Colorado Heli-Ops, A Love Affair

Colorado Heli-Ops' Robinson R44 Clipper II (and me) - source: facebook: colorado heliops - photographer: Dennis Pierce - helionphotography.com

What’s even better than going to brunch with your significant other? When that brunch is a ruse hiding an early birthday gift in the form of a helicopter ride!  We were visiting Denver this past weekend when a 10:30 reservation to eat led me to Colorado Heli-Ops. Walk right upstairs when you enter the building, or wait for the employee of Stevens Aviation to tell you to. Prepare to be surrounded by some real helicopter enthusiasts.

Their location offers stunning mountain terrain in close proximity with a major city. This makes it a great place for tour flights, but it doesn’t end there. How many schools offer high altitude mountain training with 12,500 foot peaks and a short flight to get to them? Not many.

I’ve been in a Robinson R44 before but it has always been a regular Raven. They have a 2004 Clipper II which means it has over-water corrosion protection and pop-out floats. It’s also one of the few instrument equipped R44s in Colorado. In addition to that, they have a Schweizer 300c that is so nice and well equipped, it was shown at the Sikorsky and Schweizer booth during Heli-Expo 2008.

Dennis Pierce was the first person I met there and I liked him right away. Besides being one of the owners, he is their aerial photographer and the epitome of it never being too late to pursue your dream of flying. His extensive background in SCUBA diving operations in Hawaii makes him an unlikely candidate to now be found living at high altitude in the Rockies. It just goes to show you can’t fight that flying bug forever, you’ll have to give in eventually, even if it means leaving the beaches of a tropical island to try life in the snow. You can check out his photographic work at Heli-On Photography.

Next I met Nate Roberts, CFI extraordinaire. Working as a hospital lab technician wasn’t adventurous enough for Nate despite his aptitude for the job. Watching the HEMS operations at the hospital convinced him to pursue a career as a pilot instead. Rather than doing what many do, which is to just fantasize about changing their careers to pursue a dream, Nate actually did it. He got his private and instrument ratings within a year and a half in a 300 all while still working full time at the hospital. Now he has left that career behind and is a full time pilot and instructor at Heli-Ops. He, like the company, subscribes to the “check your ego at the door” motto and is extremely approachable.

I had the choice of flying over downtown Denver or heading to the nearby mountains. That was an easy choice for me so off to the mountains we went. I opted for “doors off” because that’s the answer everyone should give when given the choice. Sure, it was a little colder, but who cares. After a very steady hover while waiting for clearance, off we went for the short ride to a nearby reservoir.  Get ready for some fun updrafts and, if possible, make sure you go over the ridge on the way back where the ground just drops out from under you.

CHO has a facebook page that they update very frequently, check it out here.

Footage from that day:

Tags: 300, coloradoheliops, r44, robinson, schweizer