I was going to quietly mark this item off my Life List, but I wondered if crossing something off one’s List isn’t worth noting than what is?
So, yeah… I flew a helicopter. I intended to do it years ago, when Melissa bought me an Xperience Days certificate, but I never got around to it for one reason or another. Actually, by the time I got around to it, Xperience had removed the Manassas, Virginia helicopter company from their list of providers and did not have a similar offering within a two hour drive for years after that. Fast forward a half decade, or there abouts, and I realize Xperience offers one in Seattle.
The mechanics of flight have always fascinated me, a fascination that survived a severe fear of flying after a dramatic childhood incident on a commercial jet liner. Through my travels and many flights, I’ve gradually overcome the fear and turned it into a minor obsession with piloting. I was instantly hooked on helicopters after my first ride, a glacier tour/landing in Alaska. My only other experience was a Big Island tour in Hawaii, but I knew I wanted to eventually get behind the wheel/stick/yolk/thingy.
Having done a fixed wing lesson a few months ago, I kinda knew what to expect. I would show up at some obscure location, hand over my certificate, have a brief conversation with some random guy, get a quick once over on the machine and then take off into the wild blue yonder. This experience really wasn’t any different. The location was the less-than-obscure Boeing Field but would you believe I didn’t and can’t remember my instructor’s name? I suck with names.
The experience itself was. just. plain. awesome. I’m not even sure how to describe it to someone that hasn’t done it, other than pure joy. That feeling when you lift off the ground, spin around, and zoom off over the land at 100 mph isn’t like anything else. Then there’s the piloting thing. The helicopter was super sensitive to inputs but with some coaching, I was able to control it relatively well despite the high winds. (The instructor asked if I played a lot of video games. Apparently people who play have a natural tendency for the multi-input, fine motor skills control. Ha!) There’s a lot of information to process, and I definitely wasn’t great at that part, but the feeling of power and freedom makes it worth the pure disorientation of it all. Flying around the Space Needle, at eye level with the people on the platform, was cool… but nothing compares to pitching the helicopter into a turn and looking straight down at the ground. Oh and a helicopter is a GREAT way to see a city you just moved to.
What’s next? Well, I have a voucher for another go ’round but after that who knows. A year or so ago I looked into getting a helicopter pilot’s license, but deemed it entirely too expensive and impractical unless I wanted to make a complete career change. In talking with the instructor about what it takes to be an EMT pilot, it sounds like I should expect to blow roughly $75,000 and 10 years of my life. Yeah. If I ever feel the need to get a doctorate, maybe I’ll just get a helicopter pilot’s license instead. Until then? Continue purchasing experience vouchers, I guess.