Tag Archives: Washington

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.

Cross-Country Helicopter Flight from Malaga to McMinnville, Part 3

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Another cockpit POV video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for the third part of my cross-country flight from my summer base in Malaga, WA to McMinnville, OR. In this video, I cruise from near White Pass in the Cascade Mountains southwest past Mt. St. Helens toward the Columbia River, dodging low clouds that force me to wander off my desired course and even getting into a tiny bit of scud running. Along the way, you’ll see remote forest with lots of logging activity, mountain lakes and rivers, rocky cliffs, snow-covered ridges, and even Mt. St. Helens. Along the way, I tell you about other flights, flying at the Grand Canyon, and what’s going through my mind as I try to get through the weather in front of me. I also bitch about my radar altimeter. Eventually, weather conditions get so bad in the direction I want to fly that I make a precautionary landing at a tiny airport I almost couldn’t find. 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 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 (this video)
Pups in a Helicopter: https://youtu.be/eEVq9sRlJK8
Part 4: https://youtu.be/3KXR_D3SliA
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.

Cross-Country Helicopter Flight from Malaga to McMinnville, Part 2

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Another cockpit POV video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for the second 20 or so minutes of my cross-country flight from my summer base in Malaga, WA to McMinnville, OR. In this flight, I cruise from Ellensburg, WA over the Cascade Mountains near White Pass, dodging low clouds that force me to wander off my desired course. Along the way, you’ll see remote forest and grasslands, rocky cliffs, snow-covered ridges, 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 direct connection to the intercom so you can hear me talk — no radio calls in this video — plus dialed down volume of the helicopter’s engine/rotor noise.

Important Note: This video is being released as a Premiere on Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 7:30 AM Pacific time. That means you can’t see it until after that time. If you tune in for the Premiere, you’ll be able to join a live chat with other viewers (and me) to comment on the video and ask/answer questions. It’s actually a lot of fun. If you view anytime after that, you’ll just see the video, although I believe the premiere chat comments might be visible on the Web.

You can see all of the videos for this flight here:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/pgKDciGP4eA
Part 2: https://youtu.be/CmupuFDXa4Q (this video)
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

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.

Stop for Five Minutes and Listen

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Relax with me and see if you can hear what I hear.

I woke up this morning to another beautiful summer day. It was still cool outside and the sun’s first light turned the landscape around me that odd golden color I only get to see at first and last light. I took my coffee out onto the deck to enjoy a break before hustling down to the garage to load up my pups and kayak for a few hours of paddling around the Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers confluence with a friend.

The early morning quiet — which wasn’t exactly quiet — struck me. I wish I could bottle it up and share it with friends. Then I realized I could. My tripod was handy, along with the dead cat protected microphone I used with my iPhone for various video work. It took two minutes to set it all up. I recorded 5 minutes and 15 seconds of my morning bliss.

The news got you down? Worries about the economy, your job, the virus, politics? Feeling stressed and angry?

Slow down. Stop. Take a deep breath. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and step out into a place away from the news, mobile devices, and other people. Look around. Listen. Become one with your surroundings.

Five minutes will make a real difference in your day.

And if you can’t find the right spot for your own five minutes, come on back here. You can borrow mine any time you like.

Helicopter Flight: Kittitas to Malaga

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Another cockpit POV video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me for the continuation and conclusion of my May 2020 flight from Yakima to Malaga, WA. This video picks up where the Yakima Canyon video (https://youtu.be/1HZi_UHjK0I) left off, flying through the Kittitas Valley, past the Wild Horse Wind Farm, down into the Columbia River Valley at Vantage, WA, and then up the Columbia River past Crescent Bar and the Rock Island Dam. Lots of my usual narration and an interesting exchange between me and some airplane pilots.

A quick note here: if you noticed that the opening credits have a new look, it’s because I created this video with new video editing software: DaVinci Resolve. I’d previously tried Filmora Pro and found it too frustrating to deal with. The good news is that Resolve can handle the one-channel stereo problem that has plagued some of my videos; my voice won’t be coming into just one of your ears in this video. I’ll be fine-tuning that opening title screen over the next few months as I learn the software.