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Eye in the sky: A day with a Mountain View Helicopters pilot

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   “It’s like spinning a plate on a pair of chopsticks,” says Mountain View Helicopter pilot Ryan Fornataro as he rocks his helicopter back and forth 1,000 feet over Horseshoe Canyon.
   Fornataro steadies the aircraft before taking it on a bend so I can look out the bubble windows. Even though we’re travelling over 150 kilometres an hour, the canyon seems to open up slowly and expand as we cruise over it, revealing the “U” of the horseshoe before the earth narrows into a complex network of ravines that make up Kneehill Creek and the Red Deer River valley. On the flats above this gouged earth is a patchwork of green and yellow fields of barley and canola that’s sure prettier from a helicopter than it is an airplane.
   While the view from a 10-minute helicopter tour on a Friday morning was the highlight of this reporter’s week, it’s a regular day on the job for Fornataro and the crew at Mountain View Helicopters located at Horseshoe Canyon.

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   “I’m living the dream and I never get bored of waking up every day and coming to work,” said Fornataro, who decided when he was 19 years old and getting flown in and out of work on the oilpatch that he didn’t want to walk on the ground anymore – he wanted to fly.
   Years later he finally chased that dream down, got his license, and started training sessions with Mountain View Helicopters, who afterward offered him a job flying tours above Horseshoe Canyon over five years ago.
   Mountain View flies a Robinson R44 Raven II on their tours, a popular model for general charter, surveying, and training. While they operate the five and ten minute Horseshoe Canyon tours from June to September, the company provides training for pilots and prospective pilots during their offseason.
While we’re flying a thousand feet in the sky, pilot Fornataro tells me through the headset radio that part of his regular training is to kill the engine mid-flight and then regain control of the aircraft and the thought of hanging in midair before dropping makes me sick.
   “It’s something we just have to do – being a pilot is all about ‘what-ifs.’ What if the engine dies? What if it catches on fire?”
   All of the crew at Mountain View have their dream jobs, but they didn’t come without hundreds of hours of training like this which enables them to operate tours safely and provide an unforgettable experience to tourists making their way out to Drumheller.
   “Seeing kids bouncing afterward makes it worth it alone,” said Mountain View’s Larissa Akkermans. “Your passion for flying is made stronger when you see people getting excited about what you do.”

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Golf season in full swing at local golf courses

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Golf season is well underway and there are two unique golf courses, which both beginners and more experienced golfers can try in the Drumheller area.
   Dinosaur Trail Golf and Country Club, located just past the Royal Tyrrell Museum on North Dinosaur Trail, has two unique 9’s that include beautiful scenery. Those looking to golf for longer can do all 18 holes, or can just do nine.
Executive Professional, Phil McCluskey said it is the course’s 50th anniversary this year. “The front nine has been here since 1965, and the back end opened in 1996. The front nine is all along the river and the back nine is all up through the badlands,” he told inSide Drumheller.
   He said bookings can be done at anytime and clubs are available to rent if golfers don’t have any on hand. Anyone interested in a tee time is encouraged to visit www.dinosaurtrailgolf.com or phone 403-823-5622 to book.
   Located in Rosebud, the Akokiniskway Golf Course is a nine hole course. Bruce Thomas, manager of the course said the season is going well. “The season is going really good actually, we are up quite a bit from last year.”
   He said the course, “is a challenging course but it is great for anybody from beginners to your seasoned golfers. It has challenges for everybody.”
   The course got brand new power carts this year, Thomas said, and the fully licensed restaurant is now open.
   “The greens are in really great shape for this time of year and the course is looking very good,” Thomas told inSide Drumheller.
   He also mentioned that camping is available at the golf course. “You can get a campsite so you can stay right here. A lot of (people) do. They pull their RV’s here and spend a few days and they don’t have to drive anywhere.”
   Anyone looking to golf at Akokiniskway in Rosebud can visit www.rosebudgolfcourse.com or phone 403-677-2250 to book a tee time.

Royal Tyrrell Museum unveils new dinosaur species

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The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology unveiled a new species of horned dinosaur on Thursday, June 4.
   The Regaliceratops peterhewsi is a newly described genus and species of ceratopsid, meaning horned dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period - 68.5 to 67.5 million years ago. It is a close relative of the Triceratops.
   Peter Hews, a Calgary resident and geologist in the petroleum industry discovered it in 2005. It is from southwestern Alberta near the Oldman River, Dr. Caleb Brown, Post-doctoral Fellow for the Royal Tyrrell Museum, explained at the presentation. He said this was odd because most of the dinosaur discoveries come from southeastern Alberta.
   It took 10 years to prepare the Regaliceratops peterhewsi to be unveiled to the public, Dr. Brown said.
   “That was a combination of reporting it to the museum, excavating the specimen, preparing it to what you see in the lab, removing it from the rock, consolidating it, making it stable, and the research,” he said continuing by explaining that this is a bit of an exception because normally it does not take that long.
   “It was a particularly problematic specimen, but we also want the public to get an appreciation for how much energy is involved, and how much time is involved by taking a specimen from the ground, putting it on display and also making it available for research,” he said.
   The unveiling of the Regaliceratops peterhewsi was part of the opening of the museum’s new exhibit called “Fossils in Focus.” The exhibit is rotating and will highlight some of the most remarkable and scientifically significant fossils from Alberta.
   Dr. Craig Scott, curator of fossil mammals, said when putting the exhibit together, the museum wanted to focus on a diversity of fossils. Dr. Scott said one of the things the museum desired was temporary exhibit space. He said in some of the larger galleries at the museum some of the same exhibits have been on display for a long period of time.
   “We thought if we had a smaller exhibit in a very confined space, where we could have maximum flexibility it would be easier to rotate specimens in and out and give return visitors something new to look at every time they come,” he said.
   Dr. Scott explained that the museum has committed to rotating the exhibits annually, “but, should a really amazing specimen be discovered, say during this season, we have the ability to move parts of that exhibit out, and replace it with something that has been recently discovered, or if we have specimen that has been the focus of research that is going to be published in the near future, we can put those in as well.”
   The exhibit is now open to the public.