Some friends and I organized a helicopter ride day out of Jet Aviation at Hanscom. We served brunch and took people in three-person groups down to the still-running R44 for 10-20 minute rides around the airport or into downtown Boston. At the end of the ride, we asked them to toss some cash or a check into a bowl for http://www.sustainableharvest.org/. Not sure how much money was raised, but probably less than the cost of running the helicopter.
After 4.5 hours of flying friends, Dan McGuire showed up. This guy is my candidate for “world’s best brother.” He had arranged a surprise 30th birthday party for his sister Colleen at his house on the beach in Quincy. He set up a tent, made sure that the local authorities wouldn’t freak out if we landed on the gravel exposed by low tide, and told his sister that she’d be going on a sightseeing ride from Hanscom. I asked sister what she’d like to see and she mentioned her brother’s house so we cruised through downtown Boston and down the beach. This is in the Logan Airport Class B airspace, so we were talking to Boston Tower. I flipped the intercom to “pilot isolate” and told the controller that we’d be landing on the beach and would call when back up. We circled over the house and Colleen said “look at the tent, the neighbors must be having a party.” I said “let’s take a closer look” and lowered the collective while turning. We did an easy approach over the water and landed on the beach. A huge crowd of partygoers awaited behind a seawall. Colleen was ecstatic with surprise and joy.
We shut down and joined the party for a few minutes, then got back in the helicopter and fired up, hoping that the starter motor or battery wouldn’t choose this moment to fail (we had at least two hours before the water came up to where we were parked). Then it was back to Hanscom. The R44 flew for 5.6 hours today, all of it fun.