Chopper ride puts a whole new spin on fun

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What a way to go sight seeing!

Take one eagle eye's view of the Onion Lake reserve from more than 300 metres up in a state-of-the-art Bell Jet Ranger 206 helicopter. Add a pile of bright enthusiastic kids and what have you got?

For more than 150 Native youngsters it was the ride of a lifetime that gave them a whole new take on pow wow like they'd never seen it done before.

And to keep his young passengers right up on their toes, White River helicopter pilot Bruce Wade made sure that he pulled out all the stops.

"Most fun are the young girls who are squealing as soon as we lift off the ground. And to keep it really interesting, I like to drop the chopper down a few hundred feet and spiral it around just to see if they're awake. It's fun for everybody and shows off the flexibility of the helicopter," he said.

It wasn't just the kids who were having a new experience.

"This is a first for us too, our first pow wow. It's fascinating for us as well. We were approached by Onion Lake band members at the Lloydminster fairgrounds who thought it would be great to have helicopter rides at their pow wow," said Wade.

"It's not just a whole lot of fun. It's also very educational. Almost everywhere we go there's at least one child who wants to become a pilot when he or she grows up. It's a good learning experience and I would encourage any youth who likes to travel to pursue it as a career - go for it. You get to meet a lot of people and see a lot of country," he added.

For some of the young students who did have a chance to go up in the big whirlybird, map making and geography lessons will never be the same.

"When we were up there, everything looked like toys. The town, the farms and the pow wow grounds. It was kind of like flying over a big map," said junior passengers Stuart and Ashley Simon from Hobbema.

"The headsets were really cool. You could talk to the pilot and we could see a dark grey rainstorm in the distance. We liked feeling weightless. It was our first time up, our first big ride, and when the helicopter took off, it made the grass dance," added Treva and Littlewolf Eagle, also in with their parents from Hobbema.

Eleven year old Charlene Wright, a student from Winston Churchill School in Lloydminster was clearly amazed at the way everything looked from 300 metres up.

"I come to Onion Lake to visit my Dad and it never looked like this before. The arbor looked like a big tent, pointy at the top, and when we got really high it looked like a big trampoline. We circled the pow wow grounds and didn't fly right over the arbor, partly out of respect, and because we didn't want to disturb the dancers. It was my first time up. I've been on the fastest, scariest and the highest rides at the fair but nothing could compare to the helicopter ride. It was much funner. The pilot told us that you can't fall out because the seats hold you in and you don't have to look down if you don't want to. But I did. I looked down through the big glass window when he tipped the chopper sideways. We saw lakes, forests, roads and cars. The grass looked like a big patchwork blanket with different colors. I saw cows and the March West horses tied to their trailers. Landing was fun. A steep drop down and a soft touchdown. Not all the kids at the pow wow got to go up. I felt lucky, the only one in my family. My mother, Rose, and my kokum were very excited for me. I would feel happy about flying again," she said.