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San Francisco and the Bay Area News & History

Helicopter commuting?
Jason Cohen, CTG
12/26/2024 11:57 AM

I recently met a guy whose parents sent him to spend the summer of 1967 with relatives in the Bay Area because they were worried he was becoming a hippy-- "Best punishment I ever got!" he said.


He told me there was no Bay Bridge so they took a helicopter from Oakland to San Francisco. I assumed he was having an LSD flashback when he said this.


BUT, look at the attached article. Do any of our Guild historians or members who were here in the 60s remember this helicopter service? I had never heard of it, but the article makes it sound like it was big.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_and_Oakland_Helicopter_Airlines

Greg Quist
12/26/2024 12:06 PM
When I was living in Healdsburg and working in Alaska in the 1970s, I would drive down  to Sausalito from Healdsburg and take a helicopter from the heliport, where the recording studio is at the north end of Bridgeway, to SFO.

They had a serious accident in the early 80s and went out of business.

Greg Quist CTG-SF
President
San Francisco Tour Guide Guild Board of Trustees
SFTGG.ORG
510.418.7189 - Mobile


Robert L. Hunt, CTG
12/26/2024 3:16 PM
Good Afternoon SFTGG Guides,

I remember SFO Helicopter Airlines.
I flew w/them many times.
As I recall they operated a number of heliports.
The north side of Sausalito,
Two in dntn SF,
On top of the Furniture Mart,
and on a small pier between the Ferry Building and Pier 1.
SFO,
OAK,
dntn Oakland,
Buchanan Field in Concord,
And the Berkeley Marina.
Possibly other points.
Helicopters are bigger, faster, and way more expensive these days.
I don’t see their return anytime soon.
Fast, large, ferry boats on SF Bay would likely happen first, and where are they?

Cheers,
Bob




Sent from my iPhone

Greg Quist
12/26/2024 3:51 PM

And this is my helicopter on the other end...Crew change at a remote oil-drilling rig on Alaska's North Slope, probably late April. I was the Union Steward on the rig for the Alaska Roughnecks and Drillers.



Greg

Christine Miller
1/4/2025 10:01 PM

Hi Jason,

I had never heard of local helicopter commuting until I read about it in this forum.

Then, I was watching an old episode of Streets of San Francisco...and there it was!

In the episode "Chapel of the Damned" Season 2, episode 16, there is a scene where Michael Douglas and Karl Maldon are at SFO in the helicopter waiting room area/ticketing counter.


I don't have the exact time it appears but it is towards the latter half of the episode.




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