Chop chop: Pilot Lina Rott of Heli Co New Orleans takes to the skies
Higher than Monkey Hill
by Paul Oswell
The New Orleans landscape. Its inarguable flatness is great for cycling (if you subtract the heat, potholes and the drivers) but not ideal for inspiring views. Sure, you can visit the excellent Vue Orleans, or take in the cityscape from rooftop bars (Hot Tin, I’m looking at and from you), or peak through the concrete blocks of a high-rise parking lot, but there aren’t that many places to take it all in from on high.
Even if you can scale the towering 28 feet of our highest natural point, Monkey Hill, I don’t think the rewards are miles of sprawling panoramas. The only real solution is to take to the skies. In the absence of Private Jet money or a friendship with Taylor Swift such that she would allow to browse her private aviation hangar, Heli Co New Orleans offers a more accessible option. The company is based at the beautiful Lakefront Airport. If you’ve never been, it’s worth a drive out there just to see the place. It’s a small facility with wonderful Art Deco (or maybe Art Nouveau?) architecture, and the decorative ceiling in the main terminal is worth the trip alone.
After a short check-in and safety video, we were lead to our helicopter just outside on the runway. The company uses relatively small but very nimble Robinson R-44 helicopters. I’ve taken Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls helicopter tours before, in helicopters for larger groups. These are smaller craft, with a large proportion of window area, perfect for taking photos or video. With just two of us passengers and our pilot Lina, it immediately felt very personal.
We’d booked the City Tour, a 15-mile, 10-ish minute flight that swoops over downtown and back. With perfectly clear and calm weather conditions, it was an idyllic day and in the absence of cloud coverage, the whole city and beyond would be on show. Strapped in and fitted with headsets so that we could all talk to each other, Lina fired up the bird (as I’m sure nobody cool calls it) and we were soon even beyond the escape velocity of the mighty Monkey Hill.
If you’ve never taken a helicopter ride, it’s an interesting sensation. Even if you’ve been in one of those small commuter planes that domestic airlines sometimes use from their hubs, it’s a completely different feeling. You barely feel any of the mechanics or engines at work as you slowly hover, first vertically upwards, and then tilting to turn in the sky, completely unfettered by the linear physics of airplanes.
Lina doesn’t show off, she didn’t start pulling any elaborate stunts or anything like that, but it definitely feels spatially liberating once you’re airbourne. Once at our cruising altitude, almost the entire city is immediately visible (I challenge anyone not to try and work out where their house is).
We spin around over the Lakefront Airport, then on over Pontchartrain Beach towards City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Soon after, the Fair Grounds and then the French Quarter and Jackson Square hove into view. It feels strange, seeing something so familiar from an angle you’ve never experienced before - incoming flights (that I’ve taken, at least) don’t seem to fly in over the city so aerial views of, say, Louis Armstrong Park are new to me. We happened to be flying on the day of the Red Dress Run, and so a long trail of scarlet meandered out from the center of the French Quarter. Bourbon Street was clearly visible, before we peeled away over St. Louis Cemeteries #1 & #2, onto Algiers Point and memorable vistas of the Mississippi River.
Lina makes for an excellent guide, pointing out landmarks that out of town visitors might not know about. It’s handy for locals, too, who might not be used to getting their city bearings from quite this angle. Before long, you’re lost in the views, daydreaming of traveling this way every day, never again having to lose your cool as people ignore protocol at the I-10 Westbank/Claiborne split.
Sadly, not even the millions of dollars that I make from running a hyper-local online arts and culture magazine afford me such luxuries. All great things must come to an end, but Lina makes it a soft landing, both socially and aeronautically, with her expert navigation and guide skills. Photos of your day, commemorative certificates and the like are all available as souvenirs.
If you want to mix things up, the company offers a variety of tours, with 10-, 30- and even 60-mile flights on the menu. I really want to return for one of their nighttime tours, and special occasions (including wedding proposals) are all possible. You can even fly to attractions such as Zip Nola, or to Frenier Landing for lunch on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. In short, you can live the life of the cast of Succession or [insert pop star of your choice], if only for a day. Be warned, though…it’s an easy mode of transport to get used to.
Paul Oswell was a guest of Heli Co New Orleans. Tours start at $94pp, with all tour options and booking available through their website - click here.
by Paul Oswell
The New Orleans landscape. Its inarguable flatness is great for cycling (if you subtract the heat, potholes and the drivers) but not ideal for inspiring views. Sure, you can visit the excellent Vue Orleans, or take in the cityscape from rooftop bars (Hot Tin, I’m looking at and from you), or peak through the concrete blocks of a high-rise parking lot, but there aren’t that many places to take it all in from on high.
Even if you can scale the towering 28 feet of our highest natural point, Monkey Hill, I don’t think the rewards are miles of sprawling panoramas. The only real solution is to take to the skies. In the absence of Private Jet money or a friendship with Taylor Swift such that she would allow to browse her private aviation hangar, Heli Co New Orleans offers a more accessible option. The company is based at the beautiful Lakefront Airport. If you’ve never been, it’s worth a drive out there just to see the place. It’s a small facility with wonderful Art Deco (or maybe Art Nouveau?) architecture, and the decorative ceiling in the main terminal is worth the trip alone.
After a short check-in and safety video, we were lead to our helicopter just outside on the runway. The company uses relatively small but very nimble Robinson R-44 helicopters. I’ve taken Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls helicopter tours before, in helicopters for larger groups. These are smaller craft, with a large proportion of window area, perfect for taking photos or video. With just two of us passengers and our pilot Lina, it immediately felt very personal.
We’d booked the City Tour, a 15-mile, 10-ish minute flight that swoops over downtown and back. With perfectly clear and calm weather conditions, it was an idyllic day and in the absence of cloud coverage, the whole city and beyond would be on show. Strapped in and fitted with headsets so that we could all talk to each other, Lina fired up the bird (as I’m sure nobody cool calls it) and we were soon even beyond the escape velocity of the mighty Monkey Hill.
If you’ve never taken a helicopter ride, it’s an interesting sensation. Even if you’ve been in one of those small commuter planes that domestic airlines sometimes use from their hubs, it’s a completely different feeling. You barely feel any of the mechanics or engines at work as you slowly hover, first vertically upwards, and then tilting to turn in the sky, completely unfettered by the linear physics of airplanes.
Lina doesn’t show off, she didn’t start pulling any elaborate stunts or anything like that, but it definitely feels spatially liberating once you’re airbourne. Once at our cruising altitude, almost the entire city is immediately visible (I challenge anyone not to try and work out where their house is).
We spin around over the Lakefront Airport, then on over Pontchartrain Beach towards City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Soon after, the Fair Grounds and then the French Quarter and Jackson Square hove into view. It feels strange, seeing something so familiar from an angle you’ve never experienced before - incoming flights (that I’ve taken, at least) don’t seem to fly in over the city so aerial views of, say, Louis Armstrong Park are new to me. We happened to be flying on the day of the Red Dress Run, and so a long trail of scarlet meandered out from the center of the French Quarter. Bourbon Street was clearly visible, before we peeled away over St. Louis Cemeteries #1 & #2, onto Algiers Point and memorable vistas of the Mississippi River.
Lina makes for an excellent guide, pointing out landmarks that out of town visitors might not know about. It’s handy for locals, too, who might not be used to getting their city bearings from quite this angle. Before long, you’re lost in the views, daydreaming of traveling this way every day, never again having to lose your cool as people ignore protocol at the I-10 Westbank/Claiborne split.
Sadly, not even the millions of dollars that I make from running a hyper-local online arts and culture magazine afford me such luxuries. All great things must come to an end, but Lina makes it a soft landing, both socially and aeronautically, with her expert navigation and guide skills. Photos of your day, commemorative certificates and the like are all available as souvenirs.
If you want to mix things up, the company offers a variety of tours, with 10-, 30- and even 60-mile flights on the menu. I really want to return for one of their nighttime tours, and special occasions (including wedding proposals) are all possible. You can even fly to attractions such as Zip Nola, or to Frenier Landing for lunch on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. In short, you can live the life of the cast of Succession or [insert pop star of your choice], if only for a day. Be warned, though…it’s an easy mode of transport to get used to.
Paul Oswell was a guest of Heli Co New Orleans. Tours start at $94pp, with all tour options and booking available through their website - click here.
