When Aaron and I bought N2205U it was our dream retirement “vehicle of choice.”  We always thought instead of traveling in an RV when we retired, that an airplane would be our preferred “ride.”  Also, the word retirement never fit our program because we are too young, financially not ready, nor do we see that anytime in the near future or even 20+ years from now.  But when the opportunity presented itself to purchase this wagon, we took it and have always wanted to load up the family and use it that way it should be used.  So at the end of September, we did just that!  We loaded up the family and made a secretive quick trip to see my favorite niece and sister-in-law…oh ya…and my brother!  Just kidding Toddie Tu Tu.  

It was a 7 hour flight and we broke it up into a few separate stops to stretch our legs and eat some snacks (for some reason road trips always make you hungry)!  I think we had Todd totally unaware of our arrival until about an hour left to land…plus we needed a lift to his house and a set of wheels…so logistically we needed to let him know our plan lol.  It also let us get Zoey to the airport to see us land, which was pretty exciting from our view to see her excited to greet us.  

It was a super quick trip as Aaron only had a few days, and with no one else able to fly this plane back to Arizona, we packed in as much excitement as we could in the 4 days as we possibly could.  

On the way home, we had to navigate our way thru a pretty intense thunderstorm and dad and Aaron were checking their iPads and the weather radar minute by minute.  It provided mom and I a little excitement but they did an amazing job getting us home safely and one of the most amazing sunsets to touch down and land.  We had a surreal experience in the airplane and one that we hope we can duplicate in the near future.  

Fire season started off in May in Alberta this year and Aaron and crew were in Red Lake for about 3 weeks and flew almost 100 hours on a fire. I stayed in Arizona for the month of May and June to wrap up a few things I had going on my end and take care of Fraizer as it didn’t look like we had much more time with our 4-legged fur baby.  We also were super busy trying to get all of our paperwork submitted to go to Australia with a 61 in the fall once our fire season ended as well as submit for the U.S. Forest Service CWN Contracts for the next 5 years.  It sems that work never ends :). 

After a month or so apart, I flew to Alberta to meet up with Aaron on our 14th Anniversary (July 5th) and standby for our next “fire call.”  Two days later we loaded up the 61 and flew it across most of Canada to Ontario where we met up with 2 other HeliCarrier machines (another 61 and the Super Puma) and had about a 2 week contract on fires there.  I love Ontario with all the beautiful lakes…but with lakes and summer come mosquitoes….and not just little guys either…the BIG ones.  So after a 2 week stint we were ready to go and head west.  

We had a lift job lined up in B.C. so once again, loaded up the machine and flew back across most of Canada westbound.  I’m getting pretty use to these journeys and have a perfect seat in the back of the chopper with my own bubble window and 180 degree view, so needless to say the journey or ride NEVER gets old for me.  

Once the job was complete we got hired on in Penticton and spent almost another 2 weeks there.  We had a little time at night to enjoy the beautiful scenery around us.  After our contract ended it was time to get FIZA ready to go for a few lift jobs and then ready for her inaugural trip across the pond to Australia…so you guessed it…back in the chopper we went and ferried it once again across Canada to the head-shed…Quebec!