Helicopter Tour News

There are tons of helicopter and tour plane operations at this airport. There is no taxiway, so you have to use the runway to taxi. After I started my engine, I patiently waited on one private plane and one tour plane both of which had departed on runway 35. The wind was favoring 35 and judging by the wind sock, it was gusting to 15 knots from about 320 degrees. After the tour plane took off, I took runway 35, and that upset another tour plane that was lining up on runway 17 for some unknown reason. The wind didn't favor this runway and the last three operations were on 35. The pilot said something unintelligible and then said he couldn't land with me on the end of the runway. I continued to taxi to the end of the runway - no place else for me to go. I noticed the windsock was showing some strong activity that would make anyone with any sense want to use runway 35 rather than 17, so I advised the tour pilot that he'd have a strong tailwind if he landed on 17. I took off and saw the tour plane in an extended base leg for 17. I turned crosswind and got the heck out of there.

The flight back to North Vegas was nice, too. I was eventually told to overfly the airport at no lower than 3500 and to make right traffic for 12 Right. The wind was from 070 at 6 with some gusts that I felt on short final. I managed to get her down safely and had a great time doing it.

I only recommend going to 1G4 for the experience of landing at an interesting airport, no so much for the tours. All told, this was a great day of VFR flying in severe clear weather. 2.0 hours of cross country with two take offs and two landings other than the three that I did for the check ride.

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I was told that Napali has many originally spectacular feature for visitors. Napali is not like what we think. If you never come to this place, maybe you will feel different because it's not like a Miami beach or other Hawaii beach as what you think. Napali is stand narrow valleys ending abruptly at the sea. It's truly a land of paradise. There are no roads in or along the Na Pali Coast, but it is accessible by hiking, boating, kayaking or from a helicopter. It's full of thrill!

But there's something that you will never forget about Napali. If I have a chance to stay here, I bet this will be the best holiday I have ever had. Napali also offers many beautiful activities around the Kauai itself. Just get out from your chalet and go for a Kauai whale watching. You will sea the big mammals on earth in front of your eyes. The whales journey across vast oceans, navigating by instinct alone. What an incredible experience.

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Viator.com, the travel website best known for their unending tour options, customer reviews and skipping lines, has a particularly great deal on Vegas night helicopter rides. Viator actually has 5,500 tours and activities throughout 400+ destinations in 75 countries, but my eye caught this Sin City helicopter deal because I’ve always wanted to take a Strip flight.

Deal: The Vegas Night Strip Helicopter Flight is only $90 $63 and includes a free pick up at a Strip hotel and a glass of champagne before departure. I’ve surfed around and haven’t found a better price for a night flight on the strip. Even the tours on Vegas.com are $89. You can check out a video of the helicopter ride on the Vegas Night Strip Helicopter Flight page, or read any of the 85 customer reviews—but I’d rather get the surprise of the real thing rather than watch the video first.

Have you ever taken a night helicopter ride over the Strip and downtown Las Vegas? Was it everything you hoped it’d be?

Caveat: Passengers weighing more than 250 pounds will have to buy an additional seat for half the price.

When: The deal is valid daily through December 31, 2007 (confirm availability for particular dates via the online booking process).

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We have been having a great time here at Po’Ipu beach, the southernmost tip of Kauai. The Hyatt is beautiful with flowing pools, lagoons and amazing surf. Yesterday we had our helicopter tour with Inter-Island Helicopters. Heather was not really too excited about the idea. Our flight was in an open door Hughes 500 Helicopter capable of speeds up to 140 mph! In the 2 hour trip we covered the entire island and landed at a remote waterfall for lunch. Fortunately we had a great pilot who flew two tours in Iraq. Heather and I sat up front with the pilot and he made it very smooth and informative the entire trip. The time was amazing and Heather really loved it- especially swimming in the waterfall.

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I was supposed to do the heli-hike today along with 5 other girls on the bus. We got up early and were at the Glacier guides place by 8.30 am like we were told, we got all the boots and jackets and stuff on ready to get on the helicopter and it got canceled because the clouds had come down too low and the wind had picked up high on the mountain - I was so gutted. We booked on the two later trips but the cloud never lifted and just got worse - I guess thats the luck of the draw but I really wanted to do that (",) I could have done a hike up the glacier but didn't see the point in spending money to climb up there when visibility was so poor so me, emma and michelle decided at least to walk to the base of the glacier -it was an 8km walk (in miles thats almost 5 miles) return hike - fortunately most of it was flat so it was pretty easy going and didn't actually feel like 5 miles. The views of the glacier from the ground weren't too bad although the cloud had started to creep down further and it was hard to get pictures where you can differentiate the snow from the cloud unfortunately. How much do I wish I;d done the heli-hike yesterday!! still its all good and i'm hoping I might at least be able to do a helicopter ride in Wanaka or Queenstown in the next couple of days!!

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You can Google the words "Grand Canyon" and "helicopter" and find numerous companies that provide these day trips. They offer tours by charter bus, helicopter or small plane. When you get there you can hop in a Hummer or on a pontoon boat, peer over the new Grand Canyon Skywalk or have a picnic lunch and a champagne toast.

We chose the Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopter Tours unique option to fly there via helicopter, land on the canyon floor, enjoy a picnic lunch and walk around. An added bonus was that a shuttle provided hotel-door-to-airport-hangar-door service.

The only thing to worry about was the possibility of airsickness. (Dramamine to the rescue.)

Papillon has been around since 1965 and takes up to 7,000 tourists to see the Grand Canyon each month. Our shuttle deposited us to the nearby Boulder City Airport — yes, the city created for the workers who built the Hoover Dam — where we and others huddled to watch a safety video and wait to be assigned to a helicopter.

The 30 or so who waited with us were from England, Spain, Holland and Australia, as well as cities across the United States.

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