This was my first rotary flight! Last christmas Hazel bought me a 'helicopter flight' to accompany her brother in law who had never flown in a light aircraft before. At long last after several cancellations earlier on in the year...mostly due to sea mist/fog we finally got to go on saturday.
The flight was with Lothian Helicopters who fly occasional trips from the helicopter centre on the North Side of Manston Airport where Sky charters are based.
The 'whirlebird' was a Bell 206L1 longranger which could take 1 pilot and 6 passengers.
We took offf and flew at no more than 800ft as there was a lot of 'Haze' obscuring viz as can be seen in the above photo of the massive new glasshouses at Thanet Earth this is the largest and most hi tec greenhouse complex in the uk
Above view shows the Collective lever and Cyclic stick controls the pilot uses with the Pedals to control the helicopter
Reculver Towers can just be seen as the helicopter banks at the coast near herne Bay to return to Manston. The coastline at Reculver is of course famous in aviation for being the site of the practice runs testing the new bouncing bomb in WW2 for the Dambuster raids.
Back on the ground!We banked sharply in the Helicopter and flew much faster than the vintage fixed wings I am used to but felt quite isolated from the elements in the cabin and neither of us felt queasy at all!
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