High-end hobbies – helicopter pilot

Monday, September 26, 2011 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
| Tags: HNWIs, HNWI, Bespoke, wealth, magazine, charity, Bespoke magazine, hobbies, David Chisnall, helicopters, Bell Longranger

After a career in engineering, David Chisnall OBE transformed his love of radio-controlled helicopters into a full-sized Bell Longranger, which he now uses for charity flights. Glyn Brown discovers a man with a passion for turning fuel into fun.

* This is the sixth in our series – read more high-end hobbies.

Photographer James and I are walking across the grass at Thruxton airfield, Hampshire. In front of us sits a shining silver-grey helicopter, and beside us is David Chisnall. “Meet Golf Oscar Delta Charlie Charlie,” he grins. “Hop in.”

No need to ask twice – we’re in. We’re buckled. Chisnall is meticulous in his clear safety instructions. Then, doors shut, he talks to the control tower. “Three POB, 500lb of fuel. Clear left, clear right, fuel on, and I’m going up.”

The engine starts, sound rising like a sci-fi spaceship; the vast rotor blades begin to turn, their huge shadows crossing over our heads. The machine throbs and reverberates. “Headphones on. Can you hear me, Glyn? Can you hear me, James?” Outside, grass is flattening, daisies horizontal. Final clearance. Wow, we’re off the ground. “Going up like an Otis lift. Forty knots. Sixty knots…”

And there’s nothing like it. At 1,400ft I see a kestrel hovering below us. England is stunning at this height. Windmills. The majestic chalk horse etched in the hill at Devizes. Our shadow crossing fields of sheep. It’s all I can do to take notes.

Half an hour before this, I’m sitting in the airfield’s little café. Gingham-clad tables, cups of tea, a pamphlet by the window quaintly entitled ‘Planes for Sale’. With me sits David Chisnall, owner of G-ODCC, ‘Charlie’ for short. He shakes his head. “I’m a member of the luckiest guy in the world club. And I know it.”

There’s a reason a complex thing like a helicopter might appeal. Now aged 59 “and seven-eighths”, Chisnall did an engineering apprenticeship, then spent 34 years in industry in the fire and rescue services. He specialised in fire engines, then the turntable and portable ladders we see on the back of them, and was instrumental in establishing safety standards “that are what end users – the firefighters – really need”. It’s a determination that got him an OBE and explains an obsession with large-scale machinery, and how that can also help others.

Chisnall had always flown model helicopters, fascinated by the engineering. A reluctant retiree, he grabbed the chance to learn to fly. It took six tough months. “You’ve got two movements with your right hand, two with your left, you’ve got the feet – and when you hover, you have to get all those in balance or the thing won’t stay still.” Add flight paths, aviation maps and, since you can put down anywhere, Ordnance Survey, and the man is in his element.

Thus he bought the Bell Longranger, shipped from the US where it had spent its days flying oil rig workers to the Mexican Gulf. Chisnall took himself to the Bell Helicopter Training Academy in Dallas to complete its safety pilot course.

“Couldn’t be better training. They never stop turning the engine off on you.”

Eh? What do they do?

“Turn the engine off.” He smirks. “Get out of that one.”

When you’re flying?

“Er, yes.”

And so you…?

“Put it into auto-rotate. Reduce the pitch on the blades, so that, as the aircraft is now, let’s call it falling, the wind catches them like a kid’s windmill, which turns the rotor.”

Ah. Those Americans, eh?

There was no question about the next move. A sharer of fortune, Chisnall now spends some of his time flying for charities, including fly2help and Starlight Children’s Foundation.Children and adults in all stages of trauma and illness have been up in the ’copter.

“And it seems to give people a glimpse of freedom, a feeling of wellbeing.” Chisnall stirs his tea. “The brain has to want to get better. And sometimes a child is granted one of these ‘wishes’ and, despite being terminally ill, they’re still around five years later.”

He shrugs. “Basically, you can call a helicopter a smile machine. I have never put one person back on the ground who isn’t smiling, and making people smile is not a bad place to be.”

Though you make your own luck, Chisnall does indeed have it in spades. He smiles, gets to his feet. “Right, let’s go and turn some fuel into fun.’

Interview: Glyn Brown. Images: © James Pfaff

This feature was originally published in Bespoke magazine in Summer 2011. To receive future copies of Bespoke, please fill out our subscribe form and let us know if there are any other publications that you might be interested in.

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