It’s amazing for someone with motion sickness issues to be in a helicopter, and LOVE it! Not once – three times!
I did not hesitate for even a nano-second when my friend invited me to a helicopter tour of Singapore. I was very lucky that her husband had a last-minute meeting overseas and she had an extra ticket. Who would say no, right?
And guess who we spotted at the Seletar Airport? I am guessing you read the post title.
Flying in a helicopter is so different from flying in a plane, even a small twin-engine. It’s a more visual and visceral experience, like being in a car, in the air. A car as a big bubble.
And I love it when we take off; we kinda just gently lift up and hover. So much less traumatic than speeding down a runway and hitting the sky at some stomach-clenching angle. I’ve found napping during take-off is best.
And when we hover, with the tail up, it reminds me of all the movies when the helicopter is flying low, gunning it down some highway, chasing down some good/bad guy…now what movie was that? Contrary to this Hollywood dramatization, the legal requirement in Singapore is 1,000 ft above the highest point. Over water we can go as low as 200 ft.
Tokyo Bay
The first time I went on a helicopter ride was in Tokyo, on my exchange program after university. It was a special treat that the program students arranged for us. Flying over Tokyo Bay at night – WOW! Seeing Tokyo all lit up at 700+ ft is really something else – very special. And it may be a stereotype, the entire flight, the two Japanese girls in the helicopter with us kept on clapping and shouting “Suuugggoiiii”! I guess we were all excited and maybe some just a little nervous. Honestly, it’s quite unforgettable.
If you are in Tokyo, i highly recommend a helicopter night cruise. Go-Tokyo offers both daytime and nightime flights, both under $200 USD (as of online exchange rate in July 2023). The prices range from 20,400 Yen for adults and 14,200 for children to 26,800 Yen for adults and 18,800 for children, depending on daytime or nightime and weekday or weekends. They fly with Excel-Air.
Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand
My second helicopter ride was quite different. On a 2008 trip, I went on a heli-hike on Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. Flying over South Island’s massive landscape, and onto the glacier, was surreal.
The blue ice was stunning. And what a beautiful sunny day to be there! My group hiked on crampons through ice tunnels and peered down crevasses and moulins. We even saw a mini avalanche; a glacier is always moving and we saw parts of it fall…..far away. Just remembering the experience brings shivers of awe and giddiness….that’s another blog post.
Singapore
And my third helicopter ride? I had to trek out to the Seletar Airport, once the Royal Air Force Station (1928 – 1971) and Singapore’s first international airport. For those who are unfamiliar with Singapore’s geography, Seletar is located FAR north(east), far from the Singapore most visitors know. It’s near where I went to a softball get-together some time before. Even far in Singapore, which is small, it is not more than thirty minutes by car.
The Seletar Airport is now used for chartered flights and military aviation training. By chartered flights, I mean this is where the famous, infamous, and mob-prone people enter or flee Singapore.
When I rolled up to the airport driveway in my beat-up puke-green taxi, which is a very unusual for cars in Singapore, wo shiny Rolls Royce were already parked outside a particularly crowded entrance. I semi-recognized a face and I had to google it. I think it was Fiona Xie, welcoming Jackie Chan, decked out all in black with a gigantic pair of dark sunglasses.
We all stood there, my friend’s teenage daughter and her friend totally “oh Jackie!”, as his entourage of Rolls Royce and BMW rolled out. Not one single camera or iPhone went off, surprisingly.
On our van ride out to the helicopter, we detoured to see Jackie’s US$30 million jet.
So back to our helicopter ride….while the day was slightly hazy, visibility was still good. Somewhere over Upper Seletar Reservoir, we could just make out the shapes of Marina Bay Sands. Or MBS, as everyone calls it now. Haze completely obscured the “boat” on top. Captain Tan said it came from Indonesia and in the fall haze would continue to be problematic.
The aerial view really confirms Singapore as the Garden City. Dense forest still covers much of the city, though even with the reclamation projects, an alarming percentage of mangroves has been lost, and with it, much biodiversity.
My sense of direction and knowledge of Singapore’s geography are really shabby, a sharp reminder in the air that day. I think when my hearing goes, my brain goes! Even with the massive headphones and mic, I could barely hear the captain over the loud din of the helicopter.
After he pulled what seemed like a U-turn, my ears completely went. What was probably mere seconds felt like an eternity as he pulled us around over the German International School. I didn’t know where to look, as my organs scrambled to their new locations. I had already noticed earlier there were NO barf bags onboard. (You check these things out when you get motion sickness)
So after that maneuver I just held on in silence, hoping my kaya toast would stay down. (It did) Not quite praying because that would’ve taken too much effort; simply breathing was already a laboured task.
I was happy that my friends were so thrilled to have spotted their own house. Quite amazing they could, actually. Looking down at the details was vomit-inducing so I just looked out into the distance. All I could recognize anyway was the Woodlands Waterfront Park, because that’s obvious – right by the water, near the Causeway, and across from Malaysia! And I was just there with my dogs.
Our 30-minute helicopter ride was over quickly, though we did spend 10 minutes of it hovering over the wait-line at the airport. I wasn’t going to complain; my stomach was still ambivalent about the whole thing. As I got out of the helicopter, my body couldn’t decide whether it wanted to throw up or eat. It was a very, very strange feeling. I have to say, despite a low-level terror of needing to vomit, flying over Singapore in a helicopter is such an amazing experience. Thank you Antoinette!
I went on the Singapore helicopter tour on August 24, 2012. A heli-tour and a view over the entire city state, and celebrity spotting. A lot of excitement for one day!
Our helicopter is the same model used by the military for training, except theirs is camouflaged. We were somewhere in the 150+km/h but it can go past 200km/h and above 10,000 ft, though without pressurization, this isn’t possible.
A heli-tour doesn’t come cheap. Captain Tan said that a two-hour flight for a recent client to the South China Sea was $17,000! For aerial photography, I think. So check on websites like groupon.sg, bigdeal.sg and deal.com.sg. Otherwise, the full price is $1,000 per person for a 30-minute tour. No photography is allowed because of the military training. We also left our belongings in the passenger lounge.