An $18 million flight lesson
Previous leg: Liberty to Harrisonville
Crashing two helicopters in a single morning
For this leg of the Missouri Simulator Tour I took the opportunity to give a different kind of flying a try. After getting a lot of practice on FSX’s default Robinson R-22, I decided to try take the Eurocopter HH-65 out for a spin. Unfortunately, spin was a good description of what happened as I managed to crash two $9 million choppers in the process of learning how to fly a turbine engine for the first time. Fortunately, the U.S. Coast Guard has an unlimited supply of virtual helicopters and I gradually grew more comfortable with the aircraft.
The Eurocopter HH-65 that I flew was designed by Brandon Henry and John and Keith Devins. They created a fun to detailed, but accessible helicopter that has a multitude of paint schemes reflecting real world Coast Guard aircraft from around the country. The troubles that I had flying the Dolphin reflect my inexperience with virtual flight, and not their abilities to create a fun to fly simulation. I look forward to learning more about the HH-65 in future flights.
The day’s route
After taking off at Harrisonville (KLRY) I headed straight south and added three more counties to the total. Butler Memorial Airport (KBUM) in Bates County was the first destination. The best landing of the day occurred at the Nevada Municipal Airport (KNVD) in Vernon County. The final stop was in Lamar (KLLU), the birthplace of President Harry S. Truman and the seat of Barton County. Excluding time lost for two crashes the 67 NM journey took just over 0.6 hours.
The Journey So Far (12.85 hours, 824 NM)
Next leg: Lamar to Kimberling City
