In order to decrease our insurance premium in the R44, Aaron decided to take a safety course for the R44 in Torrence, CA which is where the Robinson Helicopter Factory is located.

We had planned to take the Cherokee 6 over as we needed to have some work done to it on the way home…but upon run-up the vacuum pump suction packed it in….so back to the hangar we went.  Now we easily could have unloaded and loaded up the truck and drove over…but what fun would that be.  So out came the R44 and off we went. 

It probably worked out better anyway as the visibility was pretty low once we arrived and Aaron had to get a special VFR just to land…plus, how cool is it to show up in a Robinson Helicopter right where it came from! 

On the way home we met up with my cousin Sean and his lovely wife and went out to lunch in the wine country.  A fun time was had by all.

My dad has always wanted to see the California Super Bloom, which for those who have never heard of this event, it is a rare desert botanical phenomenon in which unusually high proportion of wildflowers blossom at roughly the same time! 

You must have an unusually wet rainy season in order for this to happen.  Well, the stars couldn’t have aligned any better this year.  We had an almond-drying contract for the R44 in Santa Rosa, CA…so the chopper was perfectly positioned for us to go and pick it up once the contract ended and bring it back to Buckeye. 

So for my dad’s birthday we flew him with us to Santa Rosa and picked up the R44 and flew him over one of the most amazing sites to see from the air.  I think we all felt like rockstars as this was a pretty epic trip for all of us.  Let the pictures speak for themselves.