On February 13th, my girlfriend and I had the pleasure of scouting the Nashville skyline from a Robinson R44 Raven II Helicopter. It was actually quite the impulsive purchase – as are most of my helicopter rides! We had been conversing about potentially buying some airtime, but hadn’t planned on exactly when. Nonetheless, on that Wednesday, we got a little too eager to take flight and bought some seats for that afternoon.

Now, this isn’t your ordinary helicopter ride. This was an open-door helicopter ride that allowed us to get some really incredible shots, while maybe sticking our feet out the window for a “Leg Selfie”. While many of the open-door helicopter providers I have used (like FlyNyon) usually allow – and incentivize – their customers to stick their legs out for the whole flight, Helistar Aviation Nashville did not advise for that in their smaller model birds. Even then, the views on that sunny afternoon were nothing less than breathtaking.

Most of the photographers in the area use the Robinson R22 – a helicopter designed for a pilot and a single passenger. Since I was going with my girlfriend, we had the opportunity of using the larger model. Thus, we had an extra seat available. Ben Sherill, a videographer and photographer that goes to Belmont, was our plus one that day. Most of the shots provided on this post were taken by him. Give Ben a follow!

Although Helistar Aviation is a trusted company in the Nashville area, I will highly recommend using Monarch Helicopters. They offer the only open-door helicopter rides in Nashville, and for even cheaper than the competition. At this point, I’ve used Monarch Helicopters 5 times.