http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=158731
Pilot high after flight with U2
Saturday Nov 4 18:54 AEDT
Diehard U2 fan Richard Ainsworth reckons the Irish supergroup will probably forget their helicopter ride with him, but he never will.
The RACQ Careflight pilot was lucky enough to ferry the four band members on the 20-minute flight from the Gold Coast to Brisbane where they'll play on Tuesday night to restart their Vertigo world tour.
Mr Ainsworth, 37, said he fielded several phone calls from jealous friends following his once in a lifetime flight with the band members.
"I obviously got a few phone calls from friends saying 'you lucky bugger' and I was," he said.
"I'll remember this until the day I die and they (U2) will forget this in a month."
Although he has been an avid U2 fan since his mid-teens, Mr Ainsworth said Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jnr were not his heroes.
"It's not meant to be a plug but all the Careflight crew and the emergency service people I come across on a daily basis are my heroes," he said.
"These guys (U2) just do wonderful things with music. I'm not trying to cheapen them but we need to keep things in perspective."
Mr Ainsworth will be one of thousands of screaming fans at the Queensland Sports and Athletic Centre (formerly ANZ Stadium) next week after buying two U2 tickets from eBay for $350.
Mr Ainsworth said he avoided acting like a star-struck groupie during the flight.
"I wasn't bombarding them with questions or being the youthfully enthusiastic teenage fan who throw their underwear at the stage," he said.
"They're busy people so you could tell at times they were thinking about what's coming up for them."
A spokeswoman for Careflight said U2 had made a sizeable donation to the charity service.
It's believed the money will be used to fund a Bambi bucket, an aerial firefighting tool which is suspended below a helicopter.
Since U2's arrival on the Gold Coast on Wednesday, fans have waited for hours outside the band's luxury hotel in the hope of catching a glimpse of the rock royalty.