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Charlie the follower...

Charie the STAR of the 4th of July Parade

                         H-34 "Charlie" won First Place on the 4th of July in our local home-town parade.

Here is a picture of the old beastie at the beginning of the parade,

 Towmeister Everett Wood posing in front of the H-34.

Here is a picture of the banners on the side of the rotor blades thanking Actor-Author/man of many talents Ben Stein for his generous support over the years. This project could not have happened without his continued support.  And a HUGE THANK YOU to Pend Oreille Mechanical for their generosity in allowing Charlie to nest in their side yard on Hwy 2.  Having her so near the start and end of the parade has removed huge hassles from our parade involvement.

A HUGE, blatant commercial plug here for Pend OReille Mechanical. If you need any heating or air conditioning work done around your home, business or shop, think Pend Oreille Mechanical first.

Doug and Norm are the greatest!

Here is one or our Marine Corps League members showing a boy the helicopter:.

In exchange, the boys mother gave me a big hug. It's true, helicopter pilots get all the chicks!

Here are the grand daughters, Miya and Syanne, from Santa Rosa, CA "driving" Charlie thru town for the parade and blowing bubbles out the windows, too. For the first time ever, we felt comfortable having passengers in the belly. Five  passengers enjoyed the ride and waved flags. True fans!

                         Below, Chris Siler, Ev Wood and Ken Conger await the start of the parade.

Ken is our official photographer.

Chris was visiting from Santa Rosa with two of our grand daughters, who "drove" Charlie through town.

Above is Charlie right at the end of the parade.

Everett Wood once again pulled Charlie with great expertize. We couldn't get the other gate opened at the yard to make the circular driveway, but Ev was able to back Charlie in without a hitch. He da' man!

We are having fun now.

I flew H-34s for the majority of my flying career of 32 years.

Last September I finally finished my book--25 years in the writing--about my experience as a 

USMC H-34 pilot in Vietnam. 

It is available on amazon.com as a paperback or as an ebook.

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Helicopter-Pilot-helicopter-Vietnam/dp/1500936138/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429729233&sr=1-1&keywords=collier+helicopter

I am currently working on two sequels.

One is my grand adventure as a helicopter pilot for Air America (The CIA) in Laos during the war, 

and the other is my experiences as an

H-19 and as an H-34 pilot in Alaska over four summers in Alaska.

Oh, yea, Jet Rangers, too.

Watch this space.

New license plate on the van

I finally got my new license plate on my new van:

John Steinbeck on Helicopter Pilots.

John Steinbeck on Helicopter Pilots.

John Steinbeck, a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winning writer in one of his dispatches to Alicia Patterson at Newsday, part of his assignment to write about what he saw in Vietnam in 1966-67, just a year before his death.

“Alicia, I wish I could tell you about these pilots. They make me sick with envy. They ride their vehicles the way a man controls a fine, well-trained quarter horse. They weave along stream beds, rise like swallows to clear trees, they turn and twist and dip like swifts in the evening. I watch their hands and feet on the controls, the delicacy of the coordination reminds me of the sure and seeming slow hands of (Pablo) Casals on the cello. They are truly musician’s hands and they play their controls like music and they dance them like ballerinas and they make me jealous because I want so much to do it. Remember your child night dream of perfect flight free and wonderful? It's like that, and sadly I know I never can. My hands are too old and forgetful to take orders from the command center, which speaks of updrafts and side winds, of drift and shift, or ground fire indicated by a tiny puff or flash, or a hit and all these commands must be obeyed by the musicians hands instantly and automatically. I must take my longing out in admiration and the joy of seeing it. Sorry about that leak of ecstasy, Alicia, but I had to get it out or burst.”

John Steinbeck, a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winning writer in one of his dispatches to Alicia Patterson at Newsday, part of his assignment to write about what he saw in Vietnam in 1966-67, just a year before his death.

“Alicia, I wish I could tell you about these pilots. They make me sick with envy. They ride their vehicles the way a man controls a fine, well-trained quarter horse. They weave along stream beds, rise like swallows to clear trees, they turn and twist and dip like swifts in the evening. I watch their hands and feet on the controls, the delicacy of the coordination reminds me of the sure and seeming slow hands of (Pablo) Casals on the cello. They are truly musician’s hands and they play their controls like music and they dance them like ballerinas and they make me jealous because I want so much to do it. Remember your child night dream of perfect flight free and wonderful? It's like that, and sadly I know I never can. My hands are too old and forgetful to take orders from the command center, which speaks of updrafts and side winds, of drift and shift, or ground fire indicated by a tiny puff or flash, or a hit and all these commands must be obeyed by the musicians hands instantly and automatically. I must take my longing out in admiration and the joy of seeing it. Sorry about that leak of ecstasy, Alicia, but I had to get it out or burst.”