I have been flying on airplanes since I was a little girl, and my stomach still jumps into my throat when coming in for a landing. Taking off pushes you hard into the back of your seat. Landing shakes you around, sometimes quite violently.
I recently discovered that not all flying is created equal when I took a ride with White Rabbit Heli Tours in Spokane. Owner and helicopter pilot Alan Bly told me it would be a completely different sensation from flying in an airplane
“You just float off the ground, float down the taxiway and take off,” he said. I wasn’t very nervous, but I also wasn’t sure he was completely telling the truth.
It took a few minutes to get buckled in, headsets on and the heliroused and ready to fly Inside my headset, the noise of the engine and blades seemed far away, and I could hear Bly talking with the flight tower. Finally, he said into his microphone that we were ready for take off. “Don’t worry,” he says. “I’ll make it just like a magic carpet ride – nice and easy.” And just like that, we were hovering.
We rose gracefully over Felts Field in the heart of Spokane and made our way over the train tracks toward downtown. It was a bit of a windy day, so the bird rocked gently a few times. But my breath was more taken away by the roaring Spokane Falls, majestic churches and the “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” view of the city, as Bly calls it.
It was truly exceptional, and I think I was glowing by the time we circled back toward the airstrip. My face hurt from smiling.
“Helicopters are still pretty exotic for most people,” Bly said. He has been flying for about 10 years. With White Rabbit for three of those years, he has been changing people’s minds about flying and showing them the Inland Northwest from a fresh perspective.
Bly is a son of the Inland Northwest. After graduating from college, he spent nine years working his way through corporate America, where he unwittingly discovered the allure of a helicopter. Stationed in Alaska, he worked close to an Era Helicopters base. During the summer, he would watch the helis take off and land, and the daily sight planted a seed. Five years later, burned out, travelled out, and living in San Francisco, he was done. He quit his job, moved back to Spokane, went to flight school and started working toward starting his own business doing something he loved – flying.
Although summer is his busiest time, Bly flies clients year round on seven different tours just 500 feet above the ground. That’s not something you can or would do with a commercial airplane. “I call it the 500 Foot Club,” he said. “You can’t really see faces, but you can see people down there, you can see cars, you can see what’s happening.”
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White Rabbit’s tours start at 15-20 minutes. I flew the city tour, which is Bly’s most popular and the most budget-friendly. If you are looking for a farther-reaching ride, the 40-minute tours take you to Coeur d’Alene, on an exploration of a number of lakes, or to Mt. Spokane. His second most popular is the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene tour, which flies through downtown Spokane, toward Liberty Lake, up the Spokane River, and into a pristine view of the North end of Lake Coeur d’Alene. You can also book a custom tour, if you would like to survey some rural property from the air, or need to take aerial photographic documentation that a construction job has been completed. The helicopter fits two people.
This year, Bly has also diversified the services he offers. He opened a helicopter flight school, which certifies through scenario-based training and focuses on teaching people how to think with the helicopter, rather than just “hitting them over the head with maneuvers.” Maneuvers are important, yes, but Bly believes in the confidence that is built through training pilots to deal with real-life situations.
This summer, he is also hosting six sessions of a two-day flight camp for kids ages 14 to 18. They’ll build a helicopter project on the ground, tour the control tower and the mechanic shop and go up individually with Bly for an hour flight lesson.
Bly is also strengthening his future by pursuing his air taxi license, which he hopes to have completed before the summer is over. This means that he could transport me and my husband from Hayden to Spokane in the morning, and return us in the evening, if we wanted a fun day trip.
Possibilities and gifting new, fresh experiences to people like me are what keep Bly flying. “They’ll start off with white knuckles,” he said, “and by the time we get back, they are relaxed and smiling and having a good time. To me, that is the ultimate reward.”
I think I’m a little addicted to heli flying now. See you soon, White Rabbit. N
By S. Michal Bennett
Photography By Joel Riner
As Featured In: 2018 Summer/Fall SPO Edition
