Helicopter Flight Up the Yakima River

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A scenic flight video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Hop into the cockpit with me for a scenic flight up the Yakima River Canyon between Yakima and Ellensburg, WA!

This is the first half of my May 23 flight from Yakima to my summer base of operations in Malaga. I start at the ground at Yakima Airport, get clearance from the tower controller to depart, and take off, with a glimpse of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier in the distance. I fly over Yakima, through the gap in the hills there, and then to the mouth of the Yakima River Canyon. I follow the canyon’s twists and turns, chatting along the way, until I emerge in the Kittitas Valley southeast of Ellensburg.

I’ll release the other half of this flight sometime this summer.

A quick note here: if you noticed that the opening credit have a new look, it’s because I created this video with new video editing software: Filmora Pro. I needed software that could edit 360° videos and Filmora can. I’ll be switching to it as my primary video editing package over the next few months. It takes time to learn these things, so I’ll be fine-tuning along the way.

Helicopter Flight to a New Landing Zone

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Another cockpit POV video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

Come fly with me as I reposition my helicopter from the fuel pumps at Wenatchee Airport to a brand new cherry drying landing zone. It’s a short flight and there’s no helicopter engine/rotor sound, but there’s plenty of radio chatter and rain on the windscreen. Also: two landings for the price of one!

A quick note here: if you noticed that the opening credit have a new look, it’s because I created this video with new video editing software: Filmora Pro. I needed software that could edit 360° videos and Filmora can. I’ll be switching to it as my primary video editing package over the next few months. It takes time to learn these things, so I’ll be fine-tuning along the way. For some reason, the FlyingMAir “theme song” isn’t playing; I need to troubleshoot that.

First Cherry Drying Flight of 2020

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A long video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Hope into the cockpit with me for my first cherry drying flight of the 2020 season!

Some of you folks said you wanted to see a long video so I’m delivering this one. 53 minutes of me flying from orchard to orchard and flying low and slow over cherry trees, talking about what I’m doing along the way. You’ll learn how cherry drying works, why I fly higher over rainier cherries, what the Deadman’s Curve is, why I fly sideways sometimes, how I can dry more efficiently, and why/how you should help small businesses in your community. And more stuff that I can’t remember. Hell, even I could only watch the whole thing once.

I feel as if I should hand out a trophy to folks that make it to the end of this one, but YOU ASKED FOR IT and you got it. Enjoy!

One more thing: Yes, I do take a phone call on this flight and have some trouble getting audio to work properly. Please note that I climbed away from the trees and circled far from any obstacles or other traffic until I resolved the problem and identified the orchard blocks I needed to dry. So please don’t lecture me about distracted flying. I know the pitfalls of distracted flying better than anyone you know — trust me on this — and you really can’t know what was going on unless you were in the cockpit with me. You weren’t.

Helicopter Flight Over Orchard Country

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A nosecam video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

Join me for a flight from one orchard landing zone to another. This is “nosecam” footage with an unobstructed view of the terrain I flew over, accompanied by just the sound of the helicopter and wind. Along the way, you’ll see dozens of cherry, apple, and pear orchards on Wenatchee Heights, Stemilt Hill, and Malaga. I’ll pass by my house on the hillside as I come in for landing at my summer landing zone.

Learn more about this video here: https://youtu.be/LOXTv4uUr6Y

Flying M Air Short: Why We Dry Cherry Trees

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A very short video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

People ask me this all the time: why do you use a helicopter to dry cherry trees? I just happened to stumble upon some older footage where I explain why I’m doing what I’m doing while I’m doing it. Now, whenever someone asks me, I’ll just send them a link to this video.