Another helicopter

For a lot of people, the sound of a helicopter is something that means it’s the traffic reporter looking at the traffic on the freeway. For other’s a helicopter is something that they don’t hear very often unless there is a medical emergency, and that helicopter is landing to rescue something.

For others, there is a blend of both the traffic or police helicopters and the emergency (orange) helicopters that we see and hear. The Emergency helicopter has a different sound than the other helicopters, so you can hear them for a distance. I do remember one year we were visiting friends up in Sudbury, and we were sitting outside enjoying the day and I looked around and all I said was “Ornge”. Most of the group looked at me rather puzzled because they couldn’t hear anything and then finally others could hear the sound that I had heard and sure enough the “Orange” helicopter flew overhead on its way to the hospital in Sudbury. The group asked how I could identify that helicopter so early, and I let them know that I can hear certain sounds better than a lot of people.

Where we live, we can hear the helicopters either heading down to the Island airport, the downtown hospitals or on route back to other areas of the province. We can also hear them when they are heading to Sunnybrook Hospital which is a hospital that we can see from our apartment window. As I am writing this, there is one of those emergency helicopters sitting on the roof of the hospital. The hospital is a distance away from us, but the orange helicopter is something that I can see. At night, after a helicopter has landed on the roof, we can so see the ramp lights come on, so we know that there is a helicopter on the roof.

Each type of helicopter has a different sound, and you get to learn the sound and which type of helicopter it is. The helicopter that we don’t hear very often at all is the search and rescue helicopters. Those are normally in the northern part of Ontario or can be found over the lake when they are searching for a missing boater or person.

So next time you hear what you think might be a helicopter, have a look-up and see what it is. If it is an “Ornge” helicopter (at least here in Ontario) know that it is probably transporting or has transported someone to a specific hospital for the care that they need.