The Helicopter Adventure


We start off Thursday morning at about 7:00 a.m. I see that it’s raining and I tentatively think to myself we are going to cancel the trip, well I get ready, I pack all the photographic gear and make sure I have enough film and that the battery is charged from the Mavica digital camera.

It’s about 7:30 a.m. and I call one of the engineers to ask his opinion on the weather, it’s raining and it seems like it’s not going to stop anytime soon. We agree to meet at the airport and to talk to the captain.

It’s 8:00 a.m. and we meet up with the other engineer and the captain, we agree to wait until the storm passes. We wait until 9:00 a.m. it’s confirmed we have a clearing and we are ready for take off.

After a brief preflight procedure were we are weighted with all the gear, and a talk about safety, we board the Bell Jet Ranger 4 passenger helicopter. In order to warm up the engine we wait for about 2 minutes with the engines running to achieve normal operating speed and temperature. The chopper has to be treated with care do to the nature of the rotors, a sudden increase in speed of the blades could destroy them. I learned that from the captain, besides it makes sense since in the middle point of the main rotor the rotational velocity is about 300 rpms but imagine the velocity at the tips of the blades considering the length of them.

Well, enough about the chopper, now we get ready to start the journey. We will begin our journey to the dividing mountain line located north west of us here at the Paitilla airport. Our time of arrival will be 9:25 a.m.

We take off and taxi over the designated areas before we climb to an altitude of about 2,500 ft, we approach the Tocumen international airport at about 9:13 a.m. I take some pictures of the airport. It looks small to say the least. It actually has only two landing strips. I thought it had more. Well, we wait suspended in the air for two American flights departing, the jumbo jets look like small planes and it seems like they pose no harm, but rules are rules and we wait for about a minute. We are clear to continue.

We approach the Mountainous area, we are currently flying over the Mesa de San Martín, a mountain 3000 ft high. It looks impressive taking into consideration that the city seems far away and yet its perfectly visible, we make a recognizance flight around the mountain getting us ready to land. We try to locate a landing spot. Since the mountain has its typical inclination we locate a flat horizontal spot at about 20 meters lower than the top of the mountain. There was a spot that only needed an H painted on it for heliport since the grass was dead and was perfect for landing. We land on the mountain and wait 2 minutes to turn off the engines. We begin to take some pictures and to explore this mountain top, we decide to move upwards towards the tree area where we could see the Atlantic Ocean, the view is incredible, we have no cloud formations for miles, it was a good idea to not cancel the flight. The rain has cleaned the air and its pure and beautiful. We can see the Kuna Ayala islands, they are located in the Atlantic Ocean, wow! I can actually see the Atlantic Ocean and without turning my head I can see the Pacific, there is no other place in the world were that is possible. Incredible! We appreciate the view for about half an hour more. Suddenly a cloud appears out of nowhere and threatens to come our way, we have to climb down to the landing area. We talk to the Captain in order to take some inflight pictures of the site. We take off again and we fly around the mountain top for about 15 minutes, we bank a couple of times in order to get some nice pictures of the access road, which is nonexistent and also some pictures of the forested area. Since there are some places with dense vegetation including trees that create that sort of green carpet effect all too common of the rain forest, we have to locate the places that have flat spots that will serve as access holes for the next visits on land.

We return to the city on a flight pattern similar to that taken at the beginning. I noticed that there is low tide and a ship that has been left stranded on the Panama Viejo shore. Panama Viejo was a city destroyed by Morgan the pirate, one can actually see the destruction and the cannonballs holes on the structure. It must have been a cruel and ugly battle. The main structure is still erect, the main tower is one of the main attractions see the picture. Well, it is pretty sad that some people do not appreciate this historical monument.

I remember playing on the ruins when I was younger. I used to feel like an explorer, hoping to find some kind of treasure hidden between one of the stones or maybe a treasure map or something. It was incredible. Well I feel the same way now, only that now I can explore more places. I’m trying to share my experiences with you since I know that I would appreciate any information provided by anyone trying to learn more about our world history. It is difficult for me to learn everything from a book or to see it on TV I have to live it! So it is no wonder that what I’m writing here can get a bit boring. I wish I could see everything personally go to the interesting spots, well actually if one comes to think about it there should be a history behind every location in the world. We only take notice of our history when there is something tangible like ruins or some kind of old writing.

Well, we landed and the trip was finished. Until the next trip...


Coming up soon...
Costa Rica and its wonderful Arenal Volcano
Also, I will be posting some pictures of the trip I made on the 4X4 that I rented, it was a Nissan Patrol 1997 (great vehicle), it's not sold in the U.S. but it can climb any mountain as I will explain.

Mindflux