I don't do roller coasters. I don't like to be high in the sky, I don't like all that up and down, and I'm not down with all that centrifugal force stuff. So when they told me a few weeks ago that I was gonna be copiloting MTV News' first-ever traffic chopper during the VMA preshow, I figured I was in for 10 times the excitement and 10 times the discomfort.
Anything for the VMAs.
Still, when I arrived at Whiteman Airport and they informed me that I was gonna spend two full days in the air, all I could think was that every minute in the air was gonna be a risk. You know, L.A. is full of turbulence, with all the mountains and valleys. And nobody told me I was gonna have to go three or four times!
So the first thing I did was grab my pilot, Larry Welk, and ask him a thousand questions about what to expect: the dangers, how long he's been flying — all that stuff. Well, it turns out that Larry (who's the grandson of famous bandleader Lawrence Welk) has logged 15,000 hours in this thing. He's the president of Angel City Air, and he does these aerial shoots for a living. You know, he's a professional.
So we cracked a few jokes about emergency landings, and I did my little song and dance and climbed aboard. And, man, I promise you: Once we took off, riding in the helicopter was smoother than a driving down the highway.
From the air, I saw some of the most amazing views I've ever seen in my life, from Grauman's Chinese Theatre to Griffith Observatory to the world-famous Hollywood sign. We even flew over the VMA preshow stage.
After a while I forgot I was in a helicopter at all. In the end, I'm glad I got to be the copilot for this one.
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