Comment about Helipad behind Living Seas Podcast related

[CAJUNWDWFAN]

John was discussing on the latest podcast during the Stump the round table segment about the last Helipad behind the Living Seas.

I'm happy to say that just recently back in December 2009 my dad and I took the newest segway tour "Nature Inspired Design". Towards the end of the tour we were allowed to ride the X2 Segways on this Helipad. I would have taken pictures but picture taking was not allowed backstage. Our tour guide said that sometime celebrities are flown in at this location. Also the old Living Seas logo is still visible on the concrete but it's faded a lot and hasn't been repainted in years.

 

[jcb]

I was wondering about it myself so I checked Bing maps and found this:

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=nqw574863ft1&scene=55097152&lvl=2&sty=b

and

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=nqw53q863g6y&scene=55097054&lvl=2&sty=b

 

[k5jm]

 

[CAJUNWDWFAN]

Yes that's it. We rode all around that back stage area. On the helipad. Even around the retension pond north of the pad. It's an over flow pond if they ever had to dump water from the living seas tank for an emergency. We also got to tour the pump station facilities that you seen in that picture.

 

[k5jm]

Here is the Former Ultralight Airport that is in the abandoned Pop Century.

The Airport still shows active on USGS charts.

 

[truck1]

The heliport behind the Living Seas, is used for several things. Everything from flying in certain celebrities, to medical evacuations, to the higher ups at Disney Corporate.
Theres a 3rd site that is used next to the MK parking lot. Origianlly it was designed for Ear Force 1, (234mm)which was Walts personal plane (its on display at DHS on the Catastrophe Canyon tour, and you can see it from LMA as you walk into the stadium).At some point, it was deactivated, but it is still there. Its still used for helicopters, and also it was used about 10 years ago for a plane pulling a banner that had an engine emergency.Lately they have been using it to store trialers and construction equipment.

While they were building the new (at the time) FIW facility for busses behind the Hess station at MK in the mid 90s it was used to park,fuel and inspect the Disney bus fleet.