VAN NUYS : Santa Gives His Reindeer a Day to Hit the Hay

Rudolph had the day off. Santa’s helpers wore flight suits. And the four-ton sleigh was named “Whiskey Pop.”

But for a sunny Southern California Santa, there was no better way to visit the 400 students at Gault Street Elementary School in Van Nuys on Thursday than aboard a helicopter.

“It’s a little faster, and you get to see a lot more,” said Santa, preparing to board the twin-engine Bell 412 helicopter at Van Nuys Airport. “With reindeer, you have to clean up behind them.”

Not that trading in reindeer for rotor blades doesn’t have its hazards. To complete Van Nuys Airport’s annual school visit, Santa--played by Bob Sironen, a 61-year-old airport electrician--had to risk dangers that they just don’t teach on the flight simulator at the North Pole. The first hazard--potential decapitation--came even before the helicopter took off.

“Any time you enter or exit a helicopter, go towards the front because of the spinning tail rotors,” pilot Wes Hobbs told Santa and his entourage, which included Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

Unconsciously ducking their heads, the nine passengers hopped aboard the whining aircraft, which lifted off moments later as softly as an elevator in a posh hotel.

At an elevation of 3,000 feet, Santa gazed out the window at Lake Balboa, Ventura Boulevard and the Santa Monica Mountains above Encino as chief pilot Gary Yates waited for orders to arrive at the school.

Just as Santa’s thoughts seemed to drift off peacefully into the fluffy, white clouds, Yates sent a shudder through the aircraft.

“Remember the old days when people used to shoot at us?” Yates quipped to Hobbs, causing the jolly old elf to peer through his glasses for snipers on the ground below.

But nobody would dare shoot down St. Nick, Yates quickly reminded his passengers.

With calm restored aboard the aircraft, Yates dipped toward the school at nearly 150 miles an hour, coming to a perfect two-skid landing on the school playground that even Santa could not have pulled off with his sleigh.

A cheer erupted from the pupils as Santa stepped from the helicopter. Moments later, the world’s favorite elf was embraced by dozens of little arms and more than a few questions about his mode of transportation.

“Where are your reindeer?” asked 7-year-old Marshall Simmons, a second-grader.

“It’s hard to bring them when there’s no snow,” Santa quickly replied.

But most students had no quarrel with Santa’s travel agent.

“If he brought the reindeer down now, they might be tired, and they’ve got to be ready for Christmas Eve,” explained second-grader Nicole Burns, 7.

“I was so excited,” said fourth-grader Ryan Olsen, 10. “I’ve never been so close to a helicopter.”

One student even had an explanation for Hobbs and Yates, dressed in their blue pilot suits.

“They’re Santa’s helpers,” said fourth-grader Darryl Bonner, 10, of Van Nuys. “They’re disguised so nobody else will know.”