Epic operates out of each Dallas and Fort Value, so that they have you ever coated in North Texas. They do all kinds of excursions, charters, instructing, and many others., however what drew my eye was their Instagram particular for Christmas. Final minute helicopter excursions for $99? Yep. In. Carried out.
I met the pilot at Addison Airport simply north of Dallas on the Atlantic Aviation terminal. Amidst the personal jets was a small helicopter off within the distance (I believed). The pilot gave me and one other couple a fast security briefing and orientation and, after a brief delay ready for a little bit of rain to cross, made our technique to the helicopter.
Epic Helicopter
For the photographers
Now, as most of you recognize, I not less than fancy myself a little bit of a photographer. As such, I used to be very excited to take footage from a helicopter. That is WAAAAAAY more durable than it sounds, particularly at night time. The journey ended up being easy, however you’re nonetheless in a helicopter. My Sony a7 handles low-light conditions fairly properly, however even this may put it to the check. The quickest lens in my arsenal is my Zeiss 55mm f1.8 prime, and I figured it’d give me the very best shot at some usable photos. What I discovered was at f1.8 I may get to a shutter pace of 1/250th (to attenuate the relative bumpiness from the helicopter) at ISO 6400. Whereas this may be noisy, I used to be fairly certain I may get away with it, particularly with some Lightrooming later)
Prepared for takeoff!
Cockpit
I sat within the entrance seat of the helicopter, which was smaller than the final time I had ridden on one (doing a tour of Maui in Hawaii in 1996). I rapidly adjusted to the dimensions as soon as we had been airborne. I loved listening to our pilot, Wes, chat with ATC through the headset. Calmly and easily we ascended skyward way more casually than I anticipated. Wes was an absolute professional and made the expertise enjoyable for all of us, which was a feat contemplating we had been dodging some dangerous climate.
Our flight path took us northward, then we minimize throughout a pleasant space referred to as Plano the place there are some very massive homes with wonderful Christmas lights. Then we made our method south to Truthful Park, house of the world well-known State Truthful of Texas and the Cotton Bowl stadium.
Truthful Park and Cotton Bowl
We then made a sweeping flip west (into Love Discipline’s airspace) and made our method towards downtown Dallas.
Heading towards downtown
Dallas has a terrific skyline that was lit up and exquisite for us.
We then occurred upon two iconic Dallas sights, Reunion Tower and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
Two nice landmarks
Fortunately we made a flip that allowed for a bit of tighter perspective of the 2 sights.
Reunion Tower and Margaret Hunt Hill
As we turned north (across the “ball” of Reunion Tower) we flew straight over certainly one of Dallas’s latest and hottest sights, Klyde Warren Park.
Klyde Warren Park
As we turned straight north, Love Discipline ATC knowledgeable us there was a Southwest 737 about to take off to the west of us, and to watch out of wake turbulence. What a deal with to observe a aircraft take off from such a cool perspective!
Southwest 737
We then flew over some extra neighborhoods with nice Christmas gentle shows, however none to the purpose that they’d make good footage. One of many final sights we noticed is a regionally well-known park in Addison, Texas, referred to as Vitruvian Park. It’s well-known through the vacation season for its colourful tree lights.
Vitruvian Park
Our flight got here to an in depth with a mushy touchdown at Addison Airport. It was a few 50-minute journey from takeoff to touchdown and I believed I paid too little for it. It was an absolute steal at $99. Epic Helicopters was a terrific outfit and I can’t wait to go up with them once more!
Every other aerial photographers on the market, or anybody with cool helicopter journeys to inform us about?
(disclaimer: I paid for this journey myself, Epic Helicopters didn’t present any service in trade for this assessment nor did they approve of the content material of this submit earlier than publishing, as all the time my ideas and opinions are my very own and don’t symbolize another firm)
