Recent Work

MARCH 2010 : McLaren choose FlyingTV
A highly secret project that we can now talk about. A little.
Location: Goodwood race circuit. Car: the 2011 McLaren MP4-12C. The test drivers: World Champs Jenson Button & Lewis Hamilton.
A cold, dry, bright day - some scintillating laps and some low level, high speed aerial filming in HD by FlyingTV.

BBC SPORT RELIEF
Eddie Izzard's UK marathons, David Walliams' celebrity bike relay from John O'Groats to Lands End and Christine Bleakley's cross-channel water ski attempt. All using aerials by FlyingTV.

UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE : YEAR 6
After 5 years coverage for ITV, we're back over London's River Thames for an amazing 6th year - this time live for BBC Sport on April 3.

GRAND NATIONAL IN LIVE HD
A week after the Boat Race, our crew and an HD helicopter head north for our 3rd year covering the Grand National live for BBC Sport. This will be Aintree's first HD outside broadcast and we'll be feeding our shots from 15 races to SIS Live.

MARCO'S BURNOUT
A new Marco Pierre White series for ITV1 sees the superchef let loose on some celebrity contestants. We were tasked with providing & filming the surprise element of the series final. Dodging February snow, you can see the results on-air in April.

EVEN HIGHER RESOLUTION STILLS
The speed of technology change in image-gathering never ceases to amaze. We've just upgraded our stills camera to over 18mps. Four years ago, 10 was regarded as the top.
So we can now offer all stills formats in addition to our HD & SD video cameras.

2010 : OUR SIXTH GREAT YEAR
We've now done over 2700hrs in the air - which roughly translates to some 250,000 miles of aerial filming work. Most of that has been achieved by our 2 brilliant R44 tv helicopters. And, at times, we've used other R44s, the EC120 and the AS355 for differing tasks.
And we're not averse to finding some plain 'planes for clients.
So, whatever you're looking for in aviation - call us for some solid advice.

NEW LOWER RATES
Our new ratecard kicks-in on March 1. But, because we're nice, we'll apply it to any bookings confirmed in February. The new rates are lower than 09. After 6 years of flying we've been able to get a better handle on the financials of flying - and we intend to pass those savings on to our clients.
And our Price Promise will still apply - if you can find the same service elsewhere, just show us a written quote and we will refund 110% of the difference.

Helicopter Heroes

Series 2 of this BBC documentary is filming, for the first time, in HD. And we've just started work on the project.

A call over Christmas from the production team asked us to get aerial shots of the Great North Air Ambulance over snow in North Yorkshire.

Job done - all in one day.

HD NOW!
See our all-new HD showreel at Vimeo - the easiest way to view HD on the web. We've also started a helicopter filming channel on Vimeo - and invite other aerial filming suppliers from beyond the UK to contribute a brief showreel. Eventually, this should be an invaluable resource for UK broadcasters heading round the globe.

ON AIR NOW
Monty Don's My Dream Farm for C4 runs for 6 weeks, with aerials supplied by us.


New Year Discount
Winter for us means some gin-clear days and some wonderful flying. And until Feb 28 we're not only going to hold our prices at 09 levels, but we'll offer a 10% discount for any bookings of more than 3hrs flying a day. This offer applies to hourly rates on our R44 filming helicopters only.

One call gets us going.

BBC Top Gear, now shooting only in HD, has just featured an extraordinary project. "This will solve all our problems" - so said James May about his caravan airship. Well, see the "as broadcast" movie in our video gallery that proves one thing : only a helicopter can be trusted to deliver epic shots.

We don't stop for winter. For the 5th year we covered the Welsh National jumps meeting at Chepstow live for Sunset+Vine/BBC Sport on December 28th. With a BBC drama shoot near Bristol and tasks for property developers around London, we've hardly had time for a snowball fight.

On-air BBC2 from October 27, James May's Toy Stories features some epic shots from FlyingTV. Being asked to film up close and personal with an iconic aircraft is a rare thing. The planning is immense because of the speed differential between a helicopter and, in this case, a Spitfire. Carolyn Grace, the world's only female Spitfire pilot, runs a tight operation with strict rules for her display flights. And she needs to because she's flying a 70 year old aircraft at 340mph.

We had just 30 minutes of Spit flying time to get the shots. So, a 1 hour briefing planned the movements to get the director's wishlist of shots.

Take a look at our preview on our video gallery page.

And still with James..... Top Gear returns mid-November with series 14 : the first HD series of TG. So far we've captured James' efforts in a caravan airship and Jeremy's latest escape in a car chase reminicent of The Italian Job.

We're currently shooting aerials for the new series of the F-Word and we're covering the UK round of the World Rally Championship in Wales. And we've been filming Johnny Herbert in an F1 car at Silverstone for The Gadget Show (Five).

HD or SD - the best in gyro-stabilised helicopter filming is available right now.

As we enjoyed benign weather around the Autumn Equinox, our hangar got really busy in September.

We completed a great shoot across southern England for a new series presented by Dragon Duncan Bannatyne - his first solo tv project. (above)

Our 5th fantastic year covering the Tour of Britain cycling meant a week away from base for one of our helicopters and its crew - 2500 miles around 8 stages.

A whole new project started in September - The One Show's Tellycopter which heads off with presenters Adrian Chiles & Christine Bleakley to different destinations, surprising viewers. See our Stills Gallery for some pics. We sourced and prepared the helicopter for the task and run the operation with our friends at Heli Air.

Top Gear goes HD for the next series - and we're already filming some very exciting new features with the team.

And our choice of equipment continues to grow with 3 Cineflex V12 SD & HD systems, the Cineflex V14 and either the two R44 ENG or the AS355 helicopters. A unique line-up in the UK & Europe.

We look forward to taking your call!

We've just had our busiest August, ever. Which seems slightly unreal given the business climate this year. Some really great jobs have come our way - so thanks to Red Bull for the chance to cover the world final of the X Fighters at Battersea Power Station - we shot video and stills (above).
As we did for the Reading Festival. We also covered the World Aerobatic Championships for the 2nd year - this time at Silverstone.
And we've completed our second series of Country House Rescue in HD for C4/Betty.
Also in HD was our coverage in Belfast for BBC and the Tall Ships. Eddie Izzard running a marathon a day for Sport Relief, Duncan Bannatyne's new business series, Jeremy Clarkson's new DVD and, in HD, tv commercials for Warner Hotels.

Busy. In one month we've flown to just about every corner of the UK.

Thank you to all clients. And to those who are about to be clients. They include, for the first time, the BBC's award-winning series Coast.

A stunning film

Visit our video gallery to enjoy the final film of BBC Top Gear, series 13. Directed by Nigel Simpkiss, this much-talked-about 4 minutes was shot in Snowdonia during July 09.

We waited and waited and waited for the day when we could say with confidence that the weather in north Wales would be a perfect match for the ground shots already completed.

Then we went. Got the shots and flew the tapes back to London. The images left Snowdonia at 4pm and were at the London edit by 7pm.

The UK weather means we have to remain flexible. We have to be ready to go when the clear blue bits happen! So, keeping our helicopters fully-equipped, fueled and ready to go is our priority.

And that applies to all our clients.

We're ready when you are.

Old vs New

One of our many tasks this summer has been aerial filming for a 90-minute documentary on WW1 flying aces and their steeds. Due onscreen in the UK in November, it's been a delight to work alongside such great aircraft as the SE5 (above) using our HD camera ship G-PIXX.

Other recent work has involved us in BBC Sport, the new series of ITV's X Factor, Eddie Izzard running round Britain, BBC Top Gear and the new Aston Martin in Snowdonia, Manchester Police Air Support Unit and the London Air Ambulance.

We get around. And every client gets the same high quality service and care. And we work really hard to control the costs of your aerial shoot.

FlyingTV : we do our best. For you.

Early summer on British TV and barely a day goes by without our aerial shots on a broadcast. From Royal Ascot to Top Gear, via The Money Programme and BBC1's Filthy, Rich and Homeless.

The Top Gear 1949 Challenge launched the new series with a 30-minute special. You can see highlights at our Video Gallery. It was a truly epic and cinematic production, featuring aerials exclusively by FlyingTV.

We've also been off to Wales and Eire. Our low "positioning" rates make getting around the UK & Europe easy for productions. In Eire we shot the aerials for Sir Gerry Robinson's new Channel 4 business series Gerry's Big Challenge. Using G-PIXX over Co Donegal, we captured some gorgeous, tapeless HD 1080 material.

And we're constantly taking calls and able to give estimates in that one phone call. Whether you want SD or HD gyro-stabilised, simply call us with some postcodes and we'll give you a straight, no-fuss answer.

Top Gear : FlyingTV HD 1080

Our all-new HD 1080 helicopter camera system has been put straight to work. In a marathon shoot from London to Edinburgh in one day, we've been filming a great Top Gear challenge in HD.

The screengrab above is from our satellite tracking system. The challenge left London before 0730 and arrived in Edinburgh at 1530.

Recording without tape, the HD helicopter has performed beautifully.

We just wish we could tell you what we were filming...........

A SPORTING START TO APRIL

The John Smiths Grand National was the climax to a busy sporting week for us. Working for producers Sunset+Vine, we provided 3 days of live coverage for the BBC. The 15th - and last - race we covered was the biggest in the world with 40 horses over 30 fences.

That same week saw us live for England v Ukraine World Cup Qualifier at Wembley (ITV Sport) and the annual Boat Race (ITV Sport).

Working live is always exciting - and the latest technology we use means that we can simply turn up and turn on our transmitter for instant output. We also run 2 independent talkback radios which can communicate with any OB facility.

The "National" is a 3-man task : pilot, cam op and director onboard all working together. Aintree is a tight course and requires exacting flying, the action comes fast so the camera operator has to keep his head in the monitor, and the director speaks a countdown to each fence and turn.

Our helicopters are specifically designed for such high-quality live broadcast work.

ABC NEWS

An idea of how we respond for clients. At 9pm on a Friday evening before the G20 Economic Summit, we took a panic call from US network ABC News. They urgently needed night shots of London for the title sequence of their evening news.

We pointed them to FlyingTV Mastershot, they surfed the collection and we delivered the 16:9 full broadcast shots to their London bureau the next day.

As a bonus we threw in some footage we grabbed as the US Presidential helicopter, Marine One, arrived in London.


ITV BOAT RACE
Sunday March 29, live. Our fifth year covering Oxford-Cambridge on the river in London.

BBC SCIENCE SHOW
A new series for BBC1 - with all sorts of aerials and helicopter work by FlyingTV.

plus England football at Wembley and 3 days for the BBC at The Grand National.

Spring has definitely sprung!

MARCH 09

FlyingTV HD

With the busiest start to a year ever, we've still found time to work on our new High Definition aerial filming system. Our business was founded on keep-it-simple principles - and we keep that successful idea as we move into HD. So - we've spent a lot of time and money to achieve what we believe will be the best and most effective answer for HD aerial filming.

Our Hi Def system is ready and being test-flown during March. We'll be ready to supply clients before Easter.

As well as HD, we won't stop offering the best SD aerial filming rates in the UK.

Simply call or email to hear some good news : we will not ruin your budget!

You can see our work on BBC iPlayer with the brand new BBC4 series Britain's Best Drives and you can see us in action for the 5th successive year with our live coverage of The Boat Race for ITV Sport on March 29.

FEBRUARY 09

BRITAIN'S BEST DRIVES

From Thursday 19th February at 2030, this 6-part BBC 4 series has actor Richard Wilson using classic cars to drive some of Britain's most famous motoring routes. All aerial filming by FlyingTV as we cover England, Scotland and Wales - the beautiful bits.
All episodes can be viewed for 7 days at BBC iPlayer.

SNOWBUSINESS

During the UK's recent severe winter weather, FlyingTV was busy covering the story for ITN, ITV News and C4 News. In constantly changing scenarios and at short notice, our helicopters have proved their worth. Road, rail and airport runways were closed - but a helicopter doesn't need any of them! Sub-zero temperatures ? We love them.

Another unique advantage we enjoy is in our piston engines. Even in falling snow, we can carry on flying when many turbine helicopters are thinking of landing.

AWARD WINNING

FlyingTV is extremely proud to have been part of the team that won Best Sports Programme at the 2009 Broadcast Awards in London. Congratulations to producers Sunset+Vine.

The 2008 Grand National at Aintree was produced for the first time ever by an independent production company - Sunset+Vine - for BBC Sport and gained 10m viewers as well as plaudits from the Award judges. "The coverage was excellent from all aspects" said one.
FlyingTV provided the aerial coverage for Sunset+Vine at Aintree. We covered 15 races live in 3 days using our purpose-built tv helicopter with crew Mark Walters, Matt Wyer and Mike Smith.

FlyingTV will be in action again this year at the Grand National, Aintree,  April 2-4.

JANUARY 09

BIG CHEF LITTLE CHEF

Twofour Broadcast for Channel 4

Currently showing in primetime, this new series features chef Heston Blumenthal bringing his skills to the roadside restaurant chain, Little Chef.

Producers Twofour Broadcast turned to FlyingTV for the aerials. Blumenthal's famous Fat Duck restaurant is by the Thames at Marlow, whilst the 3 Little Chef locations were in Hampshire. The brief needed shots of Heston coming out of his restaurant, getting into his car and setting off. We needed to get a variety of vehicle tracking shots that could be used through the series. And we needed to show the car entering the Little Chef sites in Hampshire.

We constructed a half-day shoot, provided a UHF radio link so the helicopter could direct the car and got all the shots done in less than 3 hours of flying.

Helping to make the schedule work was the Twofour producer who planned things in advance, asked us for advice and knew what she needed to achieve on the day.

So, we don't just turn up, we work with your team to be efficient and get the job done on time and on budget.

We've also worked for Twofour on the forthcoming BBC4 series Britain's Best Drives, which airs from 18th February, and a new BBC2 series Keep It In The Family.

DECEMBER 08

Hit of the Year

We're proud of the part we played in the UK television hit of the year.

TalkbackThames produced the biggest hit series of the year for ITV. X Factor topped-out the Saturday night tv ratings with a massive 14.4 million for the final show.

Our role was to provide aerial shots from 4 different UK audition locations and to supply 4 liveried helicopters for a co-ordinated sequence involving the judges. As Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Cheryl Cole and Danni Minogue flew in their personal helicopters, we also filmed them from one of our tv helicopters.
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Talk to us now about HD for 09. We're already offering tapeless recording in SD and this will also be offered with our HD. The tapeless system works a treat - with clients bringing their own hard drive and taking a full, fat digital file of the output with them after a shoot. We keep the master until we hear that the client has successfully transferred the file to their edit. Couldn't be simpler.

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Coming soon
On-air at the moment is C4's Country House Rescue with us gathering the aerials in all corners of the UK. And starting early in 09 on ITV, Martin Clune's Great British Islands. Together with Heston Blumenthal's Big Chef, Little Chef (C4) and BBC4's Britain's Best Drives, you'll be able to see a lot of our work in the next few months.

DECEMBER 08

ON-AIR THIS WINTER
Spooks series 7 has been a massive hit for BBC1 - with all aerials by FlyingTV. Clicking above brings up a selection of aerials from the series.

CATCH UP ON OUR WORK
Simply click on the link below to see a variety of our most recent broadcast shoots. These movies have also been optimised for iPhone users.
FlyingTV movies

MOVING FORWARD
We're working throughout the winter - short days, maybe, but sometimes some glorious light. Our low costs make working around the UK with us a simple choice for producers. In November alone we've been filming around Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and all corners of England.

First UK operator to offer a daily rate, first to offer all-in-one prices, first to operate dedicated purpose-built tv helicopters, first to offer tapeless - these are just a few of the FlyingTV benefits. And we were the first to offer a Price Promise : if you can get the same service elsewhere, we will refund 110% of the difference.

Plus we are the only UK aerial filming company to offer royalty-free aerials from our collection. Surf Mastershot on this site to see what we have.

A big thanks to all our customers for continuing to use and recommend FlyingTV.

NOVEMBER 08

HORSE-EYE

We've worked on horse racing since 04. The courses, horses and jockeys love our helicopters because they are so quiet and unobtrusive.

We've started to film some of the world's most famous courses from a "horse eye" perspective. Working with CAA low flying exemptions, we can get very low and deliver a shot that puts the viewer in the saddle.

Here's an extract of our work around Aintree's Grand National course with its enormous fences.

OCTOBER 08

ITV NEWS AT TEN
Only a tv helicopter can deliver the demands of ITN. For a special series of reports from around the UK, we sent G-PIXX off for a week. Starting in Scotland, and with locations changing rapidly, our crew spent the week delivering the goods. Anchor Julie Etchingham from News At Ten presented the show from a different UK city every night, and reported from the air.
Such a challenge is why we started this business. And ITV News were full of praise : "....we hope this will lead to many more such commissions."

TAPELESS
In addition to digiBeta & DVCAM tape, we can now offer tapeless acquistion. FlyingTV is the first UK aerial filming company to offer Panasonic P2. It's part of our move to HD - but P2 can also be used to acquire SD. One P2 card can store an hour of SD material in better quality than tape. And the file can be transferred direct into an edit, saving fortunes in tape transfer costs. If you would like to try tapeless, please call. (And we'll even offer free tape back-up if you want assurance!)