Redmond high-flier Clarke lands helicopter at school

Published 10:26 am Thursday, January 29, 2015

As the yellow Robinson R44 helicopter came into view through the thin fog and light rain high above the land near Chrysalis High School in Woodinville, students cheered and waited for the arrival of their classmate Robert Clarke.

The 18-year-old Redmond resident’s parents, James and Victoria Clarke, and a coterie of Chrysalis instructors and the school’s founder also looked up with wide eyes and smiles at what was happening.

At about 12:20 p.m., Robert safely landed the helicopter for his senior project.

During the 15-20-minute journey from Boeing Field in Seattle to Chrysalis in the dual-control copter, Robert was joined by his flight instructor “Take” Takeuchi of Classic Helicopter and Brendon Fogle, Chrysalis’ video, film and photography teacher who was documenting the event.

Robert is the first student ever to land a helicopter on a Chrysalis campus. The 32-year-old K-12 school was founded by Karen Fogle — Brendon’s mother — and is focused on personalized learning.

The weather wasn’t the best, Robert said afterward while discussing his senior project to the group, but he had a blast flying on Tuesday and landing onto the mammoth gravel area behind the school (the field is owned by the Bensussen Deutsch & Associates Inc. merchandising service).

“It’s a fantastic way to go out,” Robert said with a grin about finishing his senior project in front of family, teachers and classmates and graduating five months ahead of schedule this month.

Takeuchi said that Robert is a new-generation student and is among those who’ve grown up on video games and “catch up to helicopter flying pretty quick.”

Although they flew together on a dual-control copter on Tuesday, Takeuchi said “(Robert) is actually doing it himself and if he needs the help, then I’ll take over control.”

During their landing, instructor and student shared the controls while they circled the campus and performed hammerhead and pirouette maneuvers “to show off a little bit for the people,” Takeuchi said.

“It’s amazing. It beats the sort of projects I did when I was at school,” said Victoria, who was initially concerned about the safety issue when Robert began flying about 14 months ago. “I’ve actually been up with him and his instructor in a helicopter. It’s all absolutely safety by the book, there’s no, ‘Oh, teenager having fun behind the controls of a helicopter.’ It’s very regulated and that was reassuring.”

The Clarkes have lived in Redmond for eight and a half years, ever since James began working at Microsoft.

“All our family’s back in the UK and they can’t believe that he’s learning to fly helicopters,” said Victoria, who noted that the family moved here from Berkhamsted, outside London.

Robert, who became interested in flying after a friend took him up in a helicopter around Seattle in the summer of 2013, took his first demo flight in a Robinson R22 with Takeuchi and “just fell in love with it” while he took the controls and performed some turns.

So far, he’s logged more than 50 hours in R22s and R44s and has about 10-20 hours of flying remaining until he secures his private pilot’s license in rotary helicopters in March. He’s thinking about working toward a commercial license after that.

On his first solo flight when he was up for two hours, Robert said it was a “nerve-racking experience” but also “a fantastic feeling being in such a powerful machine up in the sky.” Robert laughed when he remembered the enthusiasm is Takeuchi’s voice when he heard that his student was nearing the Auburn Airport — unscathed — to complete his flight.

When asked if he’s ever fearful while flying, Robert bursted out: “Oh, of course! The fear is definitely when I’m at the beginning stages of the flight. Before I actually get into the flight, it’s like really, ‘Oh my God, I’m about to fly a helicopter,’ and that’s the scary part. But when I’m up there, everything feels pretty natural. Every now and again there might be something that throws me off, but for the most part, it’s pretty comfortable up in the air at this point.”

For now, flying is a hobby for Robert, who’s paid for his lessons from the funds he’s earned from running the successful Web-hosting company that he launched at the age of 15. At the age of 12, he ran a technology review site.

At the close of his 18-minute verbal presentation before flying back to Boeing, Robert thanked his parents, consulting teacher Mike Walter, Chrysalis founder Fogle and physics of flight teacher Andy Cahn for providing support and inspiration in his endeavor.

“He was very excited about it and we wanted to see if it was something we could make happen,” Walter said.

Karen Fogle said the flight school OK’d Robert’s senior project and things transpired from there.

“It’s good for all the other kids to see what someone does,” she said. “It’s very inspiring for them.”