Taking a Helicopter for a Spin in Five Finger Classics

By Justin Owings on Aug 30, 2009 | In User Stories | Leave a comment »

Mike recently posted to the birthday shoes forums about his 30^th birthday present, which was a ride and chance to pilot the above helicopter, which, of course, he did in his birthday shoes!

I asked Mike if it was a scary experience and here's what he had to say:

Yup, very scary.

I've played alot of flight sims, especially helicopter sims and I know the theory behind helicopter flight. But nothing could've prepared me for when I got to hold the cyclic (the joystick) at 1500 feet. It felt really unstable, although it really wasn't, but just the slightest movement and it felt like we'd tip over. The pilot told me to watch the horizon and that helped alot to keep it steady, then he told me to keep an eye on the instruments so that we maintained the correct altitude, I told him I would not be doing that since I didn't want to look away from the horizon.

So yeah, quite scary at first.

Then I got used to it and it felt pretty good.

Once we were on the ground again I got to try hovering which is far more complicated then just flying, every limb is working. Before we went up the pilot said that I shouldn't be ashamed if I didn't managed to hover because that usually takes around 50 hours of practice. I did manage however, it wasn't pretty but I did it. He told me that he could tell that I knew what I was doing, all those hours playing helicopter sims actually helped.

Many VFFers talk about how fivefingers make for good driving shoes; and others have often praised their comfort while travelling aboard airplanes; but I think this makes for the first time I've heard them used while flying anything (other than a hang glider or a parachute, that is!)

Well done, Mike (And happy belated birthday!)!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 754 articles and 302 comments.