Original Publication Date: January 2006

US RECORD FLIGHT COAST TO COAST & BACK

By Johan Nurmi/ World Record Helicopter Team Partial excerpt from the original story

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, October the 29th ,2005 at 2.45 P.M when The World Record Helicopter Team departed Los Angeles International airport in California, for our US RECORD helicopter flight attempt. Our destination was Savannah Hilton International (KSAV) on the east coast of Georgia, and back again to LAX. A total distance of 4060 nm. We were flying N168BA R44 Raven. The pilots were Johan Nurmi- Nico Wijngaarden, Paul Chenette, and Frode Felle. Our main goal was to do a fundraiser for The Christian Foundation for Unprivileged Children. We were flying to raise money for food. The website is www.thechristianfoundationforstarvingchildren.com and at the same time race against time and do a new US Record Flight, sanctioned and approved by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), & Federation Aeronautic International (FAI).

Our basic plan was to fly east along the 10 freeway during the night hours and during day fly direct toward Savannah. This time we were better prepared for the long and lonely night hours in the mountains from Tucson Arizona, to Fort Stockton in Texas. I bought a pair of night vision goggles (NVG) from Rigel Optics Company in Washougal, WA, and the cost was less than $ 700.00, a real bargain. Their web is www.rigeloptics.com

We flew from LAX to Palm Springs (PSP). From Palm Springs to Bermuda Dunes, and to Blythe (BLH) in beautiful late afternoon weather. We had tailwind all the way, thanks to the Jet Stream which was pushing us to the east. The desert in California is lovely, and we had a great time all the way to Blythe where we fueled up. In the summer Blythe can be rather hot with temperatures above 50 degree C. Fortunately the people in Blythe have Colorado River to dip in if it becomes too warm!

After filling the tanks with 100 LL we lifted to the east and as we flew east the sun started to go down in the west. We started our night flight to Buckeye (BXK). Our plan was to follow the 10 Freeway to Tucson AZ. During our flight we were amazed how good those inexpensive night vision goggles were.The only reason we wanted them was so we could see the freeway, mountains, the horizon, and the cars & trucks driving on the Freeway.

We really felt safe with our night vision goggles.

If we were to have an emergency at night we could see how the terrain looked beneath us. And then we realized that we could keep flying all night long, changing pilots every two and a half hours. Two years ago, during my last US Record flight in the R22 with John Thomas, we flew right into the clouds at Guadeloupe Pass not far away from Pecos TX. I recall that we had to go from night VFR to night IFR in seconds. Keeping constant heading, maintaining the attitude indicator, and the VSI indicator level, and holding the same airspeed and altitude.

Back then we had no NVG so we decided to land immediately to the right side of the freeway. As we came out of the clouds, approximately at 40 ft above the freeway, our aircraft pitched down in an uncomfortable way, but at that moment we saw the ground and leveled the ship and corrected our unusual attitude with aft cyclic.

On the picture I took afterwards sitting in the helicopter, we looked worn out. We ended up right over the freeway, and hovered the aircraft to the right side of the freeway, over a fence, and sat it down on a field, 75 feet away from a 2000 pound Bull, who stared us down with evil eyes. We almost panicked, and got the R22 up in a 40 feet hover, and got it to the left side of the fence. What a nightmare.

That was in September 2004. Now it was October 2006, two years later and we were going for the R44 coast to coast & back record.

As our R44 flight progressed, we passed Buckeye, and headed to Tucson. It was a very dark night, and we made a class B transition through Phoenix. After landing in Tucson we got fuel and the friendly FBO personnel drove us in their company van to Burger king. We loaded up with the biggest burgers and fries they had.

After a late night meal we left Tucson with a satisfied feeling. After departure we started a long and difficult night-mountain flight. We flew over the mountains along the 10 freeway to Deming TX. After 30 miles we passed Benson airport on the left and shortly afterwards some thirty miles later we flew over Cochise Co airport.

After another 15 miles we arrived at Los Cabezas Peak which is 8360 feet high.We were happy we didn’t have to fly over it, just pass by at 5300 feet. Bowie (E54) was next, a private airport with a field elevation of 3737 ft.

We were flying 1000ft above the freeway almost all night for power- line avoidance and to avoid unmarked antennas which can be 1000 ft high. As we passed Bowie we had 50 miles to Lordsburg (L50) with a field elevation at 4278 ft and another 55 miles to our fuel stop in Deming. The field elevation for Deming is 4314 ft. A couple of miles west of Deming the warning horn & light came on and it was a shock to all of us.

Nico and I were in the front seats. He was flying and both of us lowered the collective and increased the throttle, but the rpm did not get back up into the green zone. We saw the needle on the carburetor indicator in the yellow arc, and he pulled the carb- heat on, and the rpm came back up again. It was a perilous moment of confusion because we did not know if we were going to have an engine failure.

We flew in darkness with limited view of the horizon. The dark mountains was hardly visible on each side of the freeway. During this time the NVG was not on while this was happening, it wasn’t a comfortable feeling, even if we had the NVG available.

After fixing our problem we saw the rotating beacon for Deming where we landed and fueled up. They have a telephone number on the door for fuel after hours, so we called the fuel guy who showed up 20 minutes later. He told us there were free hamburgers & sodas in the refrigerator. “Use the microwave he said,” It was a wonderful service that we appreciated because we were hungry. Thank you Deming!

After the snack in the middle of the night we took off again and headed for El Paso,Texas. Our flight went smooth, as we followed the freeway checking for cars, and mountains, with our night vision goggles. Nico held the attitude perfectly and cross checked the vertical speed indicator, altitude indicator, and airspeed indicator.

The flight from Deming to El Paso went well. We landed in El Paso (ELP) to get fuel. Our next destination was Fort Stockton (FST). We needed approximately 40 gallons, and when the fuel guys put 100LL in our tanks we drank some coffee at the FBO and checked the weather. Frode was perfect for the job, and he knew what we expected from him at each and every landing.

We saw him with his cell phone conscientiously getting updated information and writing down the briefer’s information. At some FBO they have weather computer which really help, since we could see the satellite pictures for our departing and arriving airports. I wish more FBO would have them. They are very useful, since we also could get METAR and TAF. After leaving El Paso, we headed south to intercept the 10 freeway.

A couple of miles south, we intercepted it and followed it south east toward Fort Stockton. The distance to Fort Stockton was about 220nm, still flying in mountain areas. We passed Horizon Airport on our left 10 nm SE of El Paso, and shortly Fabens (E35) came up. After Fabens we had a 100 mile leg to Culberson Co airport (VHN). Just before Culberson some 25 nm NW of it we encountered Sierra Diablo Mountain with its peak ranging to 6169 ft, it’s Horizon was easily seen with our NVG.

We also saw an obstacle that was 320 ft high on our left side of the freeway. And within 5 miles from Culberson airport we had two obstacles, one at 288 ft and the other shortly thereafter at 300ft AGL. After passing Culberson we saw Boracho Peak 5647 ft MSL on our right side and the Apache Mountains on our left raising to 5658 ft.

This trescherous pass has caused many helicopter accidents in low clouds and fog at night. The winds can be really hard in this pass, and it was here John and I flew into the clouds by mistake when we did the R22 US Record flight in Sept 2004. This time we had more than 10 miles visibility and unlimited ceiling with stars above our heads.

After Boracho we passed a private airport called Rancho Del Cielo and came to the intersection between the 10 and 20 Fwy. The 20 Freeway starts here and moves up to the northeast, and the 10 head southeast. We took the 10 southeast. From this intersection the field elevation starts to descend and we had a 67 mile leg to Fort Stockton. Field Elevation at Fort Stockton is 3011 ft. We also noticed that they have a Vortac 5 miles north west of the field.

As soon as we saw the airport beacon we put in their ASOS frequency and got the correct altimeter setting. We made a landing into the wind to the taxiway. Almost all buildings at this airport were unlocked, with most of the hangars wide open.We walked around tired, looking for the self serve fuel station. Frode called FSS, and they reported Fog. It was downtime at FST.

Frode and Nico walked around the buildings to see if they could find the FBO building. Paul and I decided to go back to the R44 since it was freezing cold outside as we looked for our helicopter jackets. After 20 minutes Nico came back and reported that they found the mens room, so we could wash up, shave, and brush our teeth.

We came to the airport at night. It was approximately 3 A.M when we landed. At seven o’clock in the morning we saw a truck drive in to the airport, and it was the FBO owner. He directed us to the self serve that we didn’t find during the night. It was difficult to find in the darkness.

Oh well we thought, and asked the fuel guy to fill up the tanks for our next destination which was Kerrville Schreiner. Distance was 220 nm to the east. Frode called FSS again and asked about an abbreviated weather briefing. The FSS briefer told him about a fog bank east of Fort Stockton that was not going to break up until after ten o’clock in the morning.

After fueling up we departed to the east and decided to circumnavigate the fogbank to the south. We headed toward the Mexican border, toward an airport called Terrell Co with a Field Elevation (FE) of 2322 ft. After approximately fifteen minutes of flying we saw the fogbank, and we did not want to climb over it, so we decided to follow it even more south toward an airport called Longfellow.

We were unable to travel far since the fog was just like a wall in front of us, and it looked like it went far south into Mexico. There was no way we could do anything at this time, so we decided to land at a ridgeline and wait for the fog to burn off. We relaxed inside the helicopter, and did some small walks outside the helicopter for exercise.The area was full of wildlife. We saw huge rabbits, wild pigs, deer, squirrels, and a lot of different birds.

After an hour it looked like the fog was going away, so we started up and lifted east again. We had not gone far when we and had to land on lower terrain, down in a valley, on a dirt road. We waited fifteen minutes as the wind picked up in the early morning, this was a good sign. We took off and this time we flew in the valleys and ravines since the fog changed to low clouds instead of going down to the ground. The fog was surely lifting. After approximately twenty minutes of flying we had to land for the third time that morning. We landed to the right side of a highway, and waited another twenty minutes.

After departure to the east, we zig zagged the helicopter beneath the low clouds. Approximately halfway to Kerrville, the low clouds disappeared and we were on our way. Our groundspeed showed 110 kts. The area between Fort Stockton and Kerrville Schreiner is just wonderful, a lot of green hills and valleys. We saw wild mustangs, and we had a whole lot of fun flying. After landing at Kerrville we gladly drank hot coffee from the FBO Kerrville Aviation, and filled the gas tanks at their self serve.

It’s great with self serve fuel pumps because it is so time- saving. We didn’t have to wait for a fuel guy, and downtime, in the event he was busy fueling up other aircraft.

We departed Kerrville and our next destination was Brenham. The distance was only 162 miles and halfway we got transition trough Austin Bergstrom Class C airspace. For bigger airports, we usually called Approach and later we talked with the towers if we were going to land. At Brenham we had a much needed and enjoyable lunch. Outside it appeared like it was going to be thunderstorm activity.

We fueled up and took off to Beaumont (BMT), a 220 nm leg. We passed George Bush Houston Class B to the north and talked to Houston approach. We passed a huge radio antenna 20 nm northeast of Williams’s airport; it was marked at 1932 ft AGL. Nico said “Holy Macro” as we passed it on our left side. After landing at Beaumont we started to get fatigued after all the flying, as it was then late afternoon. Thanks to our Red Bull energy drinks that Red Bull Company, gave us before our record attempt, we felt less tired. We fueled up, paid the gas bill, and got the rotor blades spinning again.

From Beaumont we hit the 10 freeway and flew east. We passed north of South East Texas airport, and were talking with the Approach control. Our distance from Beaumont to Baton Rouge was approximately 160 nm straight line distance. We flew along the 10 fwy and passed Jennings (3R7), and later Lafayette Regional (LFT). Frode was flying and did a good job with the communication with Approach and the towers he talked with. We were joking hard with Frode at this moment!

We landed in darkness at Baton Rouge Ryan (BTR) where we went in to the FBO, Pai Aero, for weather check and more fuel. We saw the Mayor of Baton Rouge and his staff waiting for a Jet to land. The weather cooperated, and the NVG gave us confidence flying in the dark .Even if there was a lot of traffic along the 10 freeway, we could see emergency landing areas clearly from the cockpit, which you can’t see if you don’t have night vision goggles.

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