What’s it like?

If you’ve never experienced a ride in a helicopter, you’re in for a real treat! It’s magical in the fact that you’re sitting with the ground visible a few feet below you when suddenly, you “pick up”, hover, and just sit there without any visible signs of anything moving. It feels like a magic carpet ride! Then, you move slowly about 3’ above the ground to fly down the runway (or just start to lift higher into the sky). 40, 50 or 60 knots of airspeed occur before you know it, and you begin to think, “I’m flying like a bird!” That’s just the beginning. you fly about 500’ above the ground which gives a bird’s eye view of what’s on the ground. It’s much more detailed than you might get in an airplane. Did I mention you can see above and to the sides and almost straight down? This is a view only from a helicopter (or maybe a sport plan flying inverted.) Soon, it’s time to land. It is similar to an airplane approach but it doesn’t end up that way! The objective in an airplane is to slow down, flare and perform a “controlled crash”. The objective in a helicopter is to have typically a 3-degree approach (like an airplane) but then you increase your power, slow your forward speed to 0 until you settle gently onto the landing spot you’ve picked. No screeching of tires as you settle onto that spot… no banked wings to compensate fro crosswind: you are ~always~ landing upwind; who needs a runway? If it’s done right, you hardly realize you’ve touched the ground. And you say to yourself, “I want to do this again and again!!”