CoffeeBear.net » helicopter

Fly-In/Drive-In Breakfast at Marion Airport

Mark — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:42:25 +0000

Every year for the 4th of July, Cedar Rapids puts on this huge festival to celebrate. It starts up in mid-June and goes through the 4th. For the past several years, Ariesna and I have bought buttons for the festival¹ but have missed most of the festival. Given that we live in Cedar Rapids now, we’ve been making an effort to actually attend some of the events. This morning we got up at 7 AM², hopped into the car and drove out to the Marion Airport. The airport was hosting a Fly-In/Drive-In breakfast, offering airplane/helicopter rides and had numerous planes for spectators to look at. Ariesna & I decided to go for a helicopter ride which was … quite the experience. First off, here’s a few rules/tips for any other first-time flyers to keep in mind when going to one of these sort of things:

Wear blue jeans or at least some kind of pants. Standing near the landing area for the helicopter gets rather chilly with the chop from the spinning blades.
Tuck your shirt in so it doesn’t blow up around you.
Wear shoes, not sandals. Makes it easier walking through the grass over to where the helicopter was landing/taking off.
Leave your hat in the car. The chop from the helicopter is strong enough to blow it off your head.
Leave your purse/bag in the car. There’s very limited space in a helicopter, and you don’t want it to:
- bonk the controls with a heavy bag while the pilot is trying to do his thing.
- watch your purse/bag go sliding out the helicopter to fall way, way, way down to the ground.

Just a few thoughts you should consider. Anyway, back to the story. Ariesna was feeling very nervous about the flight while we were waiting in line but doing her best to stay calm. Then when we were 3rd in line, the people in front of us asked to switch places with us as there were only 2 helicopters in service for the rides and they wanted to chat with the pilot of the one we would have ridden on. We immediately took them up on their offer and then had a pleasant chat with them while they waited. It turned out they’ve been coming to this Fly-In/Drive-In for the past 3 years and look forward to flying with one particular pilot every year. They also reassured Ariesna about the flight and got her calmed down nicely. Then before we knew it, it was our turn. The helicopter had room for 3 pilot (1 pilot & 2 passengers). Ariesna climbed into the center of the aircraft while I got the “window seat”. I put that in quotes because the side of the helicopter was totally open. No windows, no doors just a big, big hole you climbed in/out of³. Once we were strapped in and put on our headphones, I realized I had something of a problem. Either the cord on my headphones was very short, caught on something or I was sitting on it but I had no leeway with it. I couldn’t sit up or even really hunch over while wearing the headphones. I ended up, slightly hunched with the headphones partly askew. The lift-off made me think of a bumpy roller coaster and then we were in the air over a corn field. It was also around that time I realized I was definitely going to have problems with this ride. See, I tend to get vertigo but only in a certain range of heights. Under roughly 10–12 feet and flying in an airplane up above the clouds, I’m fine. However for certain distances between there, heights can give me the willies. I tend to think of it as the range between small hurts and certain death. The helicopter flew at just the perfect height to trigger my feelings of vertigo. Wheeee! Now add in the lack of a door on the helicopter, being strapped in with a single lap belt and my side of the aircraft being the one which dropped down on every turn; and you’ll understand why I only took 2 photos during our flight. Spending the rest of it with one hand clamped to the side of the helicopter and the other locked onto my wife’s hand. Naturally, she thought this was hilarous once we landed.

*sigh* No respect, no respect at all.

Then we walked around looking at the planes setup for show, snapping a couple of pics⁴. When I later review the pics, it turned out most were over-exposed, so I’ll have to edit them in GIMP before posting the rest. Finally, we decided to get some breakfast. Only the line at the airport’s breakfast was long and the food looked unappealing. So we drove off to Village Inn, had an entirely too big of a breakfast complete with coffee and pie. Mmmm, pie. Good times, good times.

¹ The buttons get you into some events for free or at a reduced rate.
² *ugh* On the weekend, we strongly prefer to lounge about till late in the morning.
³ There were obvious mounting points for a door, so I’m guessing they removed the door to make it easier to get people in/out for these rides.
⁴ Which I have posted to a Fly-In/Drive-In set on my Flickr account.

Fly-In/Drive-In Breakfast at Marion Airport © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

You Know You Grew Up…

Mark — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 21:42:51 +0000

You Know You Grew Up In The 80’s or Early 90’s If:
1. You’ve ever ended a sentence with the word “SIKE“
2. You watched the Pound Puppies.
3. You can sing the rap to the “Fresh Prince of Belair” and can do the “Carlton”. I can’t sing the rap but FPoB was dope, homeboy!
4. Girls wore biker shorts under their skirts and felt stylishly sexy. I’ve no idea what it flet like but I remember seeing stupid people on TV dress this way.
5. You yearned to be a member of the Baby-sitters club and tried to start a club of your own.
6. You owned those lil’ Strawberry Shortcake pals scented dolls.
7. You know that “WOAH” comes from Joey on Blossom
8. Two words: Hammer Pants *laugh* At the time, I thought these were the coolest pants. EVER! I wanted a pair so bad, but my Mom would never buy them for me. These days? I think I owe her a bigger Christmas gift because she never got them for me. *grin*
9. If you ever watched “Fraggle Rock“
10. You had plastic streamers on your handle bars and “spokey-dokes” or playing cards on your spokes for that incredible sound effect
11. You can sing the entire theme song to “DuckTales” (Woo ooh!)
12. It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
13. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
14. You saw the original “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” on the big screen and still know the turtles names.
15. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school. Well… to be perfectly honest, I got super-excited when it was computer day in class at school.
16. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.
17. You played the game “MASH” (Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House)
18. You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it.
19. L.A. Gear, need I say more?
20. You wanted to change your name to “JEM” in Kindergarten. (She’s truly outrageous.)
21. You remember reading “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and all the Ramona books. In truth, I don’t remember Ramona but I have found memories fo reading TofaFGN.
22. You know the profound meaning of “WAX ON, WAX OFF“
23. You wanted to be a Goonie. Wanted? I still am one! Huh, what’s that? I’m a goober? Oops! My bad
24. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (some of us, head-to-toe)
25. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.
26. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
27. You took lunch boxes to school and traded Garbage Pail kids in the schoolyard.
28. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.
29. You still get the urge to say “NOT” after every sentence. I remember this but I think I hated it then too
30. You remember Hypercolor t-shirts. These were the bomb! I wish they still made them (because now I could actually afford them! *grin*
31. Barbie and the Rockers was your favorite band.
32. You thought She-ra (Princess of Power!) and He-Man should hook up.
33. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets.
34. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes. (and like #24, probably in neon colors, too)
35. After you saw Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure you kept saying “I know you are, but what am I?“
36. You remember “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!“
37. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates.
38. You ever got seriously ! injured on a Slip and Slide.
39. You have ever played with a Skip-It.
40. You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds.
41. You’ve gone through this nodding your head in agreement.
42. You remember Popples.
43. “Don’t worry, be happy.“
44. You wore like, EIGHT pairs of socks over tights with high top Reeboks.
45. You wore socks scrunched down (and sometimes still do, getting yelled at by “younger hip” members of the family)
46. You remember boom boxes. . and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that.
47. You remember watching both “Gremlins” movies. The 2nd one sucked.
48. You know what it meant to say “Care Bear Stare!!” *shudder* Unforunately, I do remember this.
49. You remember watching “Rainbow Bright” and “My Little Pony Tales”.
50. You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot. Didn’t really think either was all that hot, but can remember wanting to be a genius like Doogie.
51.. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.
52. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool, and don’t even flinch when people refer to them as “NKOTB”. Almost, I thought their music sucked and flinched whenever I heard anything to do with them.
53. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on “Saved By The Bell,” The ORIGINAL class.
54. You know all the words to Bon Jovi — SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.
55. You just sang those words to yourself.
56. You remember watching Magic vs. Bird.
57. Homemade Levi shorts (the shorter the better)
58. You remember when mullets were cool!
59. You had a mullet! Thank God, I can honestly answer this saying that I never had a mullet!
60. You still sing “We are the World“
61. You tight rolled your jeans.
62. You owned a bannana clip.
63. You remember “Where’s the Beef?“
64. Y ou used to (and probably still do) say “What you talkin’ about Willis?“
65. You had big hair and you knew how to use it.
66. You’re still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren’t you!!! Nope, I’m still stuck on “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.

I’ve marked the ones I remember in bold and made notes in italics.

Oh and here are a couple they missed:
67. You ever watched Punky Bruster.
68. You thought G.I. Joe was cool but now you wonder how all these heavily trained soldiers were completely unable to shoot anybody; while still being able to take out helicopters from half a mile away with a crossbow.
69. You remember your family getting their first VCR.
70. You went trick-or-treating and actually ate the homemade candy that you got.
71. You were completely thrilled when you beat Zelda for the first time.

Kudos to Matthew Mullenweg for the link