Flying high

One of the more bizarre moments in my Leeds Met career was at Graduation one year when Paul Brow had offered to take some aerial video footage of the festivities at Headingley Campus. After a few phone calls Paul was up in the air hovering above filming from his helicopter. Sir Ian Botham was receiving an honorary degree at the time and had attracted a lot of media attention and the helicopter was drowning out the interviews taking place. To cut a long story short after a lot of running around I managed to get a message through to Paul via the airfield he operates from and the helicopter finally buzzed off.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago when I was looking for people to feature in the staff magazine and I knew Paul was involved in filming from the air for a whole raft of television programmes including various news programmes, The Lakes and The Politics Show. It’s these kinds of stories behind our staff that make the making, and hopefully the reading of the magazine so interesting.

After the magazine was sent to print almost out of the blue Paul got back in touch with the offer to experience his obsession first hand with a short flight above Leeds. To be fair the thought of getting into a helicopter initially filled me with trepidation, I’ve not got the best head for heights but Paul assured me that while he also hates being at the top of ladders or on the edge of a cliff, flying is different.

So it was I found myself in a field in what seemed like the middle of nowhere with a shiny blue helicopter awaiting my arrival. Also there was one of Paul’s colleagues Alex, who was fulfilling his girlfriend’s dream of a helicopter ride. After a brief introduction to the machine and the requisite safety checks we were ready for the off. As the helicopter blades were thudding overhead and we started to tilt forward to take off I realised there was very little to hold on to and having been given the front seat I was almost completely surrounded by windows with no distraction from the ground below. I had a silent talk to myself to be brave and braced myself. 

Once we were up in the air, the ride became a lot smoother, the weather conditions were perfect with very little cloud and soon we were high in the sky. All my previous fears slipped away as I became mesmerised by the goings on below, crossing the A1 and heading towards Leeds. The view was amazing, I’ve always thought of Leeds as being very hilly but the ground looked relatively flat with the city almost encased in a bowl. For the next 30 minutes or so we took a tour, seeking clearance with Leeds Bradford Airport to fly over Headingley Carnegie Stadium where a cricket match was in full flow across to Headingley Campus where a wedding party was gathered on the Acre taking photos. It was weird also seeing my own house, which I had left full of nerves just a short hour or two earlier, from the air.

There were many familiar and not so familiar landmarks to see from a new perspective and but the highlight for me was the sensation of being in the opening credits of Emmerdale as we approached and flew over the soap’s village stage set in the grounds of Harewood House. As we headed back to base it was time for Paul to have some fun with us doing some sharp turns and manoeuvres bringing on the first hint of any kind of air sickness and making the disappointment that it was all over a little less disappointing.

I absolutely loved my time in the sky and know I was grinning like an idiot from the moment we took off until late into the day. Thanks Paul for the amazing experience – I think you may have another convert on your hands.

For anyone interested in their own helicopter experience flight then please contact Paul for more information.

Joyce