Where are the helicopters?

[Joe Copalman]

We're about halfway through the first photo challenge, and only one of us has been lucky enough to score a shot (and a righteous one at that) of a helicopter so far.  

I thought I'd just open up this thread for everyone to throw their ideas out there on where to get good shots of helicopters over the next two weeks.  I'll start with a few:

1. Hospitals.  Some hospitals have helipads that are at street-level with lots of open space around them.  Scottsdale Osborne and that smaller hospital near gateway both have elevated pads.

2. Gateway.  PHI has one TwinStar, and Native has at least two there.  Just a matter of being there when one of them departs or arrives.  

3. Falcon Field.  MD and Boeing are both out that way and conduct test flights on weekdays.  I spent an hour at Falcon last week and didn't catch a darned thing.  Mesa PD also flies from a pad near Anzio Landing.  

4. Rittenhouse Aux Field, Queen Creek.  This is right across the street from my house, at the northeast corner of Ocotillo and Schnepf.  C Co, 1/189th CSB fly several daytime and evening training flights out there throughout the week.  Again, this is another be-there-when-they're-there thing.  Seems that when they're out there in the daytime, it's between 9:30am and 11:30am.  

5. Anyone know if they've got firefighting helos up at Prescott still?  (Bonus - it's cooler).

Please add any other suggestions to the list.

All the best,

Joe

[Jay Beckman]

There was a "unusual" Twinstar on the ramp at Payson the other day.  Looked as if it was sporting uprated engines and it had pecularly "beefy" rotor blades.  There was a crew of guys slinging up bundles of gear possibly to be airlifted to the fire(s) NE of Payson.  Unfortunately, I had a right seat full of CFI so I didn't have a camera with me. 

Just throwing it out there.