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Piloting in the cockpit, Bryan Truelock received clearance from air traffic control, then turned a wheel that somewhat resembled a bicycle handlebar. Powering up both rotors for liftoff, he said, “We’re flying.”
The helicopter ascended, pitching up rear first, over South Ocean Boulevard. Huffman Helicopters, on Myrtle Beach’s south end, gives vacationers one of various options for touring the Grand Strand in a more unusual fashion.
With passengers miked-up through the headsets, Truelock said he had spotted a sea turtle swimming earlier, and moving toward the AVX industrial complex and Myrtle Beach International Airport, he pointed out how the Harrelson Boulevard eastern extension to South Kings Highway, opened this past spring, really zigs and zags its away around the southern fringe of city’s Whispering Pines Golf Course.
Jeremy Bass, president of Huffman and sister touring enterprise, Executive Helicopters in North Myrtle Beach, speaking from the company’s hangar, broke down the ratio in time, safety and labor invested to fly a chopper: eight hours of maintenance for every hour of flying.
Even on a hazy, humid afternoon, the view still afforded 10-mile visibility. We counted four piers on this flight – Springmaid Beach Resort and Myrtle Beach State Park, to the south near our takeoff, and in downtown Myrtle Beach, Second Avenue and Pier 14.
A ground-based alternative for viewing the Grand Strand from on-high? Ride the SkyWheel attraction ( www.myrtlebeachskywheel.com).
