One more video. I think this is one of the best I’ve done since arriving in Washington State. Unfortunately, the SD card filled up about 30 seconds before I landed.
In this video, I’m flying low up the Columbia River from Lake Chelan Airport to Pateros. The air is calm and the water surface is almost as smooth as glass.
I’ve been very busy lately — too busy to write a real entry. But here’s another helicopter video for those who are interested in these things.
In this video, I’m coming in to Lake Chelan Airport from the south. The video includes a 1500 fpm descent — that’s about the same descent rate as an engine-failure autorotation maneuver — to the Columbia River. Includes some views of Chelan Falls and the lake.
It’s a short video; I didn’t want to bore anyone!
Today’s Amazon.com order.
From living in Wickenburg, I’m extremely accustomed to online shopping. In fact, other than groceries and minor household/hardware items and, of course, feed for the horses, I buy just about everything online.
Today, I started work on a book that I don’t think I’m supposed to talk about yet. And in using my MacBook Pro, I realized that I really miss my Mighty Mouse. So I ordered one. It’ll be here by the time I get back from my Brewster gig. I ordered a wired one because I really hate the wireless version of this mouse. (I have one at home and purposely didn’t bring it.)
By the way, I wrote extensively about the Mighty Mouse here.
I also ordered two birdwatching books. Birds of Washington, which I borrowed from the local library, impressed me so much with its photos that I bought the Arizona version, too. I don’t know if this author has done all the states, but if you’re a birdwatcher and prefer photos over drawings, this might be the book for you. See if its available for your state.
What’s nice is that even though I’m away from home, I can still get my mail here. General Delivery is a wonderful thing.
My contract ends and I get another.
My first round of cherry drying contracts went…well, I guess it went well. They were two-week contracts. It rained only two days, but not enough to launch me. So I spent 12 out of 14 days just hanging around and exploring the area. I only spent 2 days prepping the helicopter and remaining on “active” standby. Still, I collected standby pay for all 14 days.
I feel only a little bit guilty for collecting money without doing any real work. After all, because I was required to be in the area with the helicopter, I couldn’t do any other paying work with it. So the compensation is partially for possible work lost. The rest is to cover my expenses, some of which are quite substantial — think insurance and travel costs and that damn fuel tank and the helmet I have yet to wear while flying.
But the first round of contracts ended at sundown on Monday. And my next round of contracts wasn’t due to begin until July 8. That meant I had two full weeks with no potential income and a lot of time on my hands.
It was like being unemployed.
I made a few phone calls yesterday and today. I got a few back. And one of them was an offer for a new contract that would run from June 26 (Thursday) through July 7. A fill-in contract. I jumped on it. So I’d enjoy my unemployment for a total of two days.
The new contract is up in Brewster, WA. That’s about 100 road miles from here but only 50 nautical air miles from here. I can get there in 30 minutes by helicopter, according to Duats flight planning.
But I’m not moving my camper from Quincy. After all, I have to return for that July 8 contract. My camper is all settled in and the campsite and Internet are paid for. The campground’s full hookup sites are all filled and I know that if I move my camper, someone else will steal my site, despite the fact that it’s paid for. Besides, this area is due for a heat wave starting on Saturday. I’d much rather suffer through that in a motel than in the camper. The camper’s air conditioning works fine, but it makes a hell of a racket.
The motel I’m going to is in Pateros. It’s right on the Columbia River and all the rooms look out that way. They allow pets, so Alex the Bird won’t need to be hidden — although he will cost me an extra $10/day. There’s even a pool. And, if you can believe this, they’ll let me park my helicopter on the grass to the east of the building.
Mike is flying up on Friday. He made his plans yesterday, when we both thought I’d be down here in Quincy, twiddling my thumbs for two weeks. His timing couldn’t be better. He’ll drive the truck up for me on Saturday morning, with Alex the Bird and his rather bulky cage.
Then, on July 7, when Mike is gone, I’ll have to figure out how to get everything back to Quincy for the next three week gig.
A report from my summer camp.
Crop dusters work the area every morning if the wind is calm. I can hear the zooming around. It reminds me of the airplane scene in North by Northwest.
The planes are usually small one-seaters, although I did see a biplane the other day. I took this photo this morning from the grassy yard of my campsite as the plane was making a turn for another pass over the field across the road. I’ll try to get better photos of them in the future.