cairns scenic flights heli charters
Have you always wondered what it might be like to fly your own helicopter? Heli Charters Australia, through their Cairns Helicopter School, now offer the adventurous (or in my case, only slightly adventurous) individual this once in a lifetime opportunity!
Helicopters and the mysterious magic that keeps these weird but wonderful contraptions in the air have always fascinated me, and so to say that I was a tad nervous upon arriving at the Heli Charters terminal is an understatement. It was a clear and sunny Friday morning — making perfect weather for flying.
A friendly young man was on hand to meet me — he introduced himself as Ben, and he was to be my instructor/pilot for the morning. Ben put me on the scales (no, not checking if I had one too many profiteroles last night!) and proceeded to fill out a passenger manifest for our flight, before he started the mandatory pre-flight briefing.
The briefing was just like a mini pilot’s licence course and only took 20 minutes — not a very long time you might say, but enough to show me how the general mechanics of a helicopter allow it to fly, and how each of the controls manipulate the movement of the chopper. Although it was like a bit of a crash course in the art of flying, the briefing allowed me enough time to get my head around what was needed on my behalf when in flight. Or at least I thought so!
With the briefing over and done with, Ben and I headed for the helipad. Heli Charters operate (in addition to lots of ‘grown-up’ machines) these tiny little Robinson 22 helicopters, which only carry 1 person plus the pilot. This was to be the type of aircraft we were flying today. Ben walked me around the training ‘chopper’ (see, I already speak the lingo), explaining each of the components and their functions as we went.
Before I knew it, we were both strapped in, with the blades turning and awaiting clearance from air traffic control to take off! It suddenly hit home that I was about to fly a helicopter! Whilst I was mustering up the courage to take charge, Ben did the hard bit and got us off the ground and airborne. No more than a few minutes later Ben slowly let me take over — only for me to take us directly on course for a collision with earth! Luckily Ben is an experienced and skilled Instructor and has dealt with ‘un-co’s’ like me before, and he quickly had me back on track heading towards the beautiful Kuranda Range.
Following several more of these ‘mis-directions’, I was finally getting the hang of the controls and how they influence the helicopter. We were just reaching the Barron Gorge when I was starting to feel quietly confident. That was about when Ben let me know that it was time to turn around and head back to the airport, much to my disappointment! We completed a nice big U-turn and began to fly back over the Caravonica and Freshwater cane fields, adjacent to the lovely Northern Beaches. Ben let me fly almost all the way to the airport unaided (mind you, this was in a straight line — not really requiring much guidance from myself!).
With the bigger commercial aeroplanes whizzing around in the controlled airspace closer to the airport Ben took over for the landing — much to my relief! Those aircraft seem a lot bigger when you’re up there in the sky with them! Passengers looking out the window must have been a little startled to see Ben and me beetling along in the distance. Just before we were about to land, Ben invited me to try hovering in the one place, but I sensibly declined. Ben then gently put the little helicopter (and me) back on the helipad, and my flying adventure had come to an end.
I have to say, this was one awesome way to see the area from a bird’s-eye view and test my mettle with an exciting experience at the same time. If you get up there and don’t feel confident to try to fly the little helicopter, just take in the beautiful scenery (bring a camera).
Certainly a proper ‘tick the box’ experience that can be enjoyed by young and old!
