Seeing it all in 1 hour

scott heger

Custom-made Troublemaker
Joined
Dec 14, 2003
Messages
1,636
Location
Southern California
Aircraft
SportCopter Bell 206L-1
Total Flight Time
1350
This week, a friend and his family visited me from out of state.I asked if they would like to see "all" of Southern California in a hour? They looked confused until I offered to give them a helicopter ride, and the smiles began.

I set the clock in the helicopter at launch, and heres what the 5 of us flew over/by/around in one hour exactly.

Downtown Los Angeles skyscrapers, Dodger Stadium,Universal Studios, the Hollywood sign,Paramount Studios, Beverly Hills, UCLA, Getty Center, Santa Monica Pier, UNDER LAX departure(shoreline route),Redondo-King Harbor, Pacific Palisades, Donald Trump's new (overrated) golf course, Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors, the Queen Mary, Huntington Beach Pier, just south of Disneyland's restricted airspace to Angel Stadium, and a 3,000 foot tall mountain peak landing to end the trip.

I flew over a total of 22 cities, within 7 control tower's airspace: El Monte, Santa Monica,LAX, Torrance, Long Beach, Los Alamitos, and SNA/John Wayne, which kept me pretty busy switching frequencies along the way.

It was amasing how much area we covered in an hour, and the kids really enjoyed the trip. So when we get back, the 10 year old sees the SportCopter parked in the corner of the hanger, and says "wow, thats what REALLY looks like fun!!!". I think I saw the helicopter shed a tear..... the kid knows.

Scott Heger,Laguna Niguel,Ca N86SH
 
Scott,
Excellent! Next time see if you can get someone to take some photos.
 
This brings back some great memories.
I did fly with a traffic reporting helicopter in LA during 2 weeks in 2002 out of VanNuys airport to build some B206 turbine time.
Had a terrific time!

Kind regards,
Willem
 
Willem, the traffic reporting way of building turbine time is very popular (and cheap) way to go. How many hours did you fly while here, and how did you hear about that program? Are you a commercial pilot?


Scott Heger,Laguna Niguel,Ca N86SH
 
Scott,

I flew like 50 hours in 2 weeks at $120 an hour. Some research on the internet and I did end up with www.heliclass.com; they seem to fly sightseeing tours nowadays. Now there is also the option of www.commanderchuck.com. Not commercially rated yet, right now i'm focused to build experience towards my A&P license and the EASA counterpart of it.
Very fascinating to fly along the beach at 30 ft, isn't?

Kind regards,
Willem
 
Last edited:
"Very fascinating to fly along the beach at 30 ft, isn't?"

Yeah, those seagulls can't outrun a Jet Ranger, they are like flak. Not many places in California where the tower clears you to fly along a populated beach area at below 150 AGL or less with 747's a couple hundred feet above you at full power.

Scott Heger, Laguna Niguel,Ca N86SH
 
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