WESTLINE AVIATION

THE EXHILARATION OF A HELICOPTER PILOT’S LIFE

Flying helicopters is so far removed from airline flying, that the bling of dials, heads-up displays and many a knob to keep you busy, fades when the three-dimensional world is entered for real. Automation is for straight and level flight and those that can order coffee or even inflight entertainment to help pass the boring flying in an artificial world. Yes, I understand the need for speed, but that is a relativity void of tickling the adrenalin glands when mother earth is but a hazy distant observation. You get there faster? What for? For the passengers’ sake yes, but definitely not for the sky-loving dwellers seeking to ‘slip the surly bonds of earth’. When I work with a helicopter, it is me and the mountain, up close and personal, so with the crops I dust, the game I gather and the lives I save from otherwise impossible places. When I chase a fugitive, meet the cliff and waterfall face to face, or just fly to get away from it all – literally, I can.

No, a helicopter is not for logging more hotel hours than flying hours. It is not for logging more hours than landing in never landed in before places. However, should I confess, neither is it as aerobatic as a Pitts can be. I understand that the tool must fit the job, but never having had a job, the tool always had to fit me.

Helicopters have turned out to be the most versatile man-made machine of all times and as it is busy exploring another planet, even space will not escape its usefulness. The problem is that no single air or ground vehicle can fulfill all man’s needs. But I digress as usual. The point being that the world of flying differs so dramatically that to have the privilege to fly both types make for the ultimate in experience. So, I will give you this one, to fly is heaven, but to hover is divine.