Monday morning was a good excuse to do some scouting for some new aerial shoots. I was looking for some different scenery to shoot and check out the Golden Gate Bridge again in some different light. This time I would be flying rather than shooting, but there is still plenty to prep for. My ride today would be a Robinson R44 Raven 1 from San Carlos Flight Center. I've flown the R44 before and shot from the back of one quite a few times but none have had the fancy paint job this one has. It's the perfect color for the bay area if you're a Giants fan :)

Pre-flighting the helicopter

Oakland is a challenge to fly through as you are often restricted to one route. Sometimes you get to fly right over the terminal which can make for some cool shots but you can't be certain you'll go the same way twice. The airport looked very similar today to this shot I took on an earlier shoot. 

Southwest Airlines at Oakland Airport

As I wasn't shooting today I used my bluetooth GPS to log my route. I usually use this to track my flight so I can geotag my aerial photos in Lightroom but it's also a great tool to remember where you were and to locate the cool spots you saw from the air for future reference. I used a Bad Elf BE-GPS-2200. I chose this one as it's very quick acquiring the satellites, is easy to use as a stand alone device, has great battery life and straightforward to export a gpx file for use in Lightroom. Here's the route I took for my scouting trip. Napa looked promising for an upcoming aerial shoot.

GPS route from my Bad Elf GPS