My Dad and had been talking about doing a flight in the R-44 for a little bit, and finally an opportunity with great weather showed up. Even better, my Uncle Joe was able to join us for his first helicopter flight.

I flew all over the place solo today. It was an absolutely smacking day to be flying. Perfect visibility. Clean air. I flew north out of Frederick and basically flew over multiple friends and points of interest

This is Swan Lake Farm from above. My wife rides her horse here occasionally, and we are friendly with the owner and a number of other riders here. Its no small place!

I continued north flying roads I know well from growing up. I flew from Littlestown PA to Hanover and north up route 194. I flew over our old farm in Wellsville, PA. A lot of work has been done to this property since my mother and I were there in middle school. Two ponds have been added, a large addition to the bank barn, and general renovation. The place looks good.

Next up I did some low passes over our friends Nikki and Isaac’s farm outside of East Berlin, PA.

On my way back down south I flew over Hanover, PA. Hanover is where I went to high school (South Western). I went to 5 different school districts growing up, and I think 6 different farms, but I’ve always claimed Hanover as my home town.

Speaking of South Western – here is my high school from the air. South Western is a very good school district.

My buddy Chad’s mother lives in this development.

Hey its my place again. (Red house, red barn / garage)

Today is definitely up there among the coolest flights yet in the helicopter. I grabbed the helicopter from Frederick and met my buddy Mike in Westminster.

From there we proceeded north to my father’s house. There we demonstrated a max performance takeoff – which for the uninitiated is pretty cool, especially in the R-44 with power to spare. This was followed by a flyby of my friends Heather and Brian. Heather snapped the following photo as we flew over.

From here we followed some roads north to Glenville PA. My buddy Dusty has a large farm out this way, and we’d chatted a few times about me stopping in with the helicopter. A quick text revealed he was home and we had permission to land.