Baja Photos

Will try to post more photos eventually. Thanks for your patience!!!! :)

DirtBiking in Cal City Thanksgiving weekend!

Hey everyone! Had a chance to go dirtbiking in Cal City for thanksgiving weekend. It was soooo much fun. Went with all my friends and Tracy G. another chopper chick. We had a blast. Camped out! I will try to get some photos up eventually. I started this blog last week and now it's Dec. 6th. Just trying to get all these blogs I started posted regardless of getting them finished.

BAJA 1000

Wow, what an amazing time!!!! In my 16 years of flying, I have never had so much fun! I can't believe how great it was flying down there. The places we flew, the places we landed! It was great!!!! Wednesday last week after battling that flu/food poisoning thing(whatever it was it sucked) I left for Baja during the day. Only took 2 hours to fly to Ensenada Airport. Corporate Helicopters in San Diego is the main player in arranging all of the helicopters to the cars for the Baja 1000. Ivar Shier the owner hired us, Coastal Helicopters, to come join in the fun. We married up with him at Montgomery Field in San Diego where he is based. We provided him with 3 Astars. From there I met up with a couple of other helicopters and we proceeded to Ensenada. There were over 30 helicopters there for the Baja! After going through customs and topping off on fuel, I left for the Horsepower Ranch which is where Trophy Truck 30, the Monster Trophy Truck I was to stay with was based. There were a couple of other helicopters there and lots of baja cars and lots of fun everywhere. Didn't get much sleep that night mostly because it was really cold there and the ranch was powered by generators which didn't run at night. Also, the buggies and trucks were reving there engines all night. It was quite the experience to be a part of all that and to be at the ranch. The next morning I got up and flew to a hotel on the beach and picked up the guy who owned the ranch. From there we made trips to the airport, the ranch and the hotel and then off to the races. Hovering over the start line with all the other helicopters and watching the cars line up in the city was great! As soon as our Truck took off we chased him across the Baja! It was so much fun to fly with him and get low enough to hear the engine. I couldn't even hear my helicopter. All I could here was the roar of the trophy truck engine. Soooo many helicopters, sooooo many vehicles, sooooo much fun! Words and pictures will never describe it. It would take me forever to tell you about the whole experience and the 4 days I spent down there. In short I spent the night of the race day at checkpoint 3 in the monster pit with the helicopter. Once again, not much sleep with the roar of the trucks coming through the pit all night. It was fun to see! The next morning I didn't think it could get any more fun! It did! I married up with Ivar and another pilot in Bay of Los Angeles and from there the adventures began. Ivar knows Baja like the back of his hand. He took up on the most amazing tour and we landed in so many secret locations that very few people know about. We landed in an area of Blue Palms, supposedly Blue Palms only exist in this area in Baja, the only place in the world where these relics of the ice age exist. We landed at cantina/hotel for lunch, an area where marble forms, a turqoise mine, wild fuel stop, landed on the beach, landed at out hotel at the end of the day! This is by far the short way of telling you about the most amazing day of flying I have ever had. The race day and this day were some of the most fun I have ever had flying. The next day, we took off from the hotel in ensenada to the airport to go back through customs, then off on another adventure up the coast to the border. IT'S NOW WEDNESDAY, Dec. 6, 2006, haven't been able to finish this blog. Started this last week or a couple of weeks ago, I think it says the 27th, anyway, I will try to finish this one later. Just want to get it posted.

Nascar in Pheonix

Nascar last weekend was great! Got some twin time in the Bell 430 with Stacy Sheard for Elite Aviation. Flew out last Saturday to get ready for the race. All day Sunday we flew so many people back and forth from the track to the airports in the area. We flew alot of important people including Nick Lachey and his friends as well as the Nascar winner Kevin Harvick. It was a busy weekend of flying. That is an amazing helicopter. Fully loaded with all the bells and whistles and beautiful as well. It was a blast to fly. Unfortunately both Stacy and I got violently ill upon returning home monday after the race. Still not sure if we both had food poisoning or some crazy flu. Either way, I'm still feeling it as of today, a week later. After two days of that it was off to the BAJA 1000!!!!!

Back from an amazing week!!!!

On my way into work right now but wanted to quickly post some pictures from Nascar in Phoenix last weekend. I will tell you more later about that weekend and the amazing time I had flying the Baja 1000.

Monday night news......

Well I'm back flying news this week. After coming back from the Esperanza fire last week I had several days off before going back to work. It was nice! Last week on friday I flew a charter in our black astar. I flew the owner of Prime Jet, a jet charter company. Dropped him off at the Island Express helipad at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. That was a fun flight. He was really nice. It was weird to be wearing charter clothes which consist of me in drag basically. I wear black dress slacks with a white shirt and a tie. After being in full nomex and flight boots and gloves and wearing a helmet, it was strange. Today is actually wednesday. I started to blog monday and we launched on some stories. Then back here on tuesday, same thing. No chance to get online while we have been flying so much. Tonight is slow so far. I can't wait till I have a bit more down time so I can respond to everyone's questions. You have all been so patient and lots of fun to talk to. It's really cool that you guys follow my blog and are still interested in what I'm up to. It's even more strange getting back into flying news, at night, now with the time change. All summer we never fly at night on any fires, so now I'm back flying at night, in casual clothes and just a headset instead of my helmet. It's really kinda nice and relaxing. I work with some really cool people here at Coastal, the company that owns all the helicopters I fly. I'm waiting for my friend Stacy Sheard to send me some photos of a job she just did with a huey. She worked on some TV series with the ship. I will post those photos when I get them. Stacy and myself are two of very few female SAG helicopter pilots in the biz. I've flown in various high and low budget movies. You can find a couple of my credits on the IMDb. The low budget ones are not listed. It pays really well and it's really fun flying. It can be some of the most fun you can have with a helicopter next to fighting fire(and chasing trophy trucks in Baja). Fires are dangerous and fun, but movie flying is just pure fun, not near as dangerous as fire. But any kind of flying is dangerous. Driving a car is dangerous. Unfortunately the main players that fly helicopters for movies are men and it's a very tight group. Most of the scenes that call for female pilots they just throw a wig on. I'm flying news the rest of this week and part of next week. This weekend I will be co-piloting with Stacy in her Bell 430 for Elite Aviation to Arizona for Nascar. Should be an awsome weekend! Can't wait. Then, it gets better.....next week, mid week I am flying one of our astars to Baja for the Baja 1000!!!! I have always wanted to fly Baja and chase the racers in the 1000. It will be some of the most exciting flying. Great crews, great adventures, good times to be had by all. Can't wait. I probably won't get a chance to blog until the following week. Well, back to work. You all have a great weekend and enjoy this amazing weather we have been having!