I Can Hover

Go figure.  Nearly eleven thousand hours behind the controls of helicopters closing in on thirty years, one might assume that I know how to hover.  Granted, ex-military Search and Rescue pilots have been training specifically for SAR sorties their entire careers, and hoisting live winchmen to heaving decks in stormy seas is certainly not an undertaking to be taken lightly, but if you could learn how to do it, I certainly can.  It seems whatever speciality one gets into, the tendency is to assume you are the shit, often forgetting that at some point, you were on the learning curve.  Mountain flying, offshore, EMS, longline, SAR....it's all just flying helicopters, albeit in differing environments.  If you figured how to do it, it'd be wise to assume someone else can do the same.  Nevertheless, despite comments from ex-military SAR personnel that simply cannot comprehend how someone without their background could possibly handle SAR, the training sortie yesterday went very well indeed.  I flew seven hoisting cycles; one cycle generally involving coming into a hover a small distance off, lowering something or someone on a hoist, and moving into the target you'll set them on, moving out, then moving back in to pick them up again.  We did it at thirty feet, seventy feet, two hundred feet, over land and water, and I didn't actually see the magic required to pull it off, as it certainly was not as tricky as I had been led to believe.  Still, I'll give it the respect the flying requires, which has kept me alive this long.  And I plan to live forever.....so far so good.....

Been a good day.  We flew an unscheduled flight this morning, which pretty much guarantees that I'll be smiling.  The drive to and from the airport is getting crazy, as road construction seems to have begun on every road in town at the same time.  As the main roads are blocked off all over, the vehicles have taken to the dirt pathways that stream everywhere throughout town, and as the traffic continues unabated, the dirt paths widen and harden and become roads in their own right.  We passed the truck above on a walking path that has become a busy thoroughfare seemingly overnight.  Then some exercise.  I've been walking five to ten kilometres per day, to get exercise of course, but to get some sun as well.  I've got a week long kudu hunt planned in the Limpopo region of South Africa after this tour, and I need to be able to walk all day in the African sun.  My pale Canadian and fair red headed skin is tanning up nicely.  To top it off, I saw a five foot long lizard crossing the road today.  Quite an oddity, everybody stopping and watching, and some locals told me they had never seen one before.  Looked like a Komodo dragon but I highly doubt it.  Our hotel cook made a heartfelt attempt at cooking his idea of Mexican cuisine, and as I walked to my room, belly full, I saw a falling star streak across the African night sky.  I'll keep what I wished for to myself......