We get offered all kinds of unusual products here at Food Stuff Finds headquarters. A lot of the events that we get invited to are London based which would be a nightmare to get to from the Midlands in time. Sometimes though we get a crazy offer where we get to choose the location, like this one today.
The website ExperienceDays sent us an e-mail inviting us to try one of their snack related events such as Chocolate Making Workshops, High Tea at posh hotels, Wine tasting and other really quite FSF friendly activities to blog about. Thing is... I've done those before really (with the exception of chocolate making which I think is much more suitable for people who really love their chocolate). The list they sent us however was regionally based and the food things were just highlighted - so I did what anyone who gets an experience voucher does and looked on the list for the one I actually had thought about doing for myself.
When I woke up this morning I'd never been in a helicopter...
I don't think I'd even been that close to them! When I spotted the "Buzz Flight for 2" on the list I knew we had a winner. I asked Ms. NLi10 if she'd like to come too (she'd apparently taken a helicopter trip to a glacier in New Zealand many years ago and said it was certainly something to do again). We sorted out the date with the organisers and in a few weeks I was sitting next to the Pilot at Wolverhampton's Halfpenny Green Airport, being advised that I really shouldn't touch the pedals.
(even though I really, really wanted to touch the pedals...)
I got to sit next to the pilot for a £10 upgrade, but I guess that if no one pays then you have a 1 in 4 chance of it being you anyway! Everyone gets a headset with a microphone built in so it's just like playing on the Xbox only with better graphics and no loading times.
This is what the area around the site looks like from 1,000 feet up at 120 MPH.
The flight lasted around 5 minutes. I didn't time it but it seemed both longer and a lot shorter than that. I had enough opportunities to take a few short film clips and take some pictures. I'm guessing it would be a lot more breathtaking if you were flying over the coast or somewhere with visibly stark terrain, but I really enjoyed both the sensation and the view.
Then we were back on the ground. Goodbye metallic pink helicopter!
I really enjoyed my morning at the airport and being able to walk around freely and look at all the other things taking off (including a Microlight which is something that I quite like the look of too) was a nice bonus. The temptation to fill teh review with pictures of people's small planes is strong but resistible.
Like most of these taster experiences I could have happily had a longer flight, or another flight in a different type of craft, but I guess those are the bigger experience options. Otherwise it was fantastic and smoothly run and something I'd certainly consider doing again.
A bonus review! I tried to think of something suitable to review alongside this so that it wasn't totally non-snack related (although if you are looking for presents for Snack-Heads then the whole chocolate making day thing went down really well with the ladies at work when they went last year and they even brought some in for me to try). After Cinabar told me that Flyte bars were now hard to find and I decided Aero's were a bit plain I raided snack mountain and found this odd snack my sister brought back from Japan. It had flown back, and now been in a helicopter so I think it's fair game.
As an aside if you can think of flying related snacks then please do pop them in the comments!
This has the added advantage of the fact that I don't have to try and name this. It has a Doraemon on the packet being summoned by a crazy scientist so it must be fantastic, but what sweet treats lie inside?
It's a giant hollow crisp! Yup - one single crisp. I guess that you would call it's flavour slightly spicy meaty corn-snack flavour. As I'd presumed it was either mallow or biscuit this was a shock. Actually tasted pretty good though - and the corn texture was less chewy than a Wotsit so I think it was probably slightly better quality than tuk shop crisps. A nice surprise find, and one that probably won't make it over here.
Take Off Film
In Flight Movie
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