Mood:
happyWednesday afternoon our Forester came and told me that the National Guard would be doing our yearly Helicopter flight on Thursday. Every year we fly a helicopter over the lake to look at the shoreline, eagles, and encroachments. The past two years someone else has always volunteered to go along on the flight so I NEVER thought I would have a shot.
Well this morning my boss came in and said he had wanted to go but was afraid, after just having surgery on his knee, that it would be too much for him. He asked one of the other staff members who is a higher grade than me and he said no. So then my boss looked at me and asked if I would like to go. I said YES without thinking. He then handed me a barf bag and sent me on my way.
We arrived at the National Guard compound and were escorted up stairs to meet with our pilot and to fill out some paperwork. Which just ended up being a torn off slip of paper that we had to put our name and our SS# on. At this point I started to get a little nervous. I have heard stories from other rangers about getting motion sickness and people throwing up Cheerios and getting the Cheerios stuck in their nose . I thought to myself, "what the hell have I done?"
Our pilot finally came in and introduced himself. His name was Ty and he reassured us that it was going to be a great flight. I started to relax a little.
Then proceeded out to the tarmac to load our stuff up in the helicopter. It was a tiny little tin can. Army green of course..but it was cute. Ty then open up the door where I would be sitting and tried to explain to me how the harness would be fastened. There were these straps that came over your shoulders with these loops on the end. You had to feed the loops onto this bar thing that was attached to the lap belt. Then you had to feed this metal thing over the bar and through the loops and then lock it all into place. Simple....right? Then he pointed out the first aid kit and fire extinguisher, should at some point I need it. Now we come to the good part. Ty begins giving us a speech we now refer to as "the death speech" He starts out by saying, "In the event that we have to make a hard landing and I become incapacitated you will leave me strapped in with my helmet on so we can avoid spinal injuries and here is how you work this complicated radio I have back here and if the helicopter should catch on fire leave the helicopter right away but not while the blades are spinning .." Woe wait a minute back up here. What kind of death trap am I about to climb into? As he finishes the speech all I am able to hear is...incapacitated, fire, decapitating spinning blades, spinal injuries, ball of flames, you will never make it back from this trip alive so go ahead and call your family so they can start to plan your funeral.
Ty then helps me into my seat and I frantically try to remember how to fasten the harness, but I was so nervous that my hands were shaking. I guess Ty saw I was having trouble so he came over to help. Which wasn't bad having him strap me in because he was a cutie. After I am secure he hands me my headphones and plugs me into the system so that I can hear him when we take off. Our Forester climbs into the front seat and has no problem getting her harness on. I must have looked really nervous because the guys outside the copter who were helping us prepare to take off kept walking past my window and giving me the thumbs up. Like this was somehow going to reassure me. Ty then climbs into his seat and apparently does a radio check to see if we are both okay. I say "apparently" because he turns to look at me like, "why are you answer me?" He mouthed, "can you hear me?" I said no. It was then discovered that my headset didn't work. GREAT! Now I will have no way of knowing if he becomes incapacitated and we are about to crash to our deaths. Was it too late to back out?
The blades began to spin which shook everything and when they finally got up to speed we lifted up off the ground. It was such an odd feeling. It was like all the sudden you were weightless. It only took a few minutes to reach the lake. We only had a couple of moments where the wind would knock us around but all in all it wasn't bad. I was very impressed with myself...I didn't get queasy once. It did suck not having a working headset because Ty and Carol had a whole conversation and I missed it. But we saw eagles, deer, turkey, herons, vultures, and a small forest fire so that made up for the silence. I am hoping that I was able to get some good pictures.
It was such an awesome experience. I didn't want it to end. But after sitting for two hours on a plastic seat, my butt was starting to get numb. It is a day I will never forget and I hope that I will have a chance to do it again someday
