CHENNAI: Flying in a helicopter is nothing like a normal airline travel. For starters, there’s a whole lot more vibration when the rotors get going. The pilots don’t particularly fuss about the seatbelts, nor do they mind you peeping into the cockpit for a quick chat. The take-off and landing parts don’t quite have the drama of an Airbus, opting for a slightly scary nose down acceleration before lifting off. And there most definitely wasn’t a pretty flight attendant, handing out wads of luxe cotton for the eardrums, “Well you’ve got us,” grins John Shuma, a flight engineer, as he hands out some orange earplugs. And we weren’t complaining, considering how friendly and comfortable the crew of the Sikorsky S-92 Search and Rescue Helicopter were as they took us for a sortie of about 250 nautical miles, from the Airport at Meenambakkam.“We really love Chennai,” says Shuma, who has been travelling with this crew and copter around the world on their ‘Legacy of Heroes’ tour, an initative to celebrate people who have ‘served and have been brave’, “It looks really colourful, when you look at thousands of houses and building from the sky,” he exclaims, pointing at the city while flying at a height of 1,000 ft.Peeping into the pilots’ cockpit where Stacy Sheard and Steve Schellburg were manoeuvering the Goliath award-winning chopper, it was evident that they’ve been doing it for a long time. Stacy, (whose looks despite the crew-suit made up for the lack of pretty attendants) who herself had logged over 6,000 flight hours at Sikorsky, says that the last 10 days in Chennai have been “something else.” In her typically Southern accent, she elaborates, “Arriving here, getting the chopper out of the port, assembling it and then working out flight patterns with the Air Traffic Control really kept us busy.” But one thing she’s really excited about is the food that Chennai has served up. “Trying out all of these different cuisines you have here has been an experience,” she says, adding that after Thailand and Singapore, she’s developed an “iron stomach” of sorts.So no shopping? “Well, we have been taking a look around, near the Taj Coromandel, but nothing much,” says another crew member Mike Gettz. A pity really, considering they flew off to Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai for air shows and demonstrations. But before they sign off, Stacy points to the boarding pass and gives us something to remember them by, “That's our ships number N146UK – If you ever see that anywhere, you’ll know it's us!”
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