Up very early this fine Friday. And I did get to fly in a helicopter. For sure this is a more interesting way to fly that a 777. The seats were bench seats along the walls with our luggage down the middle.
There are so many helicopters flying around here. The one I flew in, an Mi-8, could seat 22 or 24 people but there are much larger ones. They say they have the largest helicopters in the world flying around here but I have not seen them yet, however, there are a pair of Chinooks that make at least one mission every day.
Our flight was real good. We stopped at Bagh to drop off a couple of people and pick up a few. It was great scenery though quite smoggy because of all the fires burning for warmth. The large mountains of the Himalayas were visible above the lower mountains we were flying between. It was neat to see trees go by the window yet with the valley a very long way down below.
The co-worker that was with me had never seen snow and when we were flying by the lower mountains, there was some snow on the north sides. He was intrigued with it and was asking me about the snow. This could be a fun month teaching about snowball fights, snowmen, and snow angels.
We made it to Muzaffarabad and using a cell phone, called the comms tent to have the driver come down to pick us up. It is interesting to actually have cell phones amid such devastation. However, it really helps the relief effort.
We made it.