I shoot alot of aerials. Everyone is right! Don't do it if your not sure. If you only have one hour, you'll probably spend the first 20 minutes just watching stuff go by!
The pilot is the key. I have flown with pilots that have and have not flown for motion picture work. It's not worth it if they haven't done it before. You'll spend all of your time explaining what you want. I am flying with one of the best right now and he makes it easy. ON THE GROUND we go over what it is we are looking for, we go up and see how it looks, tweak a little and shoot. He knows what I am seeing and can put the ship in the position it needs to be in to get the shot. I would never give a pilot a monitor. He has plenty to do without watching TV! As long as you can talk to him during the shot he can adjust just fine.
If you don't use the pilots own ship, make sure it's checked out.
Don't go up with a pilot that says, "Watch This!"
A four blade helicopter is much more stable than the traditional two bladed one.
You'll find yourself saying, "lower, lower....faster, faster!" Just make sure the pilot has a low altitude waiver so he can be down there and that you've already scoped out the location for anything to run into.
Always Respect the fact that they shouldn't really fly!
