MElbourne Cup helicopter flights: Why the sky is full of buzz during Cup week

Every year we see it: the horses, the owners, the fashions on the field, outlandish ties and top hats, and the race that stops a nation.

In the background, the thumping of the rotor blades reveals another part of the spectacle to the Melbourne Cup: the airlift of VIPs, corporate titans, the well-heeled and the just plain willing-to-spend punters arriving aboard helicopters.

One after another, the choppers arrive, their passengers alight, and they depart again through the day. In the evening, like a crack operation, the helicopters ferry the exhausted racegoers out of Flemington Racecourse.

The Apocalypse Now -volume of choppers peaks during the biggest days of the racing carnival – Derby Day, Oaks Day, Cup Day – the helicopters often keep their blades spinning as passengers board.

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