Why the jacket?

The story continues almost how it happened in real life. These hot shot movie producers came from New York and had never been in a helicopter over LA at night. They showed up with Hawaiian shirts because that is what they thought we would wear in LA. I showed up with my flight jacket having an understanding how the weather works in LA in April. Initially they laughed at me when I asked them if they brought any more clothes which then quickly changed. Especially in the spring it can be very mellow in Southern California on the coast but as soon as the sun touches the horizon it suddenly gets pretty cold. Now imagine sitting in a helicopter with the doors off right when that happens! You make that particular mistake only once, let me tell you 😉

Yet, even with me having that problem solved ahead of time, it still wasn’t a very comfortable flight for me. The mission was to take black and white footage of the rough neighborhoods for some sort of documentary. Having flown in the area before and knowing helicopter cops I knew that these people don’t necessarily want other people peeking into their backyard. Low circling helicopters get shot at sometimes in LA but that is another story for another time …