Tag Archives: Tours

Wine tasting in a helicopter

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The Oregon wine country is getting known worldwide for it’s great Pinot Noirs, Chardonnays and other wines. Yamhill County, the heart of Oregon wine country where  wine growers started their first vineyards on the Dundee Hills, is home of more than 200 vineyards!

The region, with tasting rooms in Newberg, Dundee, Carlton and right in the middle, McMinnville has everything a wine connoisseur can imagine. Great restaurants, hotels, beautiful Bed & Breakfasts, lots of activities and of course wineries for every taste.

With the wine season starting on memorial day what better to do than get around a few vineyards, taste some of the wines, soak in the sun and views from the tasting rooms and enjoy life.

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Getting around wine country can be time consuming. There is one way, though, to move it up a notch and not worry about traffic. Get picked up in either Portland downtown, Salem or McMinnville by a helicopter! Get in, relax, enjoy breath taking views of the Willamette Valley, the rolling hills and rivers while your helicopter pilot flies you from tasting room to tasting room.

He will explain some of the history of the area to you as well as pointing out interesting facts and scenic spots to you while you overfly the Willamette Valley wine regions.

There is no better way to explore vineyards like Stoller Family Estates, Sokol Blosser, Vista Hills, Domaine Serene, Domaine Drouhin, Winderlea, Alexana, Archery Summit, Hawks View, Methven Family Vineyards, The Dukes Family and a lot more, than in a helicopter. All those vineyards can be overflown in the helicopter in about 30 minutes. Trying to see all those driving on the roads will take you days.

 

Helicopter Proposal Flight

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Propose on a Helicopter RideProposing to your future bride should be a special moment. We had quite a few customers that chose to propose to their girlfriend using our helicopter services.

There are a lot of options and there are always new ideas we can work on with you. A couple options we have done in the past were:

Propose during a flight in the helicopter

We will take you up on a helicopter scenic flight and show you the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. It could be just a short ride around the Willamette Valley and it’s wineries or something longer to Mt. St. Helens, over Portland, the Columbia River Gorge, or over the Pacific Coast.

Our aircrafts have the best active noise reduction technology headsets. You can talk to your fiancée to be just like you do on the phone. We’ll even play some music in the background.

Once we are over your favorite spot you can pull out the ring and propose. How could she not say “yes” at that point?

Proposing on a quiet, secluded ridge or island

We are able to land during a scenic tour to give you the time to propose in private to your girlfriend and future fiancée. Take the love of your life up on a helicopter scenic tour. We land on a river island, during the tour. You will get off the helicopter and propose. We will even throw in a bottle of sparkling wine for you to celebrate that she said “yes”.

Helicopter picnic or romantic lunch with a beautiful view

Another option is to have us stop for a picnic. Have a romantic picnic on a river beach, or at a romantic winery with a beautiful view over the Willamette Valley.

There are probably thousands more options and we are happy to include your ideas and make it even more special with your personal touch.

Look at some pictures of a couple helicopter proposal flights we did in the past.

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Hot August Flights in Salem

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Yesterday we were at the Hot August Flights in Salem. A few month back we were asked to provide helicopter rides at this event and we said yes.

The night before I packed all the equipment we needed in the car. This included our tent, table, signs and other things like the credit card equipment. I was not planning on flying our Robinson R44 down to Salem. I left this task up to Sandy and Alan who wanted to help out loading and unloading passengers.

Part of the ground crew and I arrived at 7:30am at the airport and started to set up our booth space. Once we were done we had a little time left over before the helicopter arrived. So we decided to get some breakfast which was provided by the Flight Deck Restaurant. While we had our pancakes, sausages, ham and eggs, we saw a couple friends arriving in their airplanes.

Once the helicopter arrived we headed over to our booth, cleaned the helicopter and set everything up for the first customers.

The day started a little slow, so we walked over during a few quiet minutes and checked out the awesome cars, airplanes and helicopters that were on display on the field. Some were really nice vintage cars and they looked like they just came out of the showroom.

The overcast sky cleared up and customers lined up. At the end it turned out to be a pretty busy day.

Thank you Salem for having us. We had a great time and we’re looking forward to coming back!

The 2011 Original Sandfest

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After weeks of preparation Pilot and crew have packed the final items and supplies for an afternoon departure to the Sandfest in North Bend, Oregon, a small Oregon Coastal town with a population of approximately 10000.  Ingo, Alan, and DJ will be flying another event at Stoller in the afternoon before they head to North Bend, so Jesse and I are left to load up the dog, Snoopy, and make the 4 hour drive.

Due to Ingo’s tech savvy nature, we are deftly guided by a talking GPS system and we make the trip without mishap.  Although we had hoped to beat him there and have the ‘camp’ set up before his arrival with the helicopter, we find that we narrowly beat them there with only enough time to find wind indicator supplies (balloons & and an American Flag) in town.

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It turns out the helicopters arrival was much anticipated, once Ingo and crew touched ground they hardly had the rotors stopped when someone was asking for a ride.  Virgil and Shannon were hooked after one ride and went up two more times over the course of the weekend.  Virgil even hooked us up with rides in their ATV around the dunes.  It was great!

After we got them in the air it was time to set up camp.  We needed to stay near the helicopter at night so we pitched our tents around the perimeter of the landing area which was a couple hundred feet down the hill from the Sandfest.  We were fairly well protected from wind but the gusts were so bad Friday that we had to fix the tent poles several times.  The wind ended up shutting us down Friday, but fortunately mellowed out the rest of the weekend.

At nights we parked the car right next to the helicopter so that people would see there was something in the middle of the lot.  The black helicopter blends in a little too well when there isn’t much light in the area and we wanted to be sure, in case someone rode their ATV’s through the lot, they would notice.  In the end, I think it was Snoopy that kept them at bay 🙂

All in all a good weekend.  It was windier than we would have liked, but that’s the Oregon Coast for you.  We flew, met some great people, DJ and Jesse attended their first bon fire at the Sandfest camp, and we all had some fun; it doesn’t get much better than that.