Another quiet day for me yesterday, and there will be many more as the season quietens and I spend more time at home. When I say ‘quiet’, I mean apart from the helicopter which came in a couple of times and sat with its rotors going for some time before taking off again. Why? I don’t know, but this was a military helicopter, and no matter how many times I watch one come in to land, there’s still a fascination.
It’s no big deal, really. We have them fly in and out all year round. There are three ‘types’, maybe four: the military, the medical, the pleasure, and the media. Not, apparently, a sequel to ‘The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover’, but the kinds of machines we see and hear flying in and out of Symi. The military is self-explanatory. They bring dignitaries to parades and other events, possibly supplies, personnel maybe, and who knows, possibly even military medical personnel. I’m vague on this because… well, I don’t know anything about it.
The ‘pleasure’ are those smaller, wasp-like things that bring in performers for the festival, or rich folk wanting a fly over the island, and sometimes, you see them on the boats these people can afford to buy or hire. The medical one comes from Rhodes if there is an emergency, but it also comes to practice. This used to be a regular thing on a Monday or Tuesday night. The helicopter comes in and hovers over the landing pad for a while, lands, rises and goes around and does it again.
The last sort, the press and TV crews, I might have made up. I am sure it happens, but I can’t think when. A crew might be dispatched if there had been a major event, like when the president came to visit.
Another thing that interests me about watching these things come in, wait and go, is the sound. Yesterday, for example, I was on the balcony, the copter was on its pad with its rotors rotating, and there was a breeze. Sometimes, the sound of the machine was distant and subtle, the next, it increased and was carried across the harbour and up the hill on the wind. After being loud for a while, it quietened again. It’s like you can see the pattern of the wind in the rise and fall of the sound. You can certainly hear it.
Oh, advert op. There was/is a photo of a helicopter coming in over Yialos in the 2023 Symi calendar. There isn’t one in next year’s calendar, but that’s no excuse not to order a copy for yourself and one for every friend at the office, club, church, fitness centre… Click the image for the link.
