I have the good fortune to travel the world for my day job as an aircraft broker, consultant and accredited aircraft appraiser. Through my travels, I have viewed many unique aviation collections and have even had the opportunity to fly over some foreign lands in many different general aviation aircraft.

A recent trip took me to Israel to inspect a WWII fighter plane. Having never been to Israel, and having grown up as a naïve American from the Midwest, my initial thoughts about going to Israel were varied. I had no idea what to expect other than a desert and holy sites. It didn’t help that my mother and my wife didn’t want me to go for fear of being terrorized.

No sand dunes or camels. Only skyscrapers and condos

I was surprised at what I saw as the El Al B-767 approached the shores of Tel Aviv, Israel. There weren’t sand dunes and camels as I had imagined. Instead, it looked like Miami, Florida from the air. Skyscrapers and condos lined the shoreline, and midday traffic was backed up on the modern highway system below. Our plane safely arrived at a modern, beautiful airport which is named after Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. It rivals most of the airports I have seen around the world for its sophistication and beauty.

I was greeted at the airport reception area by my Israeli client and taken to a fantastic hotel just north of Tel Aviv. Needless to say, there weren’t any sand dunes near the hotel, but there was a beach on the Mediterranean Sea where thousands of people were enjoying a summer holiday. Even though I was in Israel to work, I felt like I was on vacation thanks to a wonderful setting and the hospitality that everyone extended me.

During the third day of my trip, my client surprised me by arranging a helicopter tour of the North of Israel. Now, this wasn’t the first time a client had arranged a sightseeing flight for me.

I had been “surprised” in the past by a client in South Korea, who because he knew I was a pilot, was sure that I would want to fly in just about anything. This particular South Korean client had arranged a flight at a “new” general aviation airport near Anson, Korea. That flight, which was in a small homebuilt, had scared the crap out of me. The pilot thought he would prove to me how brave Korean pilots were by diving under high tension power lines, tree-top flying and dive bombing the airfield and completed the flight by almost running off a dirt strip they called a runway. Never again, I promised myself. However, this flight, touring the sights of Israel, was to be in a helicopter, not a homebuilt.

My client drove us north of Tel Aviv past several large Kibbutzes to a secluded area which was supposed to be an airport. My heart sank as we arrived to a dirt strip which was surrounded by high tension power lines. It was Korea all over again. My client told me that the airport was for motorized paragliders. And as we entered the gates, I noticed dozens of trailers around a run-down fabric hangar that stored paragliders for weekend pilots.

What kind of name is Chibbie? What have I gotten myself into?

An aging Russian guy wearing only some dirty sweat pants met us at the entrance of the field, but didn’t say a word as we drove by him and a scruffy, barking dog. We drove around and found a parking spot in the dirt lot next to the fabric hangar. We waited another hour before my frustrated client said we needed to give up on the helicopter and start making some calls to see if there was some kind of problem. As we started the car to leave the airfield, I spotted a faint silhouette of our helicopter heading towards us. As it got closer, my client turned off the car and told me that he hoped it was the right helicopter. We were pleasantly surprised to see a fairly new Robinson 44 gently touch the dirt field and come to a smooth idle.

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