You know it will be an interesting afternoon when you walk out of orchestra to see your mother in the passenger seat with a big smile and a diagram of how to parallel park. Here the Sheila S. Cunningham School of Automotive Excellence brings you “How to Correctly Parallel Park Your Helicopter”.

Here we have your vehicle.

Drive along the road until you see an appropriate parking spot. A spot is considered ”appropriate” if there is enough room to park in it, the cars on either side of it are the types of cars you would feel ok nudging a little, and there are no angry New Yorkers trying to get into it.

Pull up parallel to the banana car ahead of the space you wish to occupy. You should be 2-3 feet away from it.

Put the helicopter into reverse and turn your wheel all the way to the right. Slowly back into the space.

Eventually, you will get sort of where you need to be. Then you have to do the tricky part of repeatedly backing up and pulling forward so that you are straight in the space, all without denting the banana car or Thomas.

Ideally your helicopter will ultimately look like this.

Then you can get out and admire your perfection.
But first remember to put the helicopter in park.

As always, be aware of potential situations, such as crossing guards…

…large trucks…

…God forbid the police…

…large flocks of people in stupid clothing…

…and of course the ubiquitous hazard of forests full of fierce wild beasts.