NZFF

Well I finally hooked Mike (creator) up with his biggest wish of going for a Helicopter Ride so we departed NZHN Hos just after 10am in our Bell 222B tracking direct NZAP flying IFR and cleared for 6000ft we were on our way after having to remain in the city sector till our IFR clearance was issued 10 minutes later we were tracking NZAP and climbing for our ascent to 6000ft we zipped in and out of the clouds playing hide and seek with the terrain below.

We arrived in NZAP in good timing and had the next machine we were picking up sitting on the ground waiting for us so after spending 20-30 minutes on the ground wandering around the airport with a few of the engineers and our pilot we were ready for the departure to NZRO we were all set to go and just about to lift on the skids when we had a wicked surprise from an EC-135 ZK-ITF approaching for re-fuelling just beside us then it was time for lift off and finally tracking direct for NZRO/NZJO upon landing at NZJO we dropped off our pilot Nick refuelled and had a quick rest stop before departing for NZHN.

About 5-10 minutes out we hit weather that forced us to try fly around it with no luck we headed further north past NZTG heading for Waihi and the Waihi Gap where we hoped it would be a lot clearer to get through or else we would have had to turn around and go back to NZTG Hos till it had cleared enough but luckily Waihi Gap was good enough to pass through with out a single cloud in-sight we passed over-head Te Aroha and Morrinsville and established ourselves on the approach to the Hospital upon landing we had a urgent phone call come in requesting the Helicopter go back to NZAP for a job lol we got into work mode and started stripping all our gear out of the machine and making way for the medical equipment needed for the job and after a quick top up on the fuel Loren was on his way to NZAP for the second trip of the day.

I was going to name all of the pics but just cant be bothered you can just browse through and have a nosey if you like.

SQ350

































Enjoy these pics.

SQ350

Awesome day man, and just think, if it wasn't for NZFF it might not have happened

Those final shots look pretty high up, what sort of alt did you go up too? Nice to see a photo of EAQ on the forums too

Yeah it was a great day out lots of stuff happening and its not everyday you get to jump seat a rescue chopper twice in one day ,and just to clarfiy scott and i meet on hovercontrol.com ,and pointed him here so you can thank them aswell if it wasent for you(trolly} , you wouldnt of seen the photos and heard all about it

nice pics..and honestly i never hop onto a chopper b4...though but surely is interesting to try rotary wings

It was a blast,, i can tell you that being the first time ive ever been in a chopper ,i had a chance last birthday to go on one of trial flight in sc300 but gave that up for some addons instead , ,anyway i had lots of fun ,learnt abit and felt very at home in them ,here acouple more pics plus abit of our landing {rolling like a plank }

getting ready

at 6000ft cruzing

oh theres the ground

message in the field its upside down in bottom right corner only just noticed it

lake taupo

turning on to long finals



here we go

just got back and as scott said loading upto go out and save someone back at ap again

man he outta there
AWESOME day out 4sure

Great photos ,

cheers mate Yeah scott and i took hundreds more but of textures and other bits around the area ,that means ,i was looking around rotorua last night to see if there was the hospital and gondla pads but didnt find any , as i didnt really expect that i didnt grab any there ,so if anyone has some of that hosp buildings ,id love to here from you ,

Heath's Rotorua scenery includes NZJO (or a basic rendition of), from www.nzscenery.com .

Alex

Cheers for that i never really put in the scenery before ,so ill check it out ,if not ill build it as i would of thought it would have been a really good land mark for the area ,just makes sence really 75mb is abit to download for just one building