IT TAKES a certain type of character to take charge of a helicopter packed on all sides with all manner of pyrotechnics.
That is just what Brendan O'Brien and Alex Garman are bringing to each night of the Bournemouth Air Festival.
Otto the Helicopter is back for the first time since 2019 and crowds have certainly not been disappointed by the five minutes of fireworks and flares.
Describing the display in one word, Brendan chooses “bonkers”.
“I call the show a sky-gasm,” he told the Daily Echo. “We have about 1,500 pyro shots on there, which is more than any other flying machine in the world ever has had as far as I know.
“You look at the other aircraft, which are travelling at about twice the speed of the helicopter, they are performing aerobatic manoeuvres and leaving trails. What I am doing is completely different. You build up slowly to a crescendo of excitement and explosion.”
Otto the Helicopter now brings even more thrills than its previous visits to the air festival.
The hours of preparation for every display see around 1,500 pyrotechnic shots loaded into position before the pilot unloads them using six separate firing lines.
“I am a great believer in terms of presentation and so much of display flying is about choreography and presentation,” Brendan said.
“You could take the simplest aircraft that people learn to fly on and you doing something unusual with it, you are going to get people’s attention.
“With this show it is very much presentation and choreography. Less is more. If you drag it out, drag it out, it is just a bit flat. You build up to this crescendo.”
He added: “When I press the button it is a bit like sitting in what I imagine World War Three being like. It is entertaining.”
The helicopter has a very famous history, with its prior ownership including the Arizona Police Department. It is a model which was built to a military specification, making it perfect for everything Brendan throws at it.
Friday’s Night Air display will see Alex, who has been assisting Brendan for six to eight years, performing his first public display in the helicopter.
He said: “I am bit nervous for the fact I want to put on a good show. I am fine with all the flying but I have got big footsteps to fill.”
Brendan added: “A lot of this stuff in life you are just caretaker.
“You pass things on and it goes on from generation to generation.”
Brendan was trained by Dennis Kenyon, who displayed until he was 83.
The 73-year-old said that he hopes to display until he is 80.
“People say to me what is an old-aged pensioner doing this stuff for,” he said.
“They say you are in a risky business and even some of the pilots here think I am bonkers.
"I say whatever business I am in; I can assure you it is not the risk business, I am in the survival business.
“I have been doing this stuff for the past half a century and I am still her, so that must tell you something, I must be doing something vaguely right to have survived that long and it has not been flying jumbos for British Airways.
“You are always 21 in your head or you should be.”
Brendan said Bournemouth is now “one of the great air shows” in the UK, especially as an open, free to attend event.
Such is the displays popularity, Otto the Helicopter can now be booked for weddings, funerals, parties and gender reveals. For more details visit pilotsofthepurpletwilight.com
Discussing what the future might hold for his displays, Brendan said: “Where do you go? You always try to look for something different.
"I am certainly looking out to start the show by dropping a parachutist who will also be on fire and illuminate it and the rest of it.
“You have always got to think of something new, something different. I am looking at doing it with more than one machine and mixing things together.
“If you put together some interesting routine it works but it is very much about choreography and timing. It is the entertainment business.”
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