Dromader Drone

Wednesday, 2 February

It's evening. I finally got to see and hear my beloved Huey start up and take-off. Beautiful. I also got to see the Dromader's taking off while weighed down with about 1000 litres of water. Stunning.

Now, what could make my evening better? Listening to the Huey landing while the Dromader's circle overhead. The 'wap wap wap' of the Huey combined with the drone of the Dromader's sent shivers down my spine. Unfortunately I didn't watch them come back as I was sitting in ATG lectures (I almost ran out of the room, camera in hand, when I heard the Huey approaching. Almost.)

Thursday, 3 February

Another extremely hot day. Yesterday was in the 40ies, today was pretty much the same. But clouds have been building and a storm is near. About 10 minutes before the storm hit I heard the characteristic whine of a turbine starting up; the Huey had been called to a fire.

Lightning was crackling around, but the pilot went off (it was a smooth lift-off, and he even hovered along the taxi-way), and headed north. I personally thought he was crazy; clouds were closing in fast. The storm hit about 5 minutes after he left. It didn't last long, and while it was nice to have some rain, it was still extremely hot and humid.

After some time, I looked towards the Helderberg Mountain and saw a speck coming through the Gap. Was it a Huey? Was it a plane? I went inside to fetch my camera just in case. Good thing too. Wap wap wap. He came overhead, circled to the left as he descended and put her down beautifully on the grass as a few drops of rain began to fall.

After he had shut down and the rotors had stopped turning, I made my way over to him to help him with the cover for the blade tip. The pilot is a very nice chap, and it turns out that he flew in the Vietnam War. Awesome!

What's better than being in the rain? Being in the rain when you're tucking the Huey in for the night.