Well, good morning from Vancouver.
Quite possibly, in my opinion, the most beautiful city in North America.
Today, we are heading out of Vancouver, a little bit,
not far, just over to Vancouver Island and a place called Victoria
and we're getting there on board a really cool type of aircraft.
I'm a little bit lost.
I've got 15 minutes until check-in closes for my flight
the heliport that we're flying from today is,
well, sort of, down there.
But I can't get there without a 30 minutes walk.
So, I am going to have to get a taxi to get from here to here.
(door closes)
[Noel] Hi, good morning. I'm alright, I made it. (laughs)
[Clerk] ... take a little peek at your... [Noel] Thank you.
[Clerk] Where is it we're off to? [Noel] Victoria.
I'm just travelling to go on the helicopter, if I'm honest (laughs)
[Clerk] Oh, okay, so you'lll be right back. [Noel] Yeah, I'm coming right back, exactly
I've got 3 hours in between in case of delays and things.
Will I have time to get that one back, or? [Clerk] Oh yeah. What happens is that
it's going to be the same flight. [Noel] Okay.
[Clerk] It will be the same... so basically, you would catch this one
here at 8 O'Clock and get in about 8:30, hang out in the terminal
you have to see the agent to give her your ID
hang out there, and then you'll fly right back here.
[Noel] Fine, as long as there's time.
(sighs) So, all checked in
I've got my coffee, and can relax now.
I honestly thought that 20 minutes to walk from there to here
would have been more than enough time, but clearly not.
(laughs) But, nevermind
We're here, no helicopter yet, I presume it's on the way in.
This is the lounge here, the Helijet lounge here in Vancouver harbour.
They operate a fleet of these Sikorsky S-76 helicopters
which are very, very cool helicopters.
The only way you get on board one of those back home
is if you're A. Very Rich, or B. Very Poorly and need one as an air ambulance.
But here, they use them on the helicopter airline across to Vancouver Island.
This is going to be a good flight
I'm looking forward to it.
(Rotor and engine noise)
Right, helicopter's here. It's going to take us across to Victoria.
[Noel] Thank you. Morning.
Good morning.
(Turboshaft engines spin up)
So, then airborne out of Vancouver!
On the Sikorsky S-76 (laughs) of Helijet.
This is so bloody cool.
I've seen these boys coming and going
the entire time I've been here in Vancouver.
And I wanted to try them, but I was like eh...
it can't be that cool, it can't be as cool as a seaplane.
But, lordy, lordy, this is just incredible.
That view, straight out there over Vancouver harbour
in the back of an S-76, I feel like Christian Grey
in Fifty Shades.
Twice as handsome, though
So, despite the fact that this is a flight
from Canada to Canada, in fact from Vancouver
just to a little island off the coast,
we're actually in the U.S. right now.
Those islands down there are actually part of Washington State
Seattle's down that way somewhere.
It's quite interesting, we're going to be landing over there in a moment
which is in Canada, but we're chopping across a little bit of America first
before we can land down in Victoria.
[Noel] Thank you. Good morning.
Right, landed in Victoria, time to head back to Vancouver (laughs)
[Noel] Hey, good morning, how are you? [Clerk] Good, and you?
You must be the final person I'm looking for.
[Noel] Yes, I've just come off it and I'm getting straight back on.
(both laugh) [Clerk] There you go, that was easy, okay.
[Noel] Nice and easy connection. [Clerk] I guess, I don't know. (both laugh)
So, here then at Victoria on Vancouver Island
such a cool flight, that was such a cool flight.
Over on the S-76 from Vancouver, and now
straight back in here because we're heading straight back
on the next flight.
I just heard them say there's ten passengers
here on this flight heading back, I think
yeah, all good.
Another ride on the S-76 is on its way.
[Clerk] Thank you have a great flight.
[Noel] Hello again. (laughs)
[Crew] For you, sir, a little bit of extra legroom here.
[Noel] On the window, yeah? Thank you.
(seat belts clicking)
(engine and rotor noise)
Alright then, so airborne from Victoria now
heading back to Vancouver.
Such an incredible experience this is,
riding on these aircraft. On these helicopters
like, you can just book a ride on one, it's nothing special
it's just the scheduled airline
that goes from Vancouver to Nanaimo and Victoria
it's not too expensive, either.
I'll put the price at the end of the video like I always do.
You cannot beat this experience, it's just incredible
look at this.
That's the view you want when you're on a helicopter
or on any aircraft
Alright, so even cooler, we get an extra flight on the S-76
we've had to stop at Vancouver International
Helijet's main base, while they get a little maintenance issue sorted out
and then we're going to take a really cool little hop from here
up to downtown on the helicopter
certainly, hopefully going to beat taking the train over there anyway.
So, this should be fun.
[Pilot] So, you may have noticed... not entirely sure how much
you could really hear over the noise of the engines,
we've just had to pop back to Vancouver International
we've just got a minor, little, indication issue,
we have our engineering staff here,
they're going to take a quick look at it, we should have you on your way shortly
I'm just going to go speak to them now, and I'll have more information for you in about
five minutes.
[Noel] Ooh, thank you.
Headng inside for a little bit
to get a coffee or something and then, hopefully get on our way
back down to Downtown.
Either way, even if we end up here,
it's only a 20 minute ride on the road.
But, the helicopter's cooler.
So, they've just got a little bit of a maintenance issue to sort out,
they said we should be back in the sky again in about 10 minutes
from now, hopefully, so that's quite cool.
We get an extra ride in a helicopter (laughs)
How many people are glad when they get a diversion
because they get extra flights? (laughs)
But, me.
Especially, when it's in one of these, anyway.
[Noel] Thank you.
Shall I take the same seat again? Is that okay?
[Crew] Yeah, preferably same seats. [Noel] Thank you.
(seatbelts click)
[Pilot] So we'll be in Vancouver Harbour in about a nine minute flight.
Enjoy your flight, again!
[Noel] Beats taking the train, anyway.
[Pilot] Very true, much nicer than the skytrain.
(door clunks shut and locks)
My flight across to Victoria and back cost me £206
or around about $280
Now, whilst this isn't the cheapest way to get to Victoria from Vancouver
it's certainly, in my opinion, the most fun.
And even better when you get a bonus flight out of it as well
as I did today.
[Passenger] Well, that was a fun adventure.
[Pilot] Good thing, we're not going to charge extra (laughs)
[Noel] I get an extra helicopter flight, I'm happy (both laugh)
Thank you very much. [Pilot] Not a problem, have a good day.
[Noel] As always, I'd like to say a big thanks to my Patreons
you can join them at the link on the screen now
for access to my Whatsapp group, live weekly Zoom calls with me
and much more.
This guy thinks it's a good idea to drive his boat into an active heliport
pretty cool isn't it?
I'm glad we don't just have muppets like that back home.
He's getting very told off by the people who work here. See ya!
Right, here we are then, back at Vancouver Harbour.
Hey, my friend. Haha
That was so cool, wasn't it?
Over to Victoria and then, of course, the little diversion
on the way back as well, into Vancouver
we got three flights out of that for the price of two
even cooler.
I really enjoyed that, you can check out Helijet online
they've got some reasonably priced deals over to places like Victoria
and Nanaimo
It's really cool here in Vancouver for flying,
with these and Harbour Air and everything else
it's pretty awesome.
Let me know what you thought to it down in the comments
What would you take to go over to Victoria?
I want to know that down in the comments.
Would you take the helicopter or would you take the floatplane?
What is your preference?
Or would you stick it old school and take the rickety old ferry
I haven't done that, because I don't do ferries.
Let me know down in the comments.
In the mean time, as always, thanks for watching
take care, and from us, we'll see you on the next one.
Bye for now.