Tag Archives: r-44

Helos This Way Please

C59F0114.jpgI love helicopters and getting to see two in close quarters at Salinas recently was the sort of thing to make me smile.  An Astar had come up to drop someone off and was heading back out again.  Meanwhile, a local Robinson R-44 had been moved out on to the ramp next to it for its pilot to have a local flight.  They ended up starting up and departing at almost the same time.  What I hadn’t realized was that the departure path for both of them was going to take them right past me.

C59F0035.jpgI had figured that they would start up and then hover taxi to the runway before departing in the runway heading.  Instead, the approved profile made use of the taxiway next to where I was.  The result was that they both pulled to the hover and then turned in my direction before accelerating right by.  That was a lot better than I was expecting.  The need to gain speed before climbing to minimize time in the “avoid curve” means that you get a nice low view of a helicopter when it takes off.  This is far better than the fixed wing alternative in my view.

Pleasure Flight Robinsons

AU0E8900.jpgIf you wanted to get a bit of an aerial view of Half Moon Bay and the Dream Machines show, one option was a helicopter flight. Two Robinson R-44s were running flights all day. The flights were not long and not particularly cheap but that obviously was not a deterrent. The two seemed to be flying almost constantly all day. They barely had time to refuel and swap crews it seemed.

AU0E6363.jpgThe two 44s were similar in appearance but my usual fascination with helicopters took over and I ended up taking way more pictures of them than was absolutely necessary. I even told Hayman to stop me if I kept shooting them! He obviously wasn’t too thorough on that one as I have a fair few shots. I even got some when we stuck in the traffic leaving as they were coming right over us for a while. When going through the shots, it is sometimes fun to see the passengers watching me watching them!

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