Ron Shoots

We left Sedona at 7:30am for Phoenix, about a 45 minute flight. We shot around Scottsdale on the way to downtown Phoenix. Don’t think I’ve ever seen so many golf courses- there must be a golf hole for every person in the town!

Loving a tailwind!

After Phoenix, we headed west towards Los Angeles. Since there’s nothing but miles of desert and not a ton to shoot, we were cooking along at 165mph- about 30mph faster than normal. (With the price of Jet A fuel at 3.89/gal and a helicopter that sucks 28 gallons/hr, a tailwind is much appreciated…)

Eye-to-eye with the FAA

Once we arrived LA, we refueled and plotted our photo spots. The highlights would be freeways & traffic, Long Beach Harbor and the Los Angeles airport. Flying in the LA airspace is intense- lots of other airborne traffic. Just about every sector is controlled by an airport tower that needs to know where you are, how high, where you’re going and what you’re doing! Fortunately, the pilot I’m working with has flown in the area for years.

Absolutely amazing to me is that you can fly a helicopter right into the middle of LAX. The tower needs to give approval to cross the runways and then you’re in. We hovered at 1500ft right over the tower, then landed at the helipad for a few minutes before taking off again.