Cross-Country Helicopter Flight from Malaga to McMinnville, Part 1

A cockpit POV video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for the first 20 or so minutes of my flight from my summer base in Malaga, WA to McMinnville, OR. In this flight, I take off, climb alongside Jumpoff Ridge, cross the ridge toward the Colockum and Mission Ridge, then continue on to the Kittitas Valley west of Ellensburg. Along the way, you’ll see basalt columns, high desert grasslands, forests, farmland, wind generators, and even Mount Rainier, off in the distance. I had three cameras rigged up for this video and I switch from cockpit cam to nose cam with occasional inset views of me looking at the camera. Audio is from direction connection to the intercom so you can hear me talk and make radio calls plus dialed down volume of the helicopter’s engine/rotor noise.

I should mention here that “cross-country” in the world of aviation is any long flight. For airplanes, it’s 50 miles or more; for helicopters, it’s 25 miles or more. This is only part of a 178 nautical mile trip.

You can see all of the videos for this flight here:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/pgKDciGP4eA (this video)
Part 2: https://youtu.be/CmupuFDXa4Q
Part 3: https://youtu.be/vyveMEm_MhQ
Pups in a Helicopter: https://youtu.be/eEVq9sRlJK8
Part 4: https://youtu.be/3KXR_D3SliA
Part 5: https://youtu.be/eghRyzhPigg

Helicopter Flight Over Wenatchee, WA

A cockpit POV video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for my first flight of the year — a brief tour of Wenatchee, WA. This is a cockpit POV video with an inset looking back into the helicopter. Includes cockpit audio and the sound of the helicopter running.

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

I try to drop cockpit POV videos on Sunday mornings and “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. (Some channel members get early access to some of these videos.) I also host occasional livestreams with Q&A chats. Subscribe and turn on the notification bell so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. I’m trying hard to deliver good videos and grow my subscriber base.

Some links on my channel are affiliate links, including all links to Amazon (https://amzn.to/32PLHTD) and MyPilotPro (https://mypilotpro.com/shop/?wpam_id=13). If you click one of them and buy something, I get a small referral reward. It doesn’t cost you anything so I hope you’ll shop with one of those links. Thanks.

Want to support the FlyingMAir channel? Here are four suggestions:

Helicopter Flight: Nick Over the Rocks, Part 5

A video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

COME FLY WITH ME as I take Central Washington University geology professor and star of “Nick on the Rocks” Nick Zentner on a helicopter tour of the Columbia River Valley downriver from Wenatchee, WA. This is the third part of our second flight together and we start not far from the mouth of Potholes Coulee and Quincy Lakes and head south almost as far as Vantage. Near the end, we search for — and eventually find — a standing petrified wood log. The nosecam footage is amazing and Nick points out many geological features along the way. This is part 5 of a multi-part series.

Note: In Parts, 3, 4, 5 and beyond of this video, you’ll hear Nick and I talking about unreliable video cameras. That’s because of the camera failure I had on my first flight with Nick, which you can see for yourself in Part 2.

Places mentioned in this video:

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying since 1998. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time (as of 2019) is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
  • My 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 Nick Zentner

About the Video

I try to drop cockpit POV videos every Sunday morning and “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. (Some channel members and patrons get early access to some of these videos.) 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 (https://amzn.to/32PLHTD). 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.

Flying a helicopter is expensive and I’m not rich. Want to support the FlyingMAir channel and help me keep producing videos like this one? Here are four suggestions:

Helicopter Flight: Nick Over the Rocks, Part 4

A video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

COME FLY WITH ME as I take Central Washington University geology professor and star of “Nick on the Rocks” Nick Zentner on a helicopter tour of the Columbia River Valley downriver from Wenatchee, WA. This is the second part of our second flight together and we start not far from the mouth of Lower Moses Coulee and continue down the Columbia River past Spanish Castle, Crescent Bar, West Bar, and Babcock Bench. The nosecam footage is amazing and Nick points out many geological features along the way. This is part 4 of a multi-part series.

Places mentioned in this video:

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying since 1998. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time (as of 2019) is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
  • My 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 Nick Zentner

About the Video

I try to drop cockpit POV videos every Sunday morning and “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. (Some channel members and patrons get early access to some of these videos.) 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 (https://amzn.to/32PLHTD). 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.

Flying a helicopter is expensive and I’m not rich. Want to support the FlyingMAir channel and help me keep producing videos like this one? Here are four suggestions: