But since today was the last day of our "holiday" here, we were invited to something really special: A flight to one of the mighty swiss mountain bastions! But not the usual "tourist" way...no, we had to fly there ourselves! No nice job, since I've heard some really scary stories from the swiss pilots and we don't have many mountaineous areas in Sweden for practising. At least we had Urs on board, a swiss helicopter pilot who gave us valuable tips on the flight and helped with navigation.
Well, as Lasse, my best friend and my co-pilot on this flight started up the old lady, the weather suddenly began turning bad again after it had been nice all day. But Urs nonetheless gave us "three greens" for the flight.
We left Sion at about 19.20h and immediately headed towards the bastion.
On our way up, I had to pull the collective all the way up just to keep a good climb rate. The old lady responded fabulously! The whining of the 1400shp Lycoming turbine and the characteristic "whop, whop" made up for a really great atmosphere.
But this was easily topped by the view we got when we reached 3000m! Suddenly, we were out of the mist and everyone on board had an incredible view over snowy mointain summits under a crystal clear blue sky. Lasse immediately got his camera out to shoot some photos. Urs just sat behind us smiling silently because of our astonished faces.
But the astonishment grew even further when Lasse suddenly shouted "There it is!". He pointed at the horizon. What first looked like a summit slowly turned into our destination. Oh damn, I'll never forget the majestic appearance of the bastion, sitting right next to the mountain and overlooking almost the entire country!
As we got closer I realized how freaking huge this installation actually is - and how dangerous! Unpredictable wind gusts and a really small landing pad made for a real challenge. Okay, the weather in Sweden isn't much different to that, but here you've got nothing around you could land on. Well, actually yes...but a few hundred feet below.
But thanks to Urs, who had landed on such a bastion himself a few times, and Lasse, I managed to put the lady down after the....umm...15th try. I sweated blood and water on every approach, but the succesful landing and the view over the landscape from the pad was more than rewarding!
We took a break now and visited the interior of the bastion. Gosh! What a building. Without Urs, me and Lasse would have probably gotten lost in the labyrinth-like tunnels of the installation, of which we've actually seen only a small part!
Well, after a nice cup of coffee we decided to head home since the weather was predicted to stay good not really long and flying in dark valleys is no fun either.
So we got up to our helo again and enjoyed one last glimpse of the breathtaking panorama with the slowlily setting sun. We then fired up the engine and took of for the fun part of the flight.
I never thought, that mountains could be so much fun! I could not believe it when Urs first advised us to keep the collective as low as possible and trying to stay as close to the groud and possible. Hell, I really struggled keeping the lady from overspeeding while out vertical speed dropped to insanely low values. Lasse and I were just cheering and screaming happily all the time and Urs just sat there smiling knowingly.
Well, as we reached the valley's bottom I stabilized the lady agian and headed for Sion. To make the ride a bit more fun, I stayed as low as possible and showed Urs some of my tree dodging skills. He wasn't too impressed 'though. *cough*
The landing was uneventful and after having shut down the lady, the three of us went back to our living quarters.
It's almost dark now and I'm almost finished with this entry. Urs promised to show me, Lasse and the rest of us swedish guys some of the best pubs in Sion...judging by his other navigation skills, that should make for a fun evening and an ideal end for our 'holiday'!"
(All add-ons: hovercontrol.com)
Took me more than 15 attempts to land on that thing! Darn helicopters...
:-/
