Got my flying fix - WHAT A DAY!!!

[GyrOZprey]

I never know what wonderful new adventure awaits me each day! Today was a Doozy - So unexpected!!!

The first Saturday of October in Whitewater Kansas pop.~650 is the community Fall Festival. It usually starts with a 5k fun run/walk @ 7:30 that I regretfully decided to abstain from this year as I didn't want to trash my almost healed ankle/foot I've been hobbling on all year! Pretty bummed as I'd looked forward to improving my time from last year & just a couple of days ago felt I was pain free enough to do it! After a few steps this morning I realized it was no-go!

Having taken care of daily farm chores, at 10:30 I headed to WW to watch the parade & socialize. I see LOTS of signs around town advertising helicopter rides all day from the Baseball field - curious, I swing by the BB field to see a lovely R44 sitting there! Hmmmm???

First the parade -- I'm already pondering next year how we can include our GyroplaneLLC Gyros - Tiggy-B in spray-rig mode & my future Aurora. Trailered /Taxi along main street or flyover???? (at legal altitude!!)

As I check out the arts/craft booths , kids fun'n games area, food vendors and custom car show, while trying to chat with friends - I'm constantly distracted by the overhead helicopter noises as they give those overhead tours of Whitewater.
Naturally I gravitate to the LZ and hang out drooling for a while - I finally decide I've just gotta have my rotor flying fix and sign up for the 7minute flight option!

While waiting for the pairs in line ahead of me to fly, I was quizzing the ground crew all about the chopper & talking about my gyro lessons of last week.
A slow spell of riders came along & no other singles to pair up with me - so they let me go fly with just the pilot (Dillon - Army ,high hour, Apache!) - & introduced me as a gyro student pilot!

WOW -- Glad I left the camera at home - NO distractions! just soak it all in & fall hopelessly in love with helicopter flight all over again!!! It's been 6 years since my last helo experience when I vowed to learn to fly one when the kids were grown!!
I tell Dillon our farm is just 2N2W - off we go - I'm just buzzed to see our area from 200ft up - this is what it'll( kinda) feel like in our gyro some-day soon..... We chat fellow pilot talk and I point out our farm buildings & the hay field where we will be launching gyros in the not too distant future! He swoops us around the property, not too close to the cows I'd moved to a fresh grass strip just hours before and does a couple of low passes along our potential landing strip site - Dillon's words.... "just to get a feel how it'll be in your gyros" !!! Circle back to Whitewater with a few dizzying tight turns around over town & in to land.
Brilliant - my day & week were just made!!! He tells me it was the most fun trip he did all day! I can't walk - I'm floating ..... back to the car & phone Farmer Jim ( who is delivering/selling hay in TX) to tell him I've just had a ride in an R44 over our farm!!!! He's REALLY wondering how I pulled that one off!!!

After heading home for a bite of lunch I dump all the recent gyro pics off camera onto iPad, clear card and head back to town to hang out with the rotor people to talk helos,gyros & take some pics & video.

I see a lot of people I haven't seen for ages - coming by for a ride in the R44.
They all come off with HUGE ear to ear grins! Even the ones who were not sure if they really wanted to go up.
You all know who was cheering them on saying GO GO you'll LOVE it!!!!

In the lulls I share tales of how I came to be in KS from Aust, show off the pics on IPad of our Tiggy-B & the MTO I've been getting training in. Enjoy getting to know the DWTA (DawnWolf Tech.Aviation) family. Dawn(owner) Megan her daughter,Doreen, Dawn's sister were all working the sign-up and preflight briefing/boarding. as well as another Jim ( almost qualified pilot) We talk about getting helo quals. Dawn is about to start flight training having finished ground school! Her husband Wolf Zon is a helicycle owner/pilot and was down at Padre Is with their other commercial Helo!

I had a 1/2 idea that if the opportunity came up I'd go again before days end ....but I'd enjoyed hanging out and had about given up on another loner needing a ride buddy when I wandered over to talk to an old family friend's daughter with her little 6 yo jumping around on the sidelines - the little girl Trinity was so excited by the helicopter & desperately wanted a ride but no means. I said to the Mom if she was OK with it I'd pay for the kid's ride with me - I wanted to get video this time! They were both stoked and little Trinity got a memorable helicopter flight out to the Toevs farm & saw the cows from the air! I got to get the flight on video this time ...( which is currently uploading to Utube - at snails pace) now someone needs to coach me how to put Utube vid. on the forum??????

That 2nd trip was every bit as incredible as the first & the sparkle in that little girls eyes was no doubt mirrored in mine. Of course we were all grinning like cheshire cats too!! This time Dillon held the most incredible hover just off to the SW of the farmyard with a slow turn over the dried up creek and away back over the hayfield/future runway curving around the oblivious grazing cows then a hard vertigo turn over the neighbors and back to WW - did a couple of laps around town looking right down onto main street with all the festival activity! One last lap & Trinity said "there's my Granma's house" - which was pretty cool for a 6 yo in the back seat to be able to ID from above at speed!!! She was right - it was her G'mas place!

Dang this is just too much excitement for one day - how will I ever sleep tonight!
I'm crazy about gyros but I absolutely ADORE riding in helicopters!!!

Tried to attach pics but i'm hopeless trying to figure out how on Ipad - need my comp-techie son!!!

[StanFoster]

Chris- Just simply love reading your helicopter experience, and all your future gyro flying that will keep us all levitated. You rock woman the way your enthusiasm and adrenalin gets uploaded to this forum. Now, here's how you link your videos to your posts here. Go to your YouTube video and watch it. While it is playing, up in the address bar is the special combination of letteres, numbers, hyphens, forward slashes, etc,etc,. You can post the link by doing it the hard way and write down that long list of digits, or simply do this..... Highlight the address in blue... Then hit" Control" and " X " at the same time. This will store the address in the computer. Simply go to the forum and type anothher adrenalin charged post, and say something like " here's a link to my YouTube video. Now simply hit "Control" and "V" at the same time, and VOILA, your video is now linked to your wonderful story making it even better. Keep posting your experiences Chris.... I may get interested in flying myself someday!! Ha. Stan

[Monarchist]

Woohoo Chris, you had an experience so few will ever have...there is definitely a feeling of magic when your skids get light and you pull into a hover. I love flying helicopters! Glad you were able to experience that and share it with the little girl too, that was extremely generous of you!

-John

[GyrOZprey]

Thanks Stan. For some reason after hours of uploading the Utube video, it stalled & made no more progress! So I played around with editing it & found the movie maker on Picasa this morning. trying again with what I hope will be a better version! Hoping the internet connection doesn't quit again! ?????
Still a computer idiot! The bane of my life!
Still trying to get a video posted!

[GyrOZprey]

Third attempt successful. FINALLY got an upload to youtube. Now I'll try to post on the forum.

[GyroJon]

Originally Posted by GyrOZprey

Third attempt successful. FINALLY got an upload to youtube. Now I'll try to post on the forum.

All you need to do is drop the video url in the post box. Video will show after you submit the post.

[GyrOZprey]

In case you missed it gyrojon ..... I posted the video in a separate thread under flying videos - titled R44 flight Whitewater - Toevs farm. It's a ways down the list by now as there have been lots of cool flying vids posted since!