Your Office-Fever Cure: Flying the Craft of Millionaires and Spies

	Get in the Chopper
	Photo: Helicopter Flight Services

Editor's note: Feel like getting out there and doing something to make you feel alive? Even if you're stuck in the cubicle all day, forego the espresso and live vicariously through TheStreet.com's answer to the office blues.

Sky kings like Boeing(BA Quote - Cramer on BA - Stock Picks) and Lockheed Martin(LMT Quote - Cramer on LMT - Stock Picks) must be cheating the forces of nature somehow by vaulting people 35,000 feet into the air in their airplanes. Hovering in midair, using just rotating blades, however, is just asking for it.

My respect for gravity's omnipotence and an acute fear of anything higher than my second-story apartment kept me from expressing my aeronautical appreciation until one day the Red Bull stopped doing it for me, the office walls started closing in and there I was, pulling up to Helicopter Flight Services in Medford, N.J., for a one-hour flying demo, hoping to get a much-needed adrenaline fix.

One of only two helicopter flight schools in New Jersey, Helicopter Flight Services trains N.J. State Police to fly Schweizer 300C, 300CB and 300CBi, light-utility helicopters. Civilian graduates have moved on to careers with Fox News, Commerce Bancorp (CBH Quote - Cramer on CBH - Stock Picks) and Time Warner (TWX Quote - Cramer on TWX - Stock Picks).

The Federal Aviation Administration requires 40 hours of flight training at $275 an hour to obtain a private pilot's license, 175 hours to become a certified flight instructor. The $100 flight demo I am about to shakingly embark on is open to anyone interested in getting a license or helicopters in general.

Take Me Up, Dave!

As I pull myself into the two-person, piston-powered helicopter and put on my headset, I feel justified donning a slick pair of aviator sunglasses for the first time.

While helicopters are safer than airplanes, it's actually preventable pilot error that leads to most accidents, my instructor Dave Hartman tells me. I put on my best innocent smile.

Want more? Check out TheStreet.com TV video. Get a bird's-eye view of Annika Mengisen's inaugural helicopter flight.

The propellers begin chopping into the air and suddenly we are hovering so slightly above the ground that I have to stick my foot out to make sure we're airborne. We fly down the runway to gain altitude as I brace for the skull-rattling sensation I am used to on commercial aircraft.

Surprisingly, the takeoff is completely smooth and soon we are sailing above the ground with breezes wafting through the tiny, doorless cabin.

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