petrified of heights I think a helicopter ride would just about do me in. So I have no desire to ride in one but it's still interesting to learn about them. Thanks.
Joker-
I have always understood a concern about boarding any machine that will take you more than 10 feet off the ground and go more than 20 miles per hour... anything that can do that can hurt you if it's not properly controlled. What I have never been able to understand is someone so fearful of flying will crawl into an automobile with a smile on their face and drive at closing speeds of 120 miles per hour while 10% of the drivers passing on the opposite side of that two-lane road are legally intoxicated!
There is a 35 foot tall TV antenna securely attached to the Southwest corner of our home. A few years back, our antenna rotator quit working. Initially, I thought I might be able to force myself to climb up and fix it myself. I made it to about the 15-foot mark before my knees started rattling so badly the neighbors called and asked what was causing the strange noise. I retreated and hired the job done.
Many confuse "fear of flying" with "fear of heights". And to me, "fear of heights" is a misnomer... it's actually a fear of falling.
I'm deathly afraid of falling if I get more than 10 feet off the ground, but securely belted in a small aircraft, I have no fear of falling at all.
And flying in an airliner-
It's just a Greyhound bus with wings, gal. Great for getting quickly from one place to another, but it is NOT a flying experience!
You might be right GB, about the "fear of falling". The first time I was on the observatory floor of the John Hancock Bldg in Chicago, I got off the elevator and stood there for a long time. The windows were “floor to ceiling” and continuous all the way around. There were quite a few people up there that day that observed a strange sight: ME, crawling from the elevator to the windows. On my hands and knees, I kid you not. I was scared. I had heard that this building actually moved during high winds, so the fear of falling was definitely there. I've been up there a couple of times since and the lay out is different now, the walkway around is more confined and it used to be so open. A person doesn't get the sense of height as soon as you come off the elevator now, and so I'm not afraid up there anymore.
As far as riding in a helicopter, still not sure if I'll ever do that. I flew in a small passenger plane, once, that maybe held 20-30 people. It was in a small town airport in southern FL and we took that little plane to Tampa to catch a commercial flight. It was a 3-wheel plane: 2 in front and 1 in back. It sat at an angle and we just walked up to the plane and climb in through the back door which was 1 step off the ground. THAT was a scary plane ride for me. I didn’t feel safe and I just didn’t think that little plane could stay up with all these people on board plus it seemed like we had a lot of turbulence – and I felt every bump!
So, give me that Greyhound bus with wings, anyday.
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