While hanging out with my Girlfriend... Her Dad calls us up and said he saw a helicopter land over near a local airport... He picked us up along with his brother, and off we went!

When we got there, we saw four different helicopters on the pads... An R-22, 2 Bell 206's (Those were HUGE), and a Schweizer 300C... Which they were pre-flighting!

About half way through it, one of the instructors shouts over to us, "Who wants a closer view?". Didn't think we'd get THIS close...


Here, the instructor is showing me the lever that locks the collective in place, to make doing some other tasks in this bird less demanding. Didn't even know that existed, although I knew about the cyclic, collective, and rudders (And how they worked) beforehand.


Smiling big as my Girlfriend takes a picture... Can you tell I was excited? I was like a kid in a candy shop here!


Checking out all the gauges and goodies... No day-dreaming going on here... Not at all...


Quick picture from in the seat... My girlfriend, her Uncle, and Dad in the background.


Who doesn't love gauges?

Very unexpected surprise, to say the least. After this, the instructor let us mosey over towards one of the Jet Rangers... Beautiful helicopters, if anyone ever gets to check one out up close.

And the 300C is surprisingly roomy... I'm 6'3'' and I fit very comfortably in there