Another video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

Here’s a quick video of one of my cherry drying crew, Indy, landing at my house to pick me up and then fly me back to our landing zone. The backstory is simple: he needed to get his car moved up to my house. He could either drive up to my house and drive back to the LZ with me and then I’d drive home — total time elapsed 45 minutes — or fly up to my house, pick me up, take me to his car, and let me drive it home (total time elapsed less than 20 minutes). I let him decide and I think he chose wisely.

He wasn’t quite sure where to land when he arrived. Although the spot he first attempted was okay, it isn’t particularly level and that tends to freak some pilots out. Moving to the gravel works fine, but it’s also a bit unnerving for folks who aren’t accustomed to landing so close to a building. (For the record, he had about 30 feet between the main rotor blades and my deck.)

His departure was quite different from mine. He elected to pick up and then back up away from the house before making his turn. Again, he wasn’t that close. But when in doubt, do it the safest way. I think being that close to the house was kind of unnerving. When I depart from that spot, I usually pivot over the grass and dive into the valley to gain speed before climbing out or descending to that landing zone. Whatever works and is safe, right?

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Note: This is the 1080 FHD version of this video. An ad-free 4K UHD version is available to channel Members and Patrons at the Access Premium Content level. It’s my way of thanking them for their financial support to this channel.
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