The rhythm of the rotor

Since I've been in Perth I've been continuing my percussion journey; learning the Djembe, Duns and Marimba. The rad group of people I get to play music with each week have listened to me talk about my dream of becoming a pilot and watched me get there. It was therefore a pretty special flight to take up Alastair, Deb and Warren around the city of Perth. Alastair was playing the thumb piano and praying to a god he doesn't believe in during the taxiing of the aircraft, but once airborne his fears fell away! 

The next flight could almost be viewed as my first flying job! Rotorvation asked if I'd like to ferry the chopper down to an event where they were doing scenic flights in Manjimup. It was the most southern location I've flown to in WA and the longest flight I've done in the R44. There and back for the weekend was 3.3 hours(!), and all at a very reduced rate compared with what I'm normally charged to fly the R44. The "Manjimup 15000" is a dirt motorbike racing weekend and Arron from Rotorvation was providing scenic flights. We flew down Saturday morning, camped overnight on Saturday (with temperatures dropping to about 1C!!) before flying back to Jandakot to make last light Sunday afternoon.

And then Emily visited! Another very close friend of mine (and another drummer) flew to Perth for a week. We've talked about this flight for a long time so having it come to fruition was awesome. Sue (yet another drummer mate) also came along for the ride.

Clocking hours and sharing the good times

It's now been six months since I got my license and I have steadily been building my hours in the R44. It's been awesome; taking up friends and family to share the joy and show them the world from the unique view of a helicopter. In the previous post I had just been rated on the R44, and since then I have been building experience flying this machine, and flying with more than one passenger!

I started by taking up Steph and Ed, a couple of mates from the BoM for a scenic flight around the Perth city. I was glad to get this in before Ed choofed off to Sydney, bastard;)

My next flight was with my mates Pete and Max, also from work. We did a morning flight to Rotto (becoming a regular trip!) for a coffee and donut before returning around midday. The trendy vests we're wearing are not parachutes, they're life jackets! Just in case.

My folks then visited from Victoria and we did the same flight, out to Rotto for the day. It was a perfect Autumn day; sunny, low 30's and no sea breeze! We rode around the island and even got into the water for a bit.

The following week my six-month-pregnant sister visited. It was great seeing her glowing, looking beautiful and happy in this special moment in her life. Birchy and Nadine (more BoM mates!) were keen to go on a different flight than the others I'd done so we flew northeast to Northam for lunch (Est shotgunned front seat!). We flew over the forested area to the east of Perth, the Helena River Reservoir, and out over the farmlands towards the country town of Northam. We called the one taxi in town for a pub lunch before returning via Mount (pimple) Dale. There were some prescribed burns going on over the Hills on our return trip and we were able to fly beneath the smoke layer that these were producing, giving the sun a beautiful red glow. We were all fairly gobsmacked at the surreal scenery of flying over the forest, with a red sky above us and the Perth Metropolitan area on the horizon.

A good mate of mine from was visiting from Queensland. I went to Uni with Deano, through the met course and chased tornadoes in the USA with him back in 2013. He's by far the most passionate weather nut out there and always up for a good time. It was great being able to take him up and show him my new-found skills. My housemate, Callum, also tagged along for his second ride on Jonno airways.

Another Rotto trip was calling! I took a Catherine and Richard, a couple more friends from work and another mate, Will, who's been working in Kalgoorlie as a Geologist. Three meteorologists and a geologist made for a fairly nerdy day on the island! We also caught some footage on a GoPro that I'm hoping to upload soon...

And then just when I thought I couldn't fit another flight in, my housemate had some blow-ins from Scotland, Sarah and Steve, who had never visited Perth. I took them up for their first flight in a chopper and gave them the tour de Perth. A very lovely couple!