In the above photo we are approaching The Tides restaurant at Bodega Bay where the film The Birds was made by Alfred Hitchcock. This was flight was on Labor Day weekend of 1994 so the beaches were filled with sun bathers. We flew off shore with enough altitude that we would be able to ditch in the breakers away from the beach if we had to, at other times where there was no beach, we flew close enough to the cliffs that we could set down on the land.

Sheila and Pat had fun waving back at the hundreds of people who were excited to see three little helicopters touring up the coast line.

Pat took this shot of Sheila and I flying just over the cliffs heading North from Bodega Bay in the area of Goat Rock.

Pat caught this shadow of Bill's ship as he flew along the base of a cliff between Bodega Bay and Jenner.

Above, On the flight North we passed the town of Jenner By The Sea. It is just West of this bridge on Coast Highway 1 where it crosses the Russian River. We continued North to Fort Brag and then on our way home we returned South to the Russian River shown here.We then flew East following Highway 116 and other roads to keep emergency landing areas within reach as we passed over the Coastal Redwood forest. There were many sand bars and open areas along the river so we had plenty of options should one be needed.

Below, As we flew North we were almost to Fort Bragg when Bill called out on the air to air frequency "I'm going down, I am out of power and am loosing rotor rpm". The winds were really blowing hard off the ocean and Bill had flown into a down draft and tail wind condition that he did not recognize. He was sure that he was loosing his engine.

I could see what was happening so I directed Bill to turn back into the wind toward the ocean. He was able to get his helicopter turned about 100 degrees so that he was about 80 degrees to the wind from the nose of his ship. That was just enough to allow him to set down with no damage but on a down hill slope as you can see in this photo.

Steve and I both landed and assisted Bill in inspecting his ship for any damage or mechanical problems. It was airworthy. Since we were only a few miles from our intended landing area and we were already on the ground, we decided to have lunch right there on the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.