A
Typical day at Blue Hill Helicopters starts with opening up the office and
looking at the schedule for the day, today the schedule went off the computer
screen for all four of us that were instructing/flying that day !
Jen’s
day started with one of our regular aerial photographers needing aerial shots
of downtown Boston. She completed the preflight washed the canopy and removed
the dual controls ready to load the photographer and all of his gear, the
Schweizer C model works well for this with space in the middle for a camera bag
when the collective is removed not to mention the ability to carry 4 hours of
fuel !
Adrian’s
day started with the same preflight but a different passenger. John is a
regular Saturday student who is just about ready to solo, he already has a
fixed wing license and just needs to refine a couple of things before he heads
out for his first solo mission. Both helicopters are in the air by 8.30 and
whilst Jen heads of to the northeast to join the Fenway route into Boston
Adrian and John head over to the numbers of runway 28 for some pattern work.
Back
in the office Dave lines up his first student for ground school before he takes
one of the helicopters at 10AM for a flight with Hugh, a new student to BHH
Hugh is loving every minute of his training with Dave and looks forward to the
weekends when he can get back in the air and work towards his private license !
At
9.45 Adrian Returns and has a different task ahead….Teaching in the new Fly-It
simulator, the new addition to the BHH fleet, he is working with two more
regular students that recently started and drive from Martha’s vineyard ! Jen tells him to “leave it running and
the heat on !” The simulator is
both air conditioned and heated for those winter mornings. Saturday was not
warm !
Adrian
, Jen and Dave continue to 6pm with a myriad of different missions !
Now
for my day … It started at 6.30am when I headed from my home in Plainville MA
to our private helipad in Worcester to pick up the Robinson R44, I had four
different missions to complete in it by 4pm and the first was out of Norwood
(KOWD).
A
Korean TV station that I had been in communication with for several weeks had
chosen BHH because of our close proximity to Boston to complete a video shoot
of Harvard for a Korean TV documentary, we loaded up the photographer the
director and the translator , that’s right a translator ! We headed into Boston
and over to the site in Harvard for the shoot , as soon as we headed in on the
fenway route and talked to skyways I knew it would be hard work , 2 banner tow
aircraft , the state police and another helicopter making a movie in the city
just for starters ! We were soon joined by another tour helicopter with a very
scratchy radio and another tour helicopter who had no idea of their position !
45 minutes over the site and we headed back to Norwood. Back on the ground we
re attached the doors and back to the office……
Next
up was a couple from Randolph taking a tour of the city, we headed in and
quickly found that a flight restriction had been placed within a four mile
radius of Harvard giving us limited access to the city , we managed to get the
financial district in and then flew out over the harbor islands and back to
Norwood via some pictures of their house in Randolph !
Next
Starbucks coffee and Lemon Loaf………
A
quick check on Adrian, Jen and Dave and off again to the helicopter. I Almost forgot, I dropped our new
office assistant Austin in the hangar to work on his endless sweeping job….
The
next flight took me to our other tour location, Marlboro airport . On arrival
at Marlboro a tumbleweed greeted me rolling down the runway, not to much goes
on out there except helicopter noise complaints (not from us) I picked up my
next couple and took them and
their 2 year old daughter for a beautiful foliage tour of the watchusett
reservoir , very relaxing and a $25 tip ! that pays for at least my dinner
tonight !
The
last flight of the day was Tait who wanted to propose to his now Fiance over
his house in Boston where he had laid out signs on the roof “will you marry me “. Reaching the edge
of Boston’s airspace we were greeted with the radio reply of “Unable, Harvard
TFR still in affect “ Oh no …. I had to get into Boston , I tried asking Boston
approach for higher …. No reply we just weren’t high enough … I could not let
Tait down…..I climed to 3500 feet and asked if we could get over the TFR and
over Fenway . “ Report over the station “ was the reply and relief ! unfortunately we couldn’t see the
signs from that altitude but it still worked out and she said YES !
I
dropped the happy couple back at Marlboro still complete with its tumbleweeds
and headed back to the helipad to put the helicopter away, some background
music courtesy of My Iphone and Maria Callas (opera singer) made for a
fantastic flight back to the pad near Worcester.
We
completed a total of 16 flights/ on Saturday between us all , well done
everybody , another great day at the office, we topped it all off with the
usual crowd out to dinner in the evening …..
Now
its Sunday night and I am writing this on a plane to Arizona where Helen and I
are heading for our next adventure !!!
