Helicopter Flight to the Gorge Amphitheater

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A cockpit POV video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

COME FLY WITH ME as I take my helicopter from Wenatchee Pangborn Memorial Airport to Cave B Inn and Resort to pick up some passengers for tours. Along the way, I give you a special VIP “backstage tour” of the Gorge Amphitheater on the last morning of the Watershed event there.

Throughout this video, I mention making a video of the return flight and I did — or I THOUGHT I did. One of my cameras crapped out on me a few minutes into that return flight so I only have footage from one camera — sadly, the one facing me. The trouble with recording video while flying a helicopter is that I really can’t pay ANY attention to the cameras. They say pilots need to handle workload in this order: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Monitoring video cameras is not on that list so unless the camera stops working literally before my eyes — as it did in my recent Ellensburg to a Friend’s House video (https://youtu.be/ktoUs_mIrRo) — I’m probably not going to be able to see or fix it. Lately, this has been happening entirely too much, making about 20% of my flights unusable for sharing on YouTube. Ouch. I’m trying to figure out what’s going wrong so I can fix it on the ground and get you more content without me spending a lot more of my money on flight time.

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying for about 20 years. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
  • The helicopter is a 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo at the beginning of the video. You can learn more about them here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ I own this helicopter. It is the third helicopter I’ve owned since 2000.
  • My helicopter has ADS-B Out and is picked up by radar facilities. You can see my track for recent flights on Flightradar24: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n7534D This is a great site for tracking any almost any flight, including the airlines.

About the Video

  • The video was recorded with a pair of GoPro cameras, one of which is connected to the helicopter’s intercom system. Both cameras record audio, but I dialed down the helicopter sound to about 25% of normal volume so it wouldn’t be annoying. Some viewers say they want to hear it so there it is.
  • The video was edited on a Macintosh using Screenflow software. Learn more about it here: https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm
  • The intro music is by Bob Levitus, famed “Dr. Mac.” You can find him here: http://www.boblevitus.com/

I try to drop cockpit POV videos every Sunday morning and drop “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. I also host occasional livestreams with Q&A chats. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. The more subscribers I have, the more motivated I am to keep producing videos like this one.

Any Amazon links on my channel are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, Amazon sends me a few pennies. Enough pennies make a dollar. Enough dollars buy new equipment. It doesn’t cost you anything so I hope you’ll shop with one of those links. Thanks.

Still reading? Thanks! Maybe you’ll consider buying something from my Etsy store to help support this channel? Start here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingMAir

Helicopter Flight Controls: Anti-Torque Pedals

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A video from the FlyingMAir YouTube Channel.

This is the first in my Helicopter Flight Control series covering the four flight controls in a helicopter. In this video, I show you the anti-torque pedals and how they control the tail rotor blade pitch. Then I take you for a flight and demonstrate pedal turns and using the pedals to get in and out of trim. Got questions about those two little strings in the front of the helicopter’s cockpit? I answer them, too.

BIG DISCLAIMER: I am not nor have I ever been a flight instructor. The purpose of this video is not to teach you how to fly a helicopter. It’s simply to explain, mostly to non-pilots or fixed wing pilots what the anti-torque pedals do. If you want more information, I strongly urge you to consult the Helicopter Flying Handbook, which is FREE on the FAA Website: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/helicopter_flying_handbook/ You’ll find Chapter 3 especially informative.

There are a few things I didn’t cover in this video, but I might show them in future videos. The first is the obvious: what does the tail rotor do? Simply said, it counteracts torque. Newton said that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So when the main rotor blades spin counter clockwise, the helicopter’s airframe wants to spin clockwise. The rail rotor (or some equivalent) counteracts this, preventing the helicopter from spinning around. It does this by providing lift the same way the main rotor blades do, but since it’s mounted sideways, the lift is really sideways thrust. The anti-torque pedals enable you to adjust the amount of thrust the tail rotor blades produce by changing their pitch. Again, consult the excellent free resource I linked to above. It can answer questions better than I can.

I might also, in a future video, show how a Robinson’s PIC pedals can be adjusted, show other helicopter’s pedals, and explain how the dual control pedals can be installed. If you have a photo of another helicopter’s pedals and would like to share it with channel viewers in a future video, send it to this channel at gmail.com. (I won’t put the actual address here so I don’t get my address scooped up by bots.) Be sure to give me your name and the make/model/year of the helicopter. Please don’t use that email address to ask me questions; that’s what AMA chats are for.

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying for about 20 years. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
  • The helicopter is a 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo at the beginning of the video. You can learn more about them here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ I own this helicopter. It is the third helicopter I’ve owned since 2000.
  • My helicopter has ADS-B Out and is picked up by radar facilities. You can see my track for recent flights on Flightradar24: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n7534D This is a great site for tracking any almost any flight, including the airlines.

About the Video

  • The video was recorded with four cameras (!): an iPhone Xs (for shots of my feet on the pedals and the trim strings) an iPhone 8 Plus (for shots of the tail rotor in motion), a GoPro Hero 7 Black (for cockpit POV and in-cockpit audio; https://amzn.to/2Zh7nWr), and a GoPro Hero 3 (for “nosecam” video and helicopter sound).
  • The audio was recorded using a Røde Podcaster microphone (https://amzn.to/2Z8yFDd) feeding into an iMac (for intro overdub), a Comica wireless lapel mic with dead cat wind screen (https://amzn.to/2KMz1qp) feeding into the iPhone 8 Plus, an NFlightCam audio cable (https://amzn.to/31Vn1Zu) feeding into the Hero 7, and ambient sound feeding into the Hero 3. The helicopter sound was dialed down to about 25% of normal volume so it wouldn’t be annoying.
  • The video was edited on a Macintosh using Screenflow software. Learn more about it here: https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm This was a short video, but it was relatively complex with four different audio/video feeds.
  • The intro music is by Bob Levitus, famed “Dr. Mac.” You can find him here: http://www.boblevitus.com/

I try to drop cockpit POV videos every Sunday morning and drop “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. I also host occasional livestreams with Q&A chats. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. The more subscribers I have, the more motivated I am to keep producing videos like this one.

All of the Amazon links above are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, Amazon sends me a few pennies. Enough pennies make a dollar. Enough dollars buy new equipment. It doesn’t cost you anything so I hope you’ll shop with one of those links. Thanks.

Still reading? Thanks! Maybe you’ll consider buying something from my Etsy store to help support this channel? Start here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingMAir

Or better yet, to support this channel on an ongoing basis, consider becoming a member. This link will get you started: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLGD_GbGsS6YKK_Ekx0QMqQ/join

Helicopter Flight: Ellensburg, WA to a Friend’s House

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A cockpit POV video from the FlyingMAir YouTube Channel.

COME FLY WITH ME as I leave Ellensburg, WA after an FAA check ride and take a scenic route back to the Wenatchee area. Along the way, I fly up a canyon I’ve never explored, go over the top of the Mission Ridge Ski Resort, and decide to make a stop at a friend’s house where I have some chores to do. This is a narrated flight with some radio chatter and lots of great valley and mountain views.

If I’d driven from the airport in Ellensburg to my friend’s home in Wenatchee, the ride would have taken nearly 2 hours. In this video, the flight is less than 17 minutes.

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying for about 20 years. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
  • The helicopter is a Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo at the beginning of the video. You can learn more about them here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ I own this helicopter. It is the third helicopter I’ve owned since 2000.
  • My helicopter has ADS-B Out and is picked up by radar facilities. You can see my track for recent flights on Flightradar24: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n7534D This is a great site for tracking any almost any flight, including the airlines.

About the Video

  • The video was recorded with a pair of GoPro cameras, one of which is connected to the helicopter’s intercom system. Both cameras record audio, but I dialed down the helicopter sound to about 25% of normal volume so it wouldn’t be annoying. I wouldn’t mind leaving it out altogether, but lots of folks seem to want it, so there it is.
  • The video was edited on a Macintosh using Screenflow software. (Screenflow was the only affordable software I could find that allowed me to do picture-in-picture.) Learn more about it here: https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm
  • The intro music is by Bob Levitus, famed “Dr. Mac.” You can find him here: http://www.boblevitus.com/

I’m trying to drop flying videos like this one every Sunday morning and usually drop “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. I also host occasional livestreams with Q&A chats. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. The more subscribers I have, the more motivated I am to keep producing videos like this one.

Still reading? Thanks! Maybe you’ll consider buying something from my Etsy store to help support this channel? Start here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingMAir

Or better yet, to support this channel on an ongoing basis, consider becoming a member. This link will get you started: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLGD_GbGsS6YKK_Ekx0QMqQ/join

Helicopter Cherry Drying: A Closer Look at the Fruit

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Take a stroll with me through a wet orchard while I explain why we dry cherries with a helicopter and how the process works. In this video, the rain restarted when I was halfway finished drying a 17 acre orchard, so I landed there to wait it out. I decided to take a walk among the trees to see if the fruit was as wet as the orchard manager claimed. (It was.) This video shows you what the fruit likes on the trees on the lower branches (where I can reach) and how water gathers in the stem cups/bowls.

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying for about 20 years. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
  • 2019 was my twelfth season drying cherries in central Washington state.
  • The helicopter is a 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo at the beginning of the video. You can learn more about them here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ I own this helicopter. It is the third helicopter I’ve owned since 2000.
  • My helicopter has ADS-B Out and is picked up by radar facilities. You can see my track for recent flights on Flightradar24: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n7534D This is a great site for tracking any almost any flight, including the airlines.

About the Video

I’m trying to drop cockpit POV videos every Sunday morning and “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter and doing the work I do midweek. I also host occasional livestreams with Q&A chats. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. The more subscribers I have, the more motivated I am to keep producing videos like this one.

Still reading? Thanks! Maybe you’ll consider buying something from my Etsy store to help support this channel? Start here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingMAir

Time-lapse: Loading a Huey Helicopter onto a Trailer with a Crane

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A video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time yesterday with a Huey pilot who had just finished up his cherry drying contract and was prepping to take the helicopter back to Montana. We traded favors: he let me fly his Huey (video to come) in exchange for me helping him to get his helicopter trailer under the Huey while it was supported from a crane. You see, my truck has a gooseneck hitch in its bed, which is the one thing he needed that he didn’t have. (I think I got the better deal.)

In any case, as part of the day’s activities, I set up my BOGO iPhone in time-lapse mode on a tripod while he prepped the crane truck and helicopter and lifted the helicopter onto the trailer. What took a lot longer than an hour is condensed down to just 36 seconds here. Enjoy.

I don’t know much about this helicopter except that it’s a 1962 Bell UH-1 that saw action — with the bullet holes to prove it — in Vietnam and Nicaragua. It’s got a bare bones interior with just two pilot seats and a big empty cargo area. It holds about 125 gallons of fuel, which it burns off in about 90 minutes and costs approximately $1200/hour to operate. It usually cruises at 60 to 80 knots.

This is one of the video “extras” I release on the FlyingMAir YouTube channel midweek. I normally release cockpit POV videos on Sunday mornings. I hope you’ll check them out.