Cliff got us through the commute traffic and to ASD in time for us to sit in on the shifts briefing and a lecture from an FAA guy…snoozer for us. Then we did our pre-flight…stepping on the scale (horrifying), and all the things that you need to know if something bad were to happen during the flight. We also got our squishy foam earplugs that were very necessary and our little barf bags that were in a small envelope…funny.

I went first for about 20 minutes…they have to burn off some fuel and get things balanced. It was GREAT, I never felt one moment of fear. They immediately flew me through the downtown skyscrapers and then there was an incident that we went to that we circled over for awhile until the ground Coppers had things secure. Then they had to do a flyover of the Police Academy, someone was retiring so they swooped us over the hill (at about 140 mph) and then dove into the basin that the Academy is nestled in….that really felt weird…the g’s made my head feel like it was being compressed and rearranged, and then they said something over their PA to the people below and off we swooped back on patrol.

We went back to ASD to land and pick up Larry. They are very precise when coming onto their pad…they just don’t swoop in and land…they have a whole process they follow….down to one end, turn slowly and then back to the middle or where ever they are going to set down…it was all very fascinating. Larry had to come out under the running rotors, but he’s done it before…he got buckled in and headphones on and up we went.

We were up for two and a half hours. It was always fascinating. I’ve named a few of the pictures, but for most I don’t remember where we were exactly. The Pilot and TFO were great and when they weren’t working a scene they were great and entertaining tour guides…not what they are up there for, but they get bored up there when things aren’t happening. LAPD keeps choppers in the air 20 out of 24 hours a day. Here is a link to their official page…their history and the training required for the pilots and tactical flight officers is really interesting: http://www.lapdonline.org/air_support_division

We went from all four boundaries of LA and that place is HUGE, but you can zip around it pretty quickly at 140-160 mph up there. They flew us low over the ocean so we could look for sea life..we saw a couple of seals. Our flight was scheduled also so we would be up during the sunset and after dark…it was really beautiful. After we landed I was surprised that I needed to get my land legs back. I wasn’t walking as balanced as normal…a little wobbly, entertaining to those with me.

It was almost 9:30 or 21:30 hours and we were starving so Cliff took us to The Original Pantry for food. It has been there since 1924, at its present location since the early 50’s and was great. They have never closed and never been without a customer…pretty amazing place. If we had known they would be bringing out a huge pile of crusty slices of homemade bread and bowls of coleslaw we wouldn’t have ordered anything else. Though we were extremely happy with the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich we split. It was the best ever! The place had great atmosphere and all the waiters were really efficient and pleasant. Then our Secret Squirrel chariot bore us home. Zipped back at that hour…what a day!!! We were pooped but took the time to skim through the 300 pictures before turning in finally about 00:30 hour in the wee hours of the morning (12:30 a.m.). We had the best tour guide ever! The End.