The Helicopter Museum at Locking, Weston-super-Mare: Kai's 16th birthday treat.
Absolutely perfect weather, absolutely fantastic ride. Months of stress eased away in ten minutes of flight...
... should do this more often...
Museum pics at the top, flight pics at the bottom.
The Museum...
... full... |
... of helicopters... |
... lots of hollychoppers... |
... and things that make choppers work... |
... one for Lutra... |
...large choppers... |
... small training choppers... |
... UFOchoppers!... |
... and info about choppers... |
... and yet more choppers... |
The Flight...
The helicopter - a Bell Jet Ranger I think - we flew in. Five person bird, pilot plus four passengers. |
The (young and cute) ground crew staffmember who organised us asked who wanted to sit up front beside the pilot: I immediately leapt in and said please could Kai as it was his birthday treat. Then felt slightly guilty as the female member of the young couple who were the other two passengers on our flight turned to me and said it was her boyfriend's birthday too... He was kind though and didn't object. So here's the back of Kai's head as we were waiting to take off. |
Rotor shadow as they started spinning. |
Taking off. Amazingly smooth and quiet (though this last was probably because of the very efficient headphones we all had to wear...) |
Fields. |
Weston-super-Mare and Brean Down. |
The beach, looking straight down at the old Tropicana lido and the boating pool. |
Flat Holm with Cardiff in the distance. |
Weston, the new pier. |
Weston! |
Looking back towards Bristol. |
Looking northwards up the estuary. |
Coming in to land - the Museum. |
The next flight taking off. |