Helicopter takes to air for artist
An 11-year-old artist praised for his depiction of helicopters fighting Nelson’s bush fires has been rewarded with his first chopper flight.
Leon Fenemor’s painting of the Nelson forest fire was shared more than 2000 times on Facebook and drew more than 1000 comments.
Over the weekend, Leon met Alan Beck, a veteran helicopter pilot helping fight the forestry blaze in Tasman. Beck was so blown away by his painting he offered to buy it.
Leon wasn’t ready to part with his masterpiece, but has agreed to paint Beck a picture for his helicopter safety campaign, Down to the Wire. It raises awareness about the dangers of wires and power-lines and asks farmers to reduce the height of power-lines on their properties.
Beck is the chief executive of Taranaki-based helicopter operation Beck Helicopters, and was so moved by Leon’s art he arranged a ride on Monday.
Leon got to have an up-close and personal look at the Iroquois, his favourite helicopter and the one which features most prominently in his painting, and then went for a ride with his parents and sister in a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter flown down from Taranaki for the occasion.
Leon’s painting was inspired by a trip to the airport during the first weekend the fires were burning.
He is passionate about aviation and said he can identify most planes by sound alone, so he couldn’t resist the siren call of helicopters buzzing in and out of Nelson airport.
‘‘With all the fire and the smoke, and we could hear the helicopters taking off and landing, so we went to watch,’’ Leon said.
He usually paints planes, as he wants to become a pilot one day, and aside from some sketches doesn’t usually go for helicopters.
‘‘This was the first helicopter painting I’d done properly,’’ he said.
‘‘That [The Iroquois] was my favourite helicopter, so I took a few pictures of it.’’
As it happens, Alan Beck’s son, David, could very well have been piloting the helicopter at the time. David Beck has been helping fight the fires, and pilots an Iroquois.
After his flight in the cockpit with Beck, Leon wasn’t quite convinced to switch teams to helicopter piloting – he still wants to fly planes one day. ‘‘But helicopters are cool,’’ he conceded.
Leon’s parents, Cheree and Daryl Fenemor, said they were still amazed by the reaction to the painting.
Cheree said she was still working through all the comments trying to read them all.
‘‘He’s got two passions: aviation and art,’’ Daryl said.
‘‘Lots of people have said they would buy this painting, so we’re going to look into making prints and selling them to raise funds [for the firefighting effort].’’