Episode 342: R-44 Helicopter Flight Downtown Chicago Shoreline

Well, I'm glad that we have the privilege that we can still do this. I can remember training and coming up here with my instructors and just going, are you kidding me? They let us come up here. Just fly right through here. It's wonderful.

Live to fly another day.

Helicopterground.com so today we've got Chris hauser, who you may not have seen for a while. Chris was off flying ems for a few years. Now he's off on another venture. Maybe he'll tell us about that here in a minute. And we are going to go downtown chicago to sightsee number one. And also we're going to go check out the vertiport, right? You call it vertiport, right? Ver. Yep, vertiport. I have never been there and I haven't been to chicago, I figured, in over 12 years in a helicopter and it's only, you know, an hour away from where we are. I've been up to the lake. But I said, you know what, let's go to chicago. Chris went to, got the R44 for us in tennessee and brought it back. And he had some time this week and he said, hey, you want to fly this week? And I said, yes, please come down. So today when he got there, I go, let's go to chicago. And we loaded up the rest of the hogs crew sitting back behind me, Both running cameras, giving you shots to the outside. So we're going to film what we can and we'll give you some nice shots downtown chicago. And hopefully the batteries are holding out. We'll shoot an approach in and out of the vertiport. We're not going to land because you need to actually contact them to land. So we're just going shoot, approach in there and maybe show you some other fun cool stuff. It's an amazing privilege. I think that we can get in an aircraft and do what we're doing right now. Go fly. Freaking downtown chicago. It's absolutely amazing. Chicago has one of the most amazing skylines I think, in the country, maybe even in the world. I Chicago skyline is just absolutely incredible. And this is cool in the day, But I'll tell you what, seeing this at night, oh, my God. And this again brings me back to 23, 24 years ago, late 90s. And here we are heading towards downtown, all the lights popping up. And I can remember just going, oh, my God. And the lights are just endless when you're up here at night in a helicopter. Yeah, 500, 700ft. It's just like this. Chicago in the suburbs is so Freaking big.

It's unbelievable.

And we're coming back over to the shoreline. Yes. So we're just going to come back.

Over here to the shoreline. We'll fly south. And again, as you mentioned, we're in. We're in nobody's airspace right now. We're below the bravo. We're past midway, we're past the Charlie. And this is a common charter or not a common sightseeing tour up here. They take off from the vertiport, they come northbound, they fly the shoreline because we're going to go right over navy pier. We'll go over soldier field.

So I see tours advertised all the time for helicopters in Chicago. Do you know where they're flying out of the vertiport. Oh, they are going in. Out of there. Yeah.

Okay.

Yep. Oh, wow, look at that view.

But also, I don't know who they are.

I don't remember.

They used to be hot and heavy during. Before COVID And then once Covid sure hit there. There was somebody based here. But once Covid hit, they left. And I don't know what they're.

You know, I don't.

I don't know where they went now. But I do know they come up.

Like on the weekends and do weekend tours and. Well, I'm glad that we have the privilege that we can still do this. I can remember training and coming up here with my instructors and just going, are you kidding me? They let us come up here, fly right through here. It's wonderful. And we will cut. We'll mention the old migs filled as we go through up here. Oh, yeah. Chicago had that mayor.

Yep.

That came in the middle of the night and destroyed migs field. And it was a great little beautiful airport that people loved in a service downtown Chicago. And that jerk came in in the middle of the night with a bulldozer cutting big x's in the Runway. What a nightmare.

And I think that was before I.

Started flying, but I.

He literally came in the middle of night.

He did.

And they put. Yeah, they chopped up the Runway in the middle of night.

Yeah.

One day it was active, and the next day you had nothing.

Yeah, exactly. So that was a shame.

Make another radio call here. Chicago area traffic, helicopter 181Mike Bravo, just north of the city, north of downtown along the Lake Shore, southbound 1500. Chicago area traffic.

What do you think, girls? It's pretty. After snapping pictures with my phone as well, I want to do the same thing. Snap a couple pictures.

Coming up on navy pier.

I kind of swing out just a little Bit.

So we can get the Ferris wheel. So that all that you're feeling right now is all that's coming through the skyscrapers.

Yep.

And hitting our tail. Wind's already coming out of the southwest. So now it's going in through the. Through those buildings, through the skyscrapers, hitting our tail. There's some tours or something. Looks like they're doing a tour through the river, through Chicago there.

Yeah. What a privilege. Directly ahead, what you're seeing is the park that at one point was Mink's field. Yeah. Didn't they.

Didn't they flood it or something too?

I thought. I guess they did because you could see where that water is would be or part of the Runway used to be. And that was, you know, early for me. I had started flying and I was up here. So because I was flying in this area we all, we knew the details. When it happened I was like. Well you can still see the. What would have been like a control. Was that controlled or uncontrolled build? That was uncontrolled. I think it was uncontrolled. I remember I was waiting before me. But you got like a. A tower looking kind of building down there. And that was there back in the day.

Here's Soldier Field.

Oh, let's get a shot of that.

And then if you hit, if you go straight west from right here you'll pick up the vertiport because there's. There's the chimney.

Yeah.

The smokestack. There's the railroad track. The railroad tracks that we followed in. And it's gonna be right over there.

Nice. So I can see where that. You're right. That smokestack, that highway and then the road tracks is perfect landmarks to figure out how to get in there.

And the only thing you have to be aware of is you know, like I said the class Charlie inner circle is just to the southwest.

Nice.

Awesome.

Well, I think before we run out of battery juice, I think we might wrap it up because I want to be able to look around and. And enjoy this a little bit. So. Helicopterground.com we are Helicopter Line Ground School but online over 12 years now. We have private commercial instrument CFI courses. We have a 24 hour test flight on all the monthly courses. You can go in, check it out, no cost. Decide to keep the training or unsubscribe and it won't cost you a penny. Or keep the training, go month to month, cancel anytime, come back anytime. Or you can take a monthly option or you can go for the big professional pilot option which check our website@helopterground.com because we always got cool stuff going on. Like we just got in a brand new Hogs embroidered backpack that's available with Propilot but you never know what's going to be changing and happening. So all of our courses are there. We have FAA written. Our super our Hog superfan Michael Wirth has been staying on top of all of our FAA written test practice courses. So a lot of our members don't even realize it's there and they've paid for another written test practice. It's like we have written test practice for private commercial instruments CFI and our guy is in there all the time making sure that you have updated FAA questions. You're not getting outdated crap from five years ago. So we have written test practice and I could go on and on with the benefits. The world in our world, everything is doubled. The price of everything hogs has not. We are still at the same price as we were at the beginning of COVID before the world went to and yes, as we're flying over beautiful Chicago in that water we could get the full PDF for free. Right here is Private Pilot 101 a helicopter training blueprint. You can get this free as a PDF. You could get the paperback, you can get the Kindle and you can get the audiobook. Now the privateblueprint.com that's it right Lindsey?

Yep.

The easiest way is privateblueprint.com you can get either the full book in PDF for free download immediately and you can get the paperback version there and it'll take you to take you to Amazon and then we got another one where I'll sign them for you and we'll send from the Hogs hanger but I don't remember what that we'll put the link down below the video.

Yeah we will.

Or you can email Heather. You can email Heather too. Will sell you one and I'll sign it for you and imprint whatever you want like hi Dave, you're the greatest R44 pilot of all time. Kenny color 2024 whatever. So helicopterground.com for all our courses privateblueprint.com thanks for tuning in. Put your comments down below about flying in out of Chicago. Thank Chris Hauser for being our captain today and giving us the latest greatest tips and tricks for the heliport vertiport in Chicago, Illinois. So helicopterground. Com Peace out. Goodbye. See you next video when you feel.

The pressure to fly but know the right decision is to stay on the ground, hit the Hogs no go and live to fly another day. Helicopterground. Com.