$3.059

Sio and I went to the St. Louis County Fair and Air Show around midday today.

I surprised her with the suggestion that we take the helicopter rides offered by the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation, and she was thrilled. We decided that we would forego going to the flightline and watching the airshow up close, and instead paying our money, and waiting in line for our turn to fly on a Huey Iroquois.

We waited nearly 90 minutes in line for our flight, and man was it worth it! Sio was seated in the gunner’s position on one side, and I was dangling my feet out the other side (the doors were wide open during the flight). I really thought that the ride would be rougher and bumpier, but it was as smooth as could be. We gently took off, and headed north from Spirit, crossed I-64, and flew into St. Charles county. We flew over the office I work in, and over a ton of landmarks I recognized pretty easily from the air. As we prepared for our return, we banked hard one direction and then the other, and from my view, it looked like there was nothing between me and the Earth below — that was cool! We even got an extra treat while flying back — the B-1B was making its pass as we approached the airport, so we got a bird’s eye view of that beautiful aircraft.

Fifteen minutes after we took off, we returned to the airport, both of us babbling like little kids (easier for Sio, since she is a kid!), and vowing to make that ride again next year. Nothing could top that ride, so we decided to call it a day, and head for lunch and home, revelling in our first helicopter flight.