OK. Cesar is the official Pentax hero... "Cesar Matamoros II" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I am strapped into a side-facing seat of a UH-1 >helicopter taking photos and slightly leaning out to get a better view. It >is when you hear the pilot say oh-oh! over the intercom that it kind of >grabs your attention. We were on the Honduras-Nicaragua border, or rather >supposed to be close to it. We had inadvertently entered Nicaraguan >airspace, and not by just a bit. Don't think we were in any danger at any >point, but it did get the adrenaline going. For the longest time I could >not tell people where the shots were taken... We did have a fun ride going >back to camp as we did a map of the earth at high speed. Some of the other >passengers did not see the fun in it. > >It brings to mind my first ever helicopter ride earlier that year. I >believe it was a Bell, similar to the one used in the U.S. television show >Magnum P.I. We were being used as a target for some radar testing near the >Albermarle Sound in North Carolina. It was winter. I got some great shots >during the flight - one of which sits atop a speaker at my house. Anyhow, >the pilot was playing around seeing if we could hide by getting close to the >sea. We had waves going over the skids! As we were going back up we felt a >shudder. Surveying the prop and such we could see no bird strike. It was >when we felt the second shudder that he decided to call it a day and find >someplace nearby to land. Did I metion that it was winter and a water >landing would have been fatal? We headed to some farmland and as we were >landing, still a good height above the ground, the engine gave out and we >autorotated safely to the ground. -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
