• Rainier cherries (do you ever get them in New Zealand?) have thinner skins than bings (black) and sweethearts, which are also grown in this area. In general, growers want pilots flying higher over them to prevent the fruit from getting bruised.

• One of my growers very specifically told me that he wants me flying 5-10 feet over the treetops at 5 miles per hour. He even confirmed that I have a GPS aboard that indicates ground speed.

The bigger the trees, the more fruit is on them. Usually. Some of the REALLY old trees look pretty gnarly and I’m not sure how much fruit they get.

I can usually dry about 30-40 acres in an hour. Evidently, they MUST be dried within 2-3 hours to prevent damage.

The river is flowing from left to right in this photo.

You’ve motivated me to hook up one of my cameras pointed down to show how the branches go crazy when I fly over them. Maybe I’ll set that up now…looks like I’ll be flying again this weekend.

Do the orchardists ever express a priority preference? For example, perhaps the older tress produce more and better fruit than the younger ones, and the orchardist may ask you to dry the older trees first if you’re able to.

One other tiny question: you arrived downriver. Is the river flowing left to right or right to left in the photo?

I also caught myself giving the collective a “death grip” — which is definitely a bad thing in a Robinson. Robbies have a governor that control the throttle by actually twisting it automatically under your grip. Hold it too hard and the governor can’t work. Some Robbie pilots doing this kind of work have reported low rotor RPM horns because they hold the throttle grip too tightly. I haven’t had this happen to me (yet); that’s likely because I”m flying a Raven II alone at relatively low density altitude. But it could. So I have to keep reminding myself to loosen up my grip.

The Raven II has fuel injection. The weather here is not nearly as hot as where Robinson has seen problems. (The accident that caused the fuel injection worries happened in Arizona during the summer.) I haven’t had any problems operating in hot weather — and I’ve flown the Raven II in temperatures exceeding 110°F.

You’re not a pain for asking questions. I find it interesting to see what people want to know about. It also helps me think more about what I’m doing. Thanks!

I can’t wait to see them. I have no idea what I look like when I’m drying cherries. But I can bet no one watching me knows there’s a woman in that flight suit and helmet.