For once, it’s happened: My scheming and plotting and intermittent goal-mongering on this trusty but oft-silent little site has actually borne fruit.
Specifically, in my last update I sketched out a plan to visit Chinook Helicopters in Abbotsford, BC for a couple weeks of training this year to kickstart my flying.
And in a move that should downright shock regular readers of this space, this is exactly what I did.
These details, a video, and more await below!
HAI HELI EXPO
Before we get into the big news, some hobnob-news: This spring, I attended the 2018 HAI Heli Expo in Las Vegas, which was a truly massive show — occupying two giant convention center exhibit halls and with countless displays, aircraft, vendors, and so on.
Wandering the halls for a day I ran into both my old instructor Evan from Palo Alto, and also Pilot Yellow; I stopped by the Vertical Magazine booth to talk to Mike, the publisher, and spent an hour getting fitted for an (as-yet-unordered) MSA Gallet helmet from Merit Apparel. I saw some super cool aircraft, got asked to sign up for Customs & Border Protection, and rode in a special VR simulation of a new Bell/Uber verticopter collaboration for urban transport.
In a real highlight, I met Chuck Aaron, the Red Bull helicopter aerobatic pilot who also flew the opening stunt scene from the most recent James Bond film, Spectre. (His helicopter was there too, still painted the same matte green used in the film.) And similarly awesome was the half-hour I spent talking with Tim McAdams, chief pilot of Airbus Helicopters — one of the guys who taught Tom Cruise to fly for the new Mission Impossible: Fallout film. He showed me photos from his iPhone of himself and Cruise in New Zealand. I also finally got a Switlik X-back life vest and more helicopter literature than I could carry. It was a great show all around, though I do wonder if it gets repetitive with the same vendors — I’ll have a chance to find out, since next year it’s in Atlanta and I’ve already booked a flight and hotel on the chance I’m permitted by work schedules to go.
Training Begins!
As for the training: I visited BC again in spring to get my class 1 medical certificate (approved!), and also stopped by Chinook again for a JetRanger hop. Ray and I did a “cool” flight, designed to showcase some of the neat stuff I could do after finishing — we did some mountain flying, backcountry wilderness landings, and also landed on a logging bridge and a tiny wooden platform among very tall trees. I returned home ready to make the training, finally, happen.
After a substantial amount of hemming, hawing, and handwringing, I decided to begin my training in the bubble-nosed Bell 47.
I did this for a number of reasons: First, it’s a stable and proven trainer, dating way back to the first days of helicopters in the 1940s; second, it’s challenging to fly, what with a manual throttle control, low power, finicky carb heat, and all the rest — meaning once you’ve mastered the 47, any aircraft with a throttle governor should be easier to handle; third, it’s rare even to see a Bell 47 these days, let alone a whole fleet of them such as Chinook has, and let alone to be able to fly them; and fourth, it’s historic, having seen combat operations in the Korean War as well as a long string of “firsts.” Add to the mix that it’s the cheapest platform the school offers and it was, in the end, an easy choice.
So during a convenient lull in work, I took three weeks this summer (late June through mid-July) and relocated to Abbotsford for twice-daily flying. I drove up from Silicon Valley (pausing in Seattle just long enough to take a heritage flight on a B-25 Mitchell, “Tondelayo”), settled in, and started training in earnest.
At Chinook I flew two flights per day, averaging just over three hours per day total.
The school is closed weekends, and factoring in a couple of holiday days I had 13 days of flying good for over 30 hours. I also learned that Ray and I share a birthday, which we of course both spent flying — and which was marked by a notably thoughtful and nicely-prepared He-Dog Cake ( —> ).
Lawn Landings, and So Forth
For Canada Day weekend, I flew out to the Blue Whale (our summer place on the Nova Scotia shore), and fulfilled my long-held goal of landing a helicopter on the lawn. Tim L’Esperance of Vision Air Services (who you’ll recall from an earlier post) did the deed, flying me and my sister from YHZ airport about an hour down the coast to a picture-perfect touchdown on the lawn.
We were keen to see what amount of Hell the beagle would raise at this commotion, but she was oddly uninterested in the helicopter — though plenty hyper, of course, when we walked through the door.
The following weekend I took HeliJet to visit Victoria, including their air museum. I wasn’t expecting to like Victoria nearly as much as I did — but it’s a great city, and I plan to return.
SOLO FLYING
Back to Chinook: My goal for this three-week initial training period was to get to (and through) my first solo flight, a goal that has seemed increasingly far-off these past few years, and which I’m pleased to report no longer seems far off at all because I did it.
July 11, 2018 was the magic day (though I’d been signed off several days earlier, the winds were too high).
Among other firsts, I’ve now done some doors-off flying, and a whole bunch of autorotations (including the fabled full-down autos that most schools in the U.S. won’t teach).
By the time we wrapped training, Ray was springing engine and hydraulic failures on me without notice.
Anyway, I have plenty of training still to go, but I can actually fly a helicopter (finally), which is a pretty big step up from last year.
As the three weeks wrapped up, and with my solo flight behind me, I took a couple of low-pressure “cool” flights (one in a glass-cockpit R44, another in the Bell 206 again). In all, a successful, enjoyable, and worthwhile trip — not to mention the first major step toward the He-Dog Run in the four years I’ve posted here.
THE QUIET ONE
Last year I became fascinated with the OH-6 Cayuse “Loach” helicopter, the military predecessor of the Hughes 500 that saw service in Vietnam (and Magnum, P.I.). This was both the cause of, and fueled further by, my reading the eagerly-titled book “LOACH!”
In particular I enjoyed tell of The Quiet One, which was a specially-modified CIA/Black Ops Loach with sound-deadening modifications (good for over 20 db in noise reduction), blackout paint, and probably the first functional FLIR unit. It was designed to run a CIA covert mission deep behind enemy lines in North Vietnam, planting a phone tap on a heavily-guarded hilltop telephone line. Few photos of these legendary craft (a few were built) remain, but man, I like the Quiet One.
So imagine my glee when I discovered that one of the Quiet Ones has been found, having been repurposed as a Sheriff / Search and Rescue craft in Snohomish County, Washington; and imagine my glee twice over when, having emailed the Snohomish County Sheriff on a lark on my birthday, the chief pilot, Deputy Bill Quistorf, emailed me back within 5 minutes and invited me to stop by on my drive through Washington to see the ship.
I took the short detour and was treated to an hour-long exhaustive tour of the Search and Rescue offices, memorabilia, and a deep and detailed look at The Quiet One in her current law-enforcement guise.
Deputy Quistorf reports that she’s still very quiet, though these days the prime benefit is fewer noise complaints from the neighbors.
Special thanks to Deputy Quistorf and the Snohomish County Search and Rescue department (a truly top-notch operation) for a fantastic tour and the chance of a lifetime to see a real (and still operational) piece of history!
Other Updates
Some other updates in no meaningful order:
I visited the American Helicopter Museum outside Philadelphia — a great little spot, with some excellent exhibits. Not super accessible from the city to be honest, but worth the drive if you’re out that way. Aside: Apparently not that many people submit photos to Google Maps, since I was invited to do so (and did), and I keep getting notifications that my photo has been viewed 50,000 times or whatever.
- I took my father to the 2018 Abbotsford Air Show, a gigantic event complete (this year) with the Blue Angels, the Snowbirds, and dozens of other demonstrations; we also took an historic flight on a beautifully-restored de Havilland Dragon Rapide, which shockingly crashed on takeoff (same pilot, same flight, also carrying paying airshow passengers) the very next day. Two were seriously injured and airlifted from the scene, and everyone aboard went to hospital. A close shave indeed. Hoping the pilot (John Sessions, a very nice chap who runs the Heritage Flight Foundation) is able to recover.
- Pilot Yellow (along with Ruben and passenger Diogo) completed their “EPIC” round-the-world helicopter trip–which I have been following with interest (though not as often as I would like). I’m still only half-way through their extensive YouTube videos, but spoiler alert, I know Mischa’s back in BC because I heard him on the radio while I was flying around near Abbotsford after the airshow.
I’m trying to bring “wilco” back.
- I apologize to the Cobra Gods, because I now have a 1971 Mercedes 280 SL. It’s what I drove to B.C., and it made it! The receptionist at the Best Western Plus in Sutherlin Oregon said I looked like a movie star, so mission accomplished I would say.
- I visited Korea (for one night), a quick but fun trip that confirmed its suitability as a stop on the He-Dog Run. Which may or may not involve visiting Momoland. Bboom bboom!
- My sister drew a fine logo for the He-Dog Run, which I will post at some juncture.
GOal Time
Work is about to get (or rather, stay) crazy, probably through February of 2019, but my plan thereafter is to knock out at least another multi-week chunk of my training, if not try to wrap the whole commercial license, within the next year.
I’m also aiming to go up to Chinook for a day of flying about every month or so, just so I don’t totally lose everything I learned in my three week initial block.
For the foreseeable future I’ll keep training in the Bell 47, though I might like to switch over to the 206 for the end of the program, or at least do a turbine transition course thereafter. I also now have to go up at least every six months just to renew my medical certificate, so that’s a special lifelong treat. But not to get distracted here, the goal at this point is simple:
- Complete my Canadian commercial helicopter license within one year of this post.
Toward the He-Dog Run!