Have you ever scrolled through Facebook Marketplace and saw something you really wanted and just had to have? One man did but he wasn't quite sure what to do with it but after talking with his wife, they came up with an idea.
"It was kind of a crazy idea," U.S. Coast Guard Helicopter Pilot Blake Morris said.
Maggie Morgan and Morris are both helicopter pilots in the U.S. Coast Guard in Mobile. They decided why not, why not buy the main body of a helicopter from a man in Florida in 2020. But they weren't sure what to do with it at first.
"Eventually came around to the idea, that oh maybe I can turn that into a camper. I asked Maggie and luckily she was very supportive. I was expecting her to say I was crazy, but she actually said that's a great idea," Morris said.
They then began the camper conversion, but there was some specials requests from Maggie about the cockpit.
"I wanted to be able to come out and sit and drink my coffee and look out of the windows of the helicopter while we camped," Morgan said.
They created an Instagram page documenting the progress, even sharing some photos of the 'helicamper' back in it's German police days. They were able to locate the photos thanks to the serial number on the airframe. They also had some help from Airbus.
"It went to the German military police first, then it got bought from there and used in Afghanistan with U.S. Troops for a few years then in came here in about 2011 back in the states," Morris said.
"If we open this up, you can see it's actually from an aircraft lavatory," Morris said. "Outdoor speakers, outdoor TV hook up, cable hook up...we're not roughing it for sure. The TV swings around so you can watch that in bed or when you're making food in the kitchen."
After getting permits and everything else necessary to have it on the road, they took it out for the first time on a camping trip last month.
"We've got a lot of honks and when we'd stop at some of the stop lights, people would honk and roll down their window and ask what it was or they'd give us a big thumbs up," Morgan said.
The Instagram name for the 'helicamper' is helicamper_RV.