Tag Archives: YouTube

Helicopter Cherry Drying at Hyperspeed

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Another video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

Here’s something completely different. I decided to experiment with the GoPro Hero 8’s “hyperspeed” feature. It’s basically a smoothed out automated timelapse. I had the camera set up in the nosecam position and went flying. It was late in the day and a huge rainstorm had rolled through. All of my clients wanted service. The three of us took off, intending to get it all done. But the wind was howling. Turns out that another thunderstorm had formed behind the one that had just passed. Between the lightning and high winds, it was too much to fly in. We all set down to wait it out. The nosecam caught the lightning stikes.

Although I set down over an orchard almost immediately, I had to pick up and move away. My phone kept ringing and there’s no way I could answer it while hovering over the trees. To make matters worse, there’s no cell signal in the canyon I was flying in so I had to come out to the mouth of the canyon each time I answered a call. I finally got back over the trees and managed to dry one whole block before the lightning spooked me enough to land.

I landed at another orchard. One of my crew landed where he was flying and the other landed with me. We waited it out, then departed to dry one more block each before it got too dark to fly. Overall, the mission was pretty much a failure, but I know my clients understood. I got no complaints. We wound up flying the next day, too.

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Note: This is the 1080 FHD version of this video. An ad-free 4K UHD version is available to channel Members and Patrons at the Access Premium Content level. It’s my way of thanking them for their financial support to this channel.
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Mesa to Sedona by Helicopter, Part 3

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Another video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

Join me and fellow helicopter pilot Dave as we fly from Falcon Field in Mesa, AZ (FFZ) to Sedona, AZ (SEZ) along the Salt and Verde Rivers and through the Verde River Valley. I’ve cut this hour+ flight into multiple parts, each highlighting a specific area of our flight. In this video, we begin at Bartlett Dam on the Verde River and fly right up the river, over Bartlett Lake, Horseshoe Lake, and the river itself. You’ll also get to see one of my favorite back-country dirt strips out in the desert. The autumn colors are on display along the river, but everything is dry and desert-like. The video ends when we break out of the canyon into the Verde Valley just south of Camp Verde. Along the way, you’ll hear our in-cockpit conversation about what we’re seeing, along with quite a few conversations about flying and owning/operating helicopters.

Dave is an airline pilot who was working through his helicopter rating. At the time of this flight, he was a private helicopter pilot; he got his commercial helicopter rating a few weeks later. Dave and I split the cost of this flight; I flew to Sedona and he flew back.

Many, many thanks to channel members and Patreon patrons. It’s your membership dollars that made this flight in Arizona possible.

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NOTE: This is the 1080 HD version of this video. An ad-free 4K UHD version of this video is available to YouTube Channel Members and Patreon Patrons at the Access Premium Content level. You can become a YouTube Channel member here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLGD_GbGsS6YKK_Ekx0QMqQ/join

A Quick Helicopter Pickup/Dropoff

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Another video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

Here’s a quick video of one of my cherry drying crew, Indy, landing at my house to pick me up and then fly me back to our landing zone. The backstory is simple: he needed to get his car moved up to my house. He could either drive up to my house and drive back to the LZ with me and then I’d drive home — total time elapsed 45 minutes — or fly up to my house, pick me up, take me to his car, and let me drive it home (total time elapsed less than 20 minutes). I let him decide and I think he chose wisely.

He wasn’t quite sure where to land when he arrived. Although the spot he first attempted was okay, it isn’t particularly level and that tends to freak some pilots out. Moving to the gravel works fine, but it’s also a bit unnerving for folks who aren’t accustomed to landing so close to a building. (For the record, he had about 30 feet between the main rotor blades and my deck.)

His departure was quite different from mine. He elected to pick up and then back up away from the house before making his turn. Again, he wasn’t that close. But when in doubt, do it the safest way. I think being that close to the house was kind of unnerving. When I depart from that spot, I usually pivot over the grass and dive into the valley to gain speed before climbing out or descending to that landing zone. Whatever works and is safe, right?

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Note: This is the 1080 FHD version of this video. An ad-free 4K UHD version is available to channel Members and Patrons at the Access Premium Content level. It’s my way of thanking them for their financial support to this channel.
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