AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - November 2017 - 69

For 41 years, Noble Mountain Tree Farm
pilots have perfected a dance they began in
1976, when The Hustle and the bump ruled
discos and dives. Seven days a week beginning
every November 1, helicopter pilots snatch
loads of prized Noble firs from the steep
hillsides before the trees are slung into opentopped trucks and caravanned down jagged
Willamette Valley switchbacks to an armada
of delivery vehicles, and ultimately into living
rooms and dens across the country just in time
for the holiday.
PIGS, HOOKERS, AND TUBS

Despite rain, sleet, snow, or fog encountered
during the short harvest, about 10,000 evergreens every day are lofted beneath the skids
of Bell JetRangers, MD 500s, or Hiller UH-12s
maneuvering up and down 60-percent grades
with 600-pound bundles of fir tugging against
their rotor blades.

"

who worked it like
a pendulum. He'd
come in hot, sling
those trees into the
truck, and turn back
around for another
load without ever
stopping."
-Bob Schaefer
Once the trucks are loaded, sometimes
stacked so high that evergreens hang past the
front windshield, drivers zigzag down Noble
Mountain (elevation 1,163 feet) past rows upon
rows of mature trees and 600,000 fresh seedlings before bailers squeeze the trees into
plastic bundles and palletize them onto piggyback trailers affectionately called "pigs." Pigs
carry the trees to market, while refrigerated
trucks, or "reefers," take the firs overseas.
Pilots learn to dangle a 25- to 30-foot line
to ground crews that have sawed, bundled, and
harnessed a dozen or so trees into a rope or
sling that is caught by a hooker on the ground.
The sling bundle is then lifted a short distance
to waiting trucks called "tubs." The tow lines
are electronically released by pilots hovering

over the tubs, and trees slide into the trucks
likes pieces of a puzzle.
Helicopter pilots like Burlingham and
his colleague Tyler Sturdevant have their
own techniques for being at one with their
helicopter. Burlingham works for Precision
Helicopters, one of the contractors Noble
Mountain uses for Christmas tree harvests.
Noble Mountain typically has two helicopters
working daylight to dark during the short season, with two pilots per helicopter. "You just
get into a rhythm and the more like a dancer
you can be, the better-although I'm not a
dancer," confided Burlingham.
After a few days Burlingham was still
getting used to flying the repetitive, low-altitude missions and knew the operations were
"within the dead man's curve." "All of our turns
are torque turns so it's easier on the helicopter," he said. Burlingham figured he averaged
140 turns, or loads, per hour, and the key to
success was to look out the left-side door,
where the pilot sits, and use vertical-rather
than horizontal-references.
"You're looking straight down," said
Burlingham, who rigged a left armpit brace to
ease his body's contortions while controlling
the blades' collective and to maintain rhythm.
"Find out where the hooker is on the ground
and decelerate to put the line right in their
hands."
TELEVISION STARS

In a business where timing is everything,
Christmas tree growers in the Pacific Northwest
rely heavily on helicopters to perform a six-week
aerial ballet choreographed with ground crews to
spread joy and happiness to millions of families.
Noble Mountain Tree Farm General Manager Bob
Schaefer explained how he and his colleagues
came up with an idea so innovative the three
major television networks of that time came out
to see how the helicopter farming was done.
"First we got rid of the power lines, because
we were flying in pea-soup fog," said Schaefer,
"then we made 52 nets" that were cradled
around bundles of trees. Helicopter pilots
transported their fragrant green payloads from
the mountaintop to a valley-floor production
center a mile away, released their loads, and
went back up again. Schaefer said the novel
technique attracted so much attention that
"other helicopter pilots came up here at night
and stole some of our first nets."
With a condensed harvesting season,
mature 10-year-old Noble firs are cut at their

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - November 2017

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