Helicopter paid for! More money needed for rebuild.

In the most recent post I stated that we were "within a very few dollars" of paying for the helicopter. This morning I had a call from good friend Rich Faletto,* retired Air Force, said he would like to meet me at our local coffee house and make a donation. "SURE!" I said, "Meet you at 10:30." We met; Rich handed me a check for $100. Thank you, Rich. That left us just $20 short for the full purchase price of the "dawg." I mentioned that to the group of friends I was sitting with, which included Marilyn Hales, the WW2 Marine Corps veteran who made the very first donation to kick off the fund raising campaign. (See March 3rd blog entry with picture of Marilyn.) Marilyn reached into her wallet and handed me a twenty! She was the first to donate, and she is the last to donate towards paying for the helicopter. THANK YOU AGAIN Marilyn!

But please do not let that stop you from donating. We still have to get the "dawg" relocated to Sandpoint from Everett, WA, get a few parts attached, and some kind of paint job on old "Charlie." We may also have to buy a large 5th wheel trailer or goose-neck, for moving it around. So please feel free to send a few bucks out our way. A donation does not have to be big. Most of the donations so far have been for $100 or more, but we will be glad to accept $50, $20, or even $10.00. Keep those cards and letters coming folks!

*Rich Faletto is the author of recently published

"FOUR-ELEVEN! Pulaskis, Planes & Forest Fires"

It is a his personal memoir of working his way up from trail maintenance worker to observer pilot, U.S. Forest Service on the Chelan Ranger District, Wenatchee National Forest, WA. After college he joined the U.S. Air Force, retiring from there after a full career. I have read Rich's book and can highly recco it to anyone as a good, honest account of what it was like in those early days of Forest Service flying. He knew and worked with some of the early greats. Lots of pictures. Rich is also mentoring me on my memoirs of a lifetime career of helicopter flying.

Here are photos of a Marine Corps H-34D from HMM-363 approaching and landing atop Marble Mountain just S.E. of DaNang, Viet Nam.  Summer, 1967.   Notice the green cloud just below the helicopter.  This is from a smoke grenade, to give us wind speed and direction for landing.  The Marines maintained an observer post atop the mountain. (O.P.)