Tag Archives: helicopters

Helicopter Flight: McMinnville to Yakima, Part 1

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Another video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

Join me for the first part of my cross-country flight from McMinnville, OR back to my summer base in Malaga, WA.

In this video, I depart McMinnville, which is really rocking with pattern traffic, and head northeast into — you guessed it! — descending weather. (Seriously: just once I’d like to fly in that part of Oregon with good weather. How can people live there?) This time, I’m also dealing with a bit of wind that shakes the helicopter up every once in a while and makes me wonder whether my dogs in the back seat will puke. This part of the flight goes from McMinnville to the Columbia River and ends on a bit of a cliffhanger (pun intended).

Audio is from direct connection to the intercom, so you can hear radio chatter and me narrate the flight and make radio calls, plus dialed down volume of the helicopter’s engine/rotor noise.

Here are the videos in this series. I’ve already published videos that cover the last part of this flight, which was done a few days later:

McMinnville to Yakima, Part 1: https://youtu.be/6x6XY3-uZjo (this video)
McMinnville to Yakima, Part 2: https://youtu.be/3mmyOMzN0Ls
McMinnville to Yakima, Part 3: to come
Yakima River Canyon: https://youtu.be/1HZi_UHjK0I
Kittitas to Malaga: https://youtu.be/cRuUhyCQWMA
I should mention here that “cross-country” in the world of aviation is any long flight where you land at a different place from where you started. 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.

Cross-Country Helicopter Flight from Malaga to McMinnville, Part 5

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Another video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for the fifth part of my cross-country flight from my summer base in Malaga, WA to McMinnville, OR. In this video, I depart Scappoose (where I made a precautionary landing in the previous video) and finally get across that dinky little mountain that separates me from my destination. From there, I get a special VFR clearance to cross Hillsboro’s airspace and find a path between the hills to McMinnville. The weather is pretty miserable, with rain and low clouds. I had two cameras rigged up for this video — the nosecam got wet along the way so I didn’t even run it. Audio is from direct connection to the intercom so you can hear me narrate the flight and make radio calls, plus dialed down volume of the helicopter’s engine/rotor noise.

You can see all of the videos for this flight here:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/pgKDciGP4eA
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 (this video)

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.

Cross-Country Helicopter Flight from Malaga to McMinnville, Part 4

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Another video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for the fourth part of my cross-country flight from my summer base in Malaga, WA to McMinnville, OR. In this video, I make an attempt to cross a dinky little mountain — really a hill! — that separates me from my destination. That takes me from my precautionary landing site in Woodland, WA over Scappoose, OR and almost all the way to Portland before turning around and returning to Scappoose. There’s a lot of footage that includes the Columbia River. Although the weather isn’t horrible, the ceilings are low — too low for me to get anywhere. I had three cameras rigged up for this video, but only used footage from two of them. Audio is from direct connection to the intercom so you can hear me narrate the flight and make radio calls, plus dialed down volume of the helicopter’s engine/rotor noise.

You can see all of the videos for this flight here:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/pgKDciGP4eA
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 (this video)
Part 5: https://youtu.be/eghRyzhPigg

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.

Cherry Orchard Tour by Helicopter

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Another video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Hop on board with me for a quick tour of the cherry orchards I was responsible for drying this past season. This video continues where I left off with my tour of the Colockum Fire damage (https://youtu.be/HT4jT_CG0yU), on what might be my last scenic flight of the season. I start at Jumpoff Ridge and continue over Stemilt Hill, Wenatchee Heights, and Squilchuck Canyon. Then I take a detour past the east side of Saddle Rock before descending down over downtown Wenatchee. Finally, I head up Stemilt Creek past a few more orchards and from there into Malaga for landing.

I had two cameras rigged up for this video and I switch from cockpit cam to nose cam for most of this flight. Audio is from direct connection to the intercom so you can hear me narrate the flight and make radio calls. You can also hear helicopter engine/rotor sound and rushing wind from the nosecam camera enroute.

Wildfire Damage Survey by Helicopter

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Another video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Hop on board with me for a quick tour of the July 2020 Colockum Fire wildfire area in the hills near my home. In this video, I take off from my summer cherry drying base and head downriver to the mouth of Colockum Creek. I head up the creek and follow the path of the wildfire that sped up a few canyons and up onto Jumpoff Ridge. We’ll see traces of fire retardant dropped by DC-10 and MD-87 aerial tankers, as well as the burn damage that occurred over a few days in mid July.

I had two cameras rigged up for this video and I switch from cockpit cam to nose cam for most of this flight. Audio is from direct connection to the intercom so you can hear me narrate the flight and make radio calls. You can also hear helicopter engine/rotor sound and rushing wind from the nosecam camera enroute.