Page 39 - Twin and Turbine September 2017

height of 15 feet, with the main rotor downwash blowing enough air to dry off the fruit, thereby saving the million-dollar crop.
And so, after looking into all this, several years ago we set up a seasonal business with the R44, which keeps the machine in the orchards and available for immediate use should it rain. The pilot is usually Jared, a nephew of mine with a commercial license who is building helicopter time. My only job is to fly over there from time to time in the Cessna 340 to monitor the business and when needed, fly the helicopter. It is sort of a “win-win” deal, in which we make good money, use all our flying machines in a practical way, and yet still have fun doing it. The orchard owner is also usually delighted that in a just a half-hour or so, we are able to save a crop he had spent an entire year working on. An additional benefit is we get to eat all the cherries we want.
Destination: Desert Aire
The trip over to the cherry orchards, which I make every couple of weeks in the 340, is usually flown at 15,000 feet and 200 knots, crossing the Cascades in a southeasterly direction above of a broken layer 2,000 feet below, then paying careful attention to avoid an area of military airspace just south of Wenatchee. The top of descent (TOD) is the FEBUS intersection some 15 minutes from landing at Desert Aire (M94) a 3,600-foot paved strip near the small town of Mattawa, which is located in the middle of orchard country and right on the Columbia River. Most of the time the surrounding foothills are yellow, the temperature in the 90s, and the winds are from the west.
Author Kevin Ware at the conclusion of a long morning
of drying cherry orchards using his R44. Ware discovered this novel use of rotorcraft and developed a pro table side business working the orchards during the six-to-eight-week period leading up to harvest.
Once the airplane is tied down, I then switch over to the helicopter, and that is where the game changes entirely. The helicopter is flown at 0.1 percent of the airplane’s altitude or about 15 feet above the tree tops, usually doing no more than 15 knots, in an area of operation confined to a given orchard measured in acres. Military airspace, and FAR minimal height above ground rules, all become no longer relevant, compared to the looming importance of power lines and other obstructions that seem to blossom at this scale.
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September 2017
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