Choices! What will it be? #13

Dear @patjewell, it is only today I found your contest announcement while searching for Disconnect’s contest alerts. This time when I saw the five words, my eyes were drawn to a helicopter as it is associated with my childhood memory. Now, let’s start the entry.

_{Image copied from the contest announcement}

On my mother’s 50th birthday, my father's birthday gift was a helicopter tour with my mother. In those days, the helicopter tour had opened for the public for a reasonable price. On that day, he drove all of us to Ratmalana Airport with that intention in his mind. Even though our family was large, we traveled in our car altogether. The father, mother, and our two younger sisters were in the front seats, while the rest of us were crammed into the back.

But that day, we were not getting a chance to ride on the helicopter as the fees were very expensive, but only my mother got that chance from my father as a gift to her. I can remember my mother requested to bring one or two children with them, but my father said that that was unfair, if so we had to go with them all. Then my mother agreed and left us in charge of the officers while she went with my father. We realized that if our father had a lot of money, he would never leave us there alone. Therefore, we were looking at them calmly.

When my mother and father left, the officers explained to us from which helicopter they take off, to where they fly, and so on. Later, we saw them fly away and then returned to us an hour later. But we noticed that my mother's face was not happy, and we were curious as to why. My father explained to the officers that my mother's right-hand fingers had become caught in the helicopter's door. Officers had applied ice to her fingers before takeoff of the helicopter. I can remember, my mother's fingers had turned blue, and the way she awkwardly stated that it was very painful. Anyway, my father took her to the doctor, and she had been in pain for more than a week. Because she couldn't do anything with her right hand, one of our aunties came to our house to look after us. We felt terrible for our mother and tried to help her whenever we could. That is what my childhood memory was with the helicopter.

My dear friends, you are all aware that a helicopter is a convenient and less expensive mode of transportation than a commercial plane. Therefore, many people around the world be an owner of helicopters because they are a convenient and less expensive mode of transportation. Hence, nowadays most people are becoming an owner of helicopters. As a result, many job opportunities in aviation, particularly in the private sector, are emerging. A personal pilot's salary is extremely high. Therefore, younger generations are eager to learn to fly helicopters.

Mr. Upali Wijewardena, founder and chairman of Upali Group, was the first private helicopter owner in Sri Lanka. It is said that, he brought Sri Lanka’s first and only Bell Lounge Ranger helicopter from Bell Texas. At the time, the Sri Lankan Upali Group was allowed to distribute Bell helicopters. It is also said that Mr. Wijewardena hired Capt. Mani Seneviratne as his Manager and Chief Helicopter Pilot.

Helicopters' basic components are the cockpit, rotor mast, main rotor blade, tail boom, tail rotor, engine, transmission, fuel, and landing skids. The main rotor controls the movement of the helicopter. The helicopter cannot move or walk on the ground without its rotor blades. General helicopters have three main flying input controls. Those are the channels through which the pilot controls the helicopter's movements. Furthermore, it is propelled by a top-mounted engine, and the blades rotate at high speeds to provide lift.

Helicopters can be used for a variety of purposes because they can take off and land vertically, turn in any direction quickly, and hover in the air. Helicopters are used for a variety of purposes, including passenger, mail, and goods transportation, prospecting aerial photography, sea and land rescue work, and crop spraying. Not only that, but they can be used as flying ambulances to transport patients, fight large fires, and deliver supplies to ships. It also helps to rescue people in hard-to-reach places like mountains or rough seas.

As Sri Lankans, we cannot forget the service provided by helicopters to attack ground targets and move troops to end the three-decade-long LTTE war.

I would like to invite @hasina78 @mavilan, @oscardavid79, and @mile16 to take part in this lovely contest.

Thanks for reading my post.