Helicopter Ride

So my good friend Aaron calls me today and asks if I would do him a big favor by watching his three boys while he goes on a helicopter ride. I tell him of course I will (pretty much volunteering Mary to be the responsible adult) but he calls me back asking if I want to ride in the helicopter too.

Sorry Mary.

So we met the helicopter, and the Box Elder Bee Mascot, at the Brigham Airport



I asked the pilot if he would give me a good buzz by the stadium to get some pictures and he suggested that we leave the door open on my side . . .


. . . made me a little nervous.

I was struggling a bit to get the harness buckled, and I was nervous that my camera bag would fall out. So I'm trying to get a foot through the strap and by the time I looked back down, we were 40 feet off the ground.




I couldn't believe how smooth the ride was. I'd always understood that helicopters were kind of bumpy. Not so much.



I unfortunately shot a lot of fuzzy shots. It was pushing sundown, and the light was failing. Next time I get to ride in a helicopter with the door open, I'm going to set the camera to shutter priority and shoot fast.



We ended up doing a flyby at the stadium. It's neat in a helicopter because they stop on a dime. We probably buzzed the field at 80mph and then the pilot nosed the ship up and spun us around. This isn't a good picture, but you can see me looking past the bee looking straight down at the football field.


The game ball was delivered successfully to the referee, and we'll hope Box Elder High wins their homecoming game.




It was a fantastic ride, and I hope to be able to do it again in the future.