Moons
Moons Over Texas
The skies were low and murky, with patches of fog hanging around the airpark when neighbour Al came knocking on my door with a proposal. Seems a friend of his was going to be holding a crawfish boil the next day at his home on a south Texas bayou and Al figured what better way to go, than by helicopter.
Casting an eye skyward, I enthused about the idea, but we both agreed that we would have to watch the weather carefully, as there was no improvement forecast
The next day dawned warm, humid (gee, what a surprise for Houston!) - and cloudy. Ceilings only a few hundred feet off the deck and showers still forecast.
One of the nice things about a helicopter is you can safely operate VFR with lower ceilings and visibility than with fixed wing - If things start to close in, you can slow down, stop, turn on the spot, or simply land. On the other hand, it seems just the slightest amount of rain makes a real mess of the leading edge of the main rotor blade - with tip speeds approaching 1 mach, the edge tends to erode quite quickly, and when it runs out of paint, there is always the aluminum . .
The boil was scheduled for 2:00, and by 1:00, the sky was slightly higher (1500 ft), the showers had not materialized, the forecast had improved and radar showed only gentle returns. It was time to commit aviation.
Al is not a small fellow and neither am I, so with temperatures around 27 C and the 6 gal. Jerry can strapped to the left skid, we were very close to gross weight, which provided a good opportunity for me to practice collective management when operating at close to maximum power. When operating a helicopter at close to maximum power, you have to be careful pulling additional collective (increased pitch on the main rotor blades, and therefore usually increased lifting). Under normal circumstances, the correlator built into the helicopter increases power as you increase pitch, which keeps the engine and rotor rpm operating in their happy range. When close to full power, however, increasing the pitch of the main rotor blade by pulling more collective can exceed the available power of the engine, and the increased pitch creates more drag and actually slows the rotor blade (and engine) down. As the engine rpm drops, you get less power, causing the rotor blade to slow even more, etc. The key here is when you find you are at full power and the rotor rpm starts to drop, you actually have to lower the collective a little bit. This reduces the drag on the main rotor, which allows it and the engine to speed back up into the higher power range. With both of us and the spare fuel on board, at sea-level, I had a little extra power available, but not much, so I was occasionally bumping against the full power limitation.
Fortunately, the hover requires the most power, so I felt pretty good when we reached the end of the runway and turned into wind for takeoff. A quick check of the gauges, a gentle nudge forward on the cyclic and we were picking up speed. Within a few seconds, a shudder through the airframe as we passed through the translational-lift speed, and then a strong acceleration as the helicopter gained efficiency, accelerated to best rate of climb speed, and pulled away from mother earth.
Our destination wasn't marked on any sectional - just a curve in the bayou near the Texas coastline. 77 miles and a little over an hour worth of headwinds later, we were circling over Brent's waterfront home. The backyard was full of trees. The field in front of the house had tall trees at each end, scattered trees in the middle and horses close by. Across the bayou, however, was a nice drainage cut, with a lesser - treed area providing a nice approach path. After circling several times to ensure we had the best landing site and the location of each power line and tree noted, we came in for landing, touching down on a nice, flat clearing beside the bayou. After shutting down, we heard our hosts-to-be calling across the bayou that we needed to land in another clearing, separated from where we had landed by a creek. As we worked our way through the tall grass, looking for a spot narrow enough to jump across, Al mentioned that we ought to keep a look out for snakes and alligators, which are prevalent in the area. Suddenly, a helicopter seemed like a great way to cross a creek..
Moments later, shoes and socks left on the bank, we crowded onto a jetski, with our host's 12-year old son at the controls. For me, fully clothed and never having been on a jetski, the trip to the dock was the most nerve-wracking part of the whole trip.
If you have never been to a crawfish boil, it is quite an experience. You start by collecting crawfish. These look a bit like a cross between a miniature lobster and a large shrimp. They can be found crawling out of your lawn at night if you live in south Texas. Having collected a 5 gallon pail, you boil them until well done, add beer and serve. Unfortunately, as the Designated Driver (pilot) for the day, mine were served with something softer than beer, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.
Too soon, it was time for us to go and we reversed our path across the river to our magic carpet. Lifting off along a cutline through the trees, we circled back for the obligatory pass over our ground-bound friends (you know; the kind of pass that says: "Hah! - We're up here and you're going to be stuck in traffic for the next couple of hours). Looking down into their backyard, I was feeling a bit pleased with myself and our aerial message, when we spotted a perfect celestial formation - 6 moons all in a row, giving us the sendoff we truly deserved.
Flying home, the ceilings lowered and the visibility dropped to where I wouldn't have been comfortable flying VFR in a fixed-wing, but with the helicopter, we were safe in the knowledge that we couldn't be trapped - if things deteriorated, we could land anywhere and not worry about having to find our way to an airport.
As we touched down on the ramp behind our house, the day came to a close and found myself feeling thankful for the good fortune which would bring good friends, good food and high adventure together. It's times like these, I thought, which makes all those long hours in the workshop so worthwhile.