Today is Deanna's Birthday!
We started out this morning planning on hitting the Military Appreciation Day and 50th Vietnam War anniversary. Had some really cool airplanes there making fly by's and take off and landings. We wondered around a while and eventually headed over to the area where the helicopters were and military vehicle display. Today they are selling rides on a Huey and Cobra Attack Chopper. Out of the clear blue my scared to death of heights wife says "I think we should fly on that!" WHAT? She did this years ago at the Strawberry festival, she saw a Bell helicopter flying over and said she wanted to ride on it, so we did! I didn't expect for her to ever say that again but she surprised me :). She just had a feeling it was something she had to do. Well it IS her birthday! So I purchased a ticket for us. The ride is probably about 8-10 minutes long. A few in flight maneuvers but nothing drastic but gave you the idea of what it was like for soldiers to rely on these old but dependable birds. I can only imagine that the sound of those blades slapping the wind we the greatest sound in their life when they were coming to extract or support them in battle.
Here is a shortened video of the ride.
Right before getting on the chopper Bill showed up. By the time we got off the Huey he is telling us he is going to go up in the Cobra Attack Chopper. Coool! Deanna said that she thought I needed to do that. I was fine with the Huey ride because we got to do it together but she convinced me to take the Cobra ride......it didn't take a lot though :D
That ride was also about 8 minutes long but quite a different ride as the Cobra is very sleek and capable of very drastic aerobatic moves. This is a 2 seat chopper and you sit in the front seat, very skinny profile so it was more difficult to hit from the ground and fast! Below is a pic of the dash, the speed is almost 130 Knots which is about 150 mph. Elevation is about 770 feet
Below is Bill in the Cobra
Below is T28 coming in for landing
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