One of the true pleasures in my life is flying helicopters.  So for my birthday, Carla took me to Vegas.  While we were there, we rented a helicopter from 702 Helicopters, Inc., at the North Las Vegas Airport.  http://702helicopters.com I always like to have a second pilot aboard, so 702 senior flight instructor Kathleen Castro sat in as co-pilot.  Two sets of eyes and skills are better than one.

Our passengers in the rear seat were my beloved wife, Carla, and new friend Frank “Cowboy” Boggs.  We met Frank in Caesar’s Palace.  He’s a former Marine, Vietnam Vet, and one heck of a nice guy!  We didn’t get his girlfriend’s opinion…

Here are some of the highlight photos from the flight.  We left North Las Vegas Airport  http://www.vgt.aero/index.html and entered McCarran International’s class bravo airspace.  McCarran Int. has a bona fide helicopter air traffic controller, so it was nice to have the giant eye in the sky with us.   We and navigated  south along The Strip to the Luxor, then back to the Stratosphere.  We flew out to Lake Meade and Hoover Dam  http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam before heading north to the Valley of Fire National Monument.

A great flight, lasting 1:45

Photo op!

Downtown Las Vegas

Hoover Dam

Engineering at its Best

Valley of Fire

Borrow Pit

Approach to 702 Helicopters, Inc.

Back Safe!