Building hours presents lots of opportunities for fun flights. I picked Maja up from the our house and flew to Lancaster for lunch. The R-44 is so much better in cross country than the R-22. Scratch that. The R-44 is better than the R-22 in almost every way. When I first started flying the 44 I preferred the more nimble 22 because it was what I was used to. The hydraulic controls, and the pendular action of the long main rotor mast made hovering a bit different and I felt awkward. As I’ve now gotten quite a few hours in the 44, I absolutely love it. You can take 4 people. It can carry actual fuel. It is far more comfortable to fly in cross country flight. The R-22 can be exhausting. Its faster. And the ample power makes getting in and out of confined areas more feasible. There are definitely confined landings that I can do in the 44 that I would not attempt in the 22.

Lancaster is a great airport. Friendly and considerate controllers combined with good facilities and a great restaurant. Hard to beat for that $100 burger.

Its winter, so our fields look brown and barren, but landing back at our house we overflew our three horses who ran a little bit – all in all they were not freaked out.

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)