After a few minutes, all those on our flight were called, and as we walked out to the helicopter, the pilot explained some basic rules. He showed us the cockpit and its safety equipment and then we had a picture taken in front of the helicopter. [Of course you did. Who would not want to buy that later? They have to be business savvy there. They are called “Maverick Tours” after all.]
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| Chantelle gets to ride in a chopper over Vegas at night | |||
Once everyone was in, we belted up and the pilot began the flight. Lucky had let us borrow one of his GoPro cameras, so we started it and tried to film Chantelle. The cockpit turned out to be just too dark, though, so after a few seconds we turned the camera to the view of The Strip at night. [Having seen the video already, we can tell you that a lot of it appears to be shots of “night at night” but we can hardly complain about weird videos around here. We do have a video of a little toy hamster singing “Kung Foo Fighting” somewhere on the site.]
To say it was a memorable experience would be too much of an understatement. The view takes your breath away. After a short flight of around 10-15 minutes we were back landing in front of the hub. [It’s not like the rates are a secret or anything, so we can tell you that this little breathtaking experience cost them about $25 a minute, which — if you get to take Chantelle with you — still might be worth it.]
Chantelle and I quickly took snaps of the helicopter as we headed back into the hub. We thanked the pilot and headed to the desk to look at the pictures they had taken … and waited. The people behind the desk asked if we’d chosen our picture and both Chantelle and I pointed out that there were not any pictures there. One of them came around to look and was surprised to see the picture holders empty. Someone had forgotten to do that part. [Chantelle. She’s distracting. We blame her.]
While they printed ours, I asked them how many trips they get through in a day and they said it was around a hundred flights a day and that this hub was being made into a VIP one, and another hub was going to be opening for the more normal trips. We purchased the picture and the DVD [Of course they did,], but they said the DVD would take 4-6 weeks to arrive. We took another shuttle bus back to our hotel, and Chantelle was all smiles after her experience. [It was “awesome” if we remember the video correctly.] (In fact it was only ten days after the flight that the DVD arrived on my doorstep back in the UK.) [Here’s a question: When you deliver a package to a London address, can you just give it to the dude in the really tall hat at the door, or does he take you to another dude with a really tall hat who can take you up the “lift” where the butler can meet you?]
Chantelle did a video diary to wrap up the day, still with her Vegas hoodie on as she was cold. She then went off to her room and her bed while the rest of us headed to the pub. [So Chantelle’s distracting and she’s a wimp. Good thing she looks great naked and wet.]
As a bonus for this post, once we got back to the UK, we did a shoot with Chantelle to wrap everything up, and we’ve included a gallery of pictures of Chantelle from that day, naturally in a shower oiling herself up (as you do). You’ll notice she’s sporting a different look or as she put it, "I need to cut my fringe." [All of the sudden Living on the Fringe doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.]