A perfect excuse....

It has been almost a year since I've flown on an executive helicopter. Sometime last summer I was at my desk on my previous job when I received an SMS message from Capt. Joy Roa.





Capt. Joy Roa, owner of Air Ads and now starting his new product Asian Air Safari, wanted me to join him to test flight one of his magnificent collections in his hangar. I've been to the said hangar many times and indeed his collection of aircrafts still amazes me.His collection of planes includes the Cessna 421 (executive twin engined aircraft bought from the Prince of Cambodia), Beechcraft Baron 58 and the Agusta 109 Power Helicopter. Aircraft were only in my dreams I'll be able to fly.

The Agusta 109, owned by one of the tycoons in the Philippines and was ferried on a Jumbo from Europe, is a twin turbine helicopter. Built for executives, has a plush cabin interior, good air-conditioning system and comes with Bose headsets to cancel the noise. It can fit 6 passengers at the back comfortably and cruises somewhere around 150Knots (almost 300KM/H). Of course, the avionics are top of the line as if one was flying an airliner.




The test flight took us around Manila Bay and to the edge of Pampanga. Cruising along Manila Bay, at 500' one can get a good view of Manila and you can see Mt. Arayat which was 80 KM away. The test flight, consisted of hover,high speed and handling tests, was completed flawlessly. In no time we were lining up on Runway 13 and landed at the Air Ads Ramp. Despite the short flight, it was a perfect excuse to get away from a boring desk job.