Tag Archives: Wenatchee

Helicopter Commute: Airport to Home

Posted on by
2

Another video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

SIT ON THE NOSE OF MY OLD HELICOPTER as I from the airport in Wenatchee across the Columbia River to my home under construction in Malaga.

This “Throwback Thursday” video is the whole flight from June 2014. I’ve just refueled after cherry drying and have gone home to wait for the next call out. It’s a beautiful day with great reflections in the river. I tell you a little about the area and my home in a narration added in editing.

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.
  • The helicopter is a 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo at the beginning of the video. This was my first R44, which was lost in a crash back in 2018. You can learn more about R44s here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ I owned this helicopter and now own another one very much like it, but blue. I’ve owned a helicopter since 2000.

About the Video

  • This video was recorded in 2014 with a GoPro Hero 3 camera mounted on the nose of the helicopter. Audio comes from the camera’s built-in speaker and has been incorporated into this video at 25% normal volume.
  • Narration was added using a Røde Podcaster microphone (https://amzn.to/2IFnbNr) connected to a Macintosh. I recorded the narration while I was watching the video in the editing software.
  • 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 “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.

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

The Darkness of a Foggy Morning

Posted on by
2

A rare morning of darkness.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning, which isn’t all that unusual. What is unusual was how dark it was.

Yes, it’s true: the sun won’t rise this morning until 6:59 AM. Logic seems to dictate that it should be dark at 4:30. Yet is it seldom dark in my home.

While I live 2 miles down an unpaved (and unlighted) road that’s about 8 miles to the nearest town of any size — the City of Wenatchee, WA — and I’m surrounded by open land, orchards, and towering cliffs, the sad truth is that there’s enough light from Wenatchee and a handful of homes, orchards, and businesses within sight of my property to prevent it from ever getting really dark at my home. It’s not bright like Los Angeles or New York or even Phoenix, but it’s bright enough that my home, which has lots of curtain-free windows — who needs curtains when there’s no one around to look in? — has no need for night lights and nighttime sky viewing was disappointing enough for me to sell my telescope.

Light pollution is what I’d call it.

Don’t get me wrong — I don’t mind all those lights. From my home, which is perched high above the city, all those lights can be quite beautiful at night. As I likely recounted elsewhere on my blog, they remind me of the view from the “rich people’s hill” my dad would occasionally take us for a drive up at night. My view is better than that was, of course, stretching 50 miles or more up to the North Cascades during the day. At night, I see most of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, including the lights at the airport, which should be blinking right now (at 5:45 AM) in preparation for the airliner’s first departure of the day.

But I can’t see any of that right now. The lights are gone, blanketed by a thick fog that might, at this point, even surround me. I have no way of knowing because it is so dark.

It wasn’t that dark when I woke briefly at 1:45 AM. I knew immediately that it was foggy out, but the nearly full moon kept the sky bright. I went to my bedroom window for a look outside and saw the hillside behind my house and the top of the fog bank stretching as far as I could see.

When I rolled out of bed sometime after 5, I challenged myself to find my way to the kitchen without turning on a light. That’s something that I do every day, but it was a challenge this morning. What finally drew me in, like a moth to a porch light, was the light cast by numerous devices in my kitchen, great room, and loft: the clock on my microwave and stove and kitchen stereo. The blue status light on my Wink hub. The green status light on an Airport Express I use for music sharing. The blinking blue lights on my Internet router. A steady glowing red light on the power strip behind the television. Those lights were like beacons that brought out the dim details of an all-too-familiar space. I stood in the entrance to my kitchen area for a moment, taking inventory of all those tiny lights, and then flicked the light switch to officially start my day.

Now I’m sitting at the breakfast bar in my kitchen, typing away on my laptop with a hot cup of coffee beside me. Other than the tiny light I’ve already listed, four blown glass track light fixtures with halogen bulbs are illuminating the room. Out the window beside me that normally shows so many amazing views from my aerie is nothing but blackness.

Soon, it will get light enough for me see whether I’m in or over the fog bank. Eventually, the sunlight will poke its fingers through whatever clouds are above me to brighten the day. I’ll likely take some pictures and share them on Twitter, as I so often do.

But for now, I think I’ll turn off the lights, find a comfortable seat by the window, and sip my coffee in the darkness, enjoying this rare event while it lasts.

Helicopter Flight: Autumn at Mission Ridge & Wenatchee

Posted on by
6

Two videos from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

COME FLY WITH ME as I take a flight in the Wenatchee area to show off the autumn colors. There are two versions of this video, as I explain in both videos:

The cockpit POV version of my Autumn at Mission Ridge & Wenatchee flight enables you to reference the instruments as I talk about them:

If you check out this video at 7 AM PT on Sunday, November 3, 2019, you’ll be able to participate in a “Premiere,” which includes live chat as I watch the video with multiple viewers. (It’s fun!)

The nosecam version of my Autumn at Mission Ridge & Wenatchee flight gives you a complete, unobstructed view from the nose of the helicopter

Some notes about this video (one of which applies to the cockpit POV version only):

Start to 4:20 – Yes, the carbon monoxide detector light is on during the beginning of this flight. I had been idling on the ramp for a while before the flight and when the wind blows just the right (or wrong?) way, it blows enough exhaust into the cockpit to trigger that very sensitive detector. I had opened the main (front) vent prior to starting the video and later, at 3:20, opened the vent on my side door. The light went off at around 4:20 and I closed that side vent. It really was cold!

9:50 – Hear the difference in the sound of the helicopter? I’ve reduced power and slowed down and what you’re hearing is called “blade slap.” It goes away when I pick up speed beyond around 80 knots as I start my descent.

12:40 – I’m descending at 1700 feet per minute! That’s about the same as an autorotation.

14:30 – The top end of Pitcher Canyon is on my right.

15:08 – Sorry about the throat clearing sound. I thought I edited them all out.

19:30 – There is no control tower at Wenatchee. Pilots use the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) to report location and intentions in flight. This is NOT required but is highly advisable. (Technically, a radio is not required at all for Part 91 operations at Wenatchee.)

20:15 – Yes, I can make what’s called a “quick stop” or turn very sharply away from the runway to avoid traffic there. I always look both ways and make a call before crossing the runway. If a plane is landing or taking off, I’ll usually alter my course to pass behind it.

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 Hero 7 cameras (https://amzn.to/2Lxyzwl). The cockpit POV view comes from a camera mounted on the bar between the two front seats, which is part of the helicopter’s frame, using a MyPilotPro (https://mypilotpro.com/shop/?wpam_id=13) Helicopter Mount (https://mypilotpro.com/product/helicopter-gopro-mount/?wpam_id=13) in conjunction with a few customized RAM mount components. (I’ll do a show and tell about my camera mounts in another video.) The nosecam view comes from a camera mounted on the nose of the helicopter. That camera contributed ambient sound to both versions of this video, which includes wind, engine, and rotor noise, from the camera’s built-in speaker and has been incorporated into this video at 25% normal volume.
  • Narration was done using a Røde Podcaster microphone (https://amzn.to/2IFnbNr) connected to a Macintosh. I recorded the narration while I was watching the video in the editing software because the in-flight audio feed did not work.
  • 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 “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 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.

Some links on my channel are affiliate links, including all links to Amazon (https://amzn.to/32PLHTD). 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 see YOUR name on the member list? I do, too! Becoming a member financially supports this channel and gets you a handful of benefits — including discounts on merchandise in my Etsy store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingMAir) — on an ongoing basis. The Join button or this link will get you started: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLGD_GbGsS6YKK_Ekx0QMqQ/join