Helicopter Happenings

The 4 maytrees' children having clubbed together to buy me a birthday
present of a Saturday helicopter joyride, I duly took off
from Redhill Aerodrome in a tiny 'copter yesterday. By coincidence
the flight path went back over the same part of Wimbledon Common
that I had jogged over at ground level a few hours previously,
thence by way of Richmond Park to London.


Flying over the River Thames at c. 750 feet provided
some really spectacular views of London from vantage points
that I had not enjoyed before, including redundant
Battersea and Lots Road Power Stations, various Thames bridges,
London Railway stations and trains, The Houses of Parliament
London Eye, City buildings like the Gerkin, Canary Wharf, the ill fated Dome,
Thames Barrier, Greenwich Royal Observatory and the London Marathon Blackheath and Greenwhich starts.

The tiny size of the 'copter made for an exhilerating flight,
which was over all too soon. Redhill Aerodrome to Wimbledon Station
by car takes about 1 hour; by helicopter the same journey takes 12 minutes.