HOVER ABOVE SONOMA, NAPA, AND GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE WITH BUTTERFLY AVIATION
There’s a reason the best views come from above, but you can’t really know what it’s like to truly claim a bird’s-eye view until you take off in a helicopter. Now add Sonoma County, arguably California’s most diverse and picturesque landscape, as your canvas, and you can’t help but paint a brilliant memory of a bucket list experience. Whether you take a 30-minute flightseeing tour or alight at one signature winery and then another, spread your wings and take flight with locally owned Butterfly Aviation.
Butterfly Aviation was founded by Dr. Steven Ungerleider, a sports medicine and psychology specialist and member of the United States Olympic Committee. An author as well as multiple Emmy and Oscar nominee, Dr. Ungerleider founded Butterfly Aviation LLC in 2015. He operates Butterfly as a nonprofit service organization, donating profits to more than one dozen regional charities, such as the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County. The company’s four pilots have more than 70 years of combined flying experience.
Flying in a helicopter is an experience that’s hard to describe to those who have not enjoyed the privilege. True, we’ve all seen the whirlybirds overhead traveling backwards, hovering, and rising up and down at will, but there’s something otherworldly about being inside the aircraft. There’s such an alchemical ambience when in the air, lingering over the Russian River or as the afternoon sunlight glistens off the Golden Gate Bridge. Great for families and individual adventurers, Butterfly Aviation is one of those rare flightseeing operators to offer night tours, especially on or near a full moon.
The 2016 Bell Helicopter offers seven seats, each with a spectacular view. Flying in a Bell Helicopter adds plenty of buzz to any corporate retreat, when the aviation experts carry your thought leaders to several of the more than 950 wineries in Napa and Sonoma. Shuttling VIP guests or perhaps the bride and groom to Sonoma directly from San Jose, SFO, or Oakland airport makes for an unforgettable prelude to a wedding weekend. Of course, you don’t need the excuse of a board meeting or wedding vows to transcend at least two hours of traffic jams and dreaded unforeseen delays—just contact the Butterfly Concierge to arrange your airport-to-winery shuttle.
One virtue of local ownership is the intimate knowledge needed to create the best flight experiences throughout Sonoma and Napa. The 30-minute tour captures breathless views of the serpentine Russian River as it winds its way through western Sonoma County all the way to the Pacific Ocean. You’ll also take in once-in-a-lifetime views of Riverfront and River BeachParks, the oak groves, and kayakers, among other personalities of the Russian River Valley.
Local knowledge also translates into relationships, as demonstrated by Butterfly Aviation’s star-studded fivewinery tour. Visitors touch down for tastings at, among others, Arista Winery, Mauritson Wines, and Hirsch Vineyards. Eachwinery represents a distinctive experience. A visit to Chalk Hill Winery, for example, is an invitation to explore the culinary garden and bask on the Western-themed terrace. A visit to Francis Ford Coppola Winery & Museum is an event in itself, an opportunity to step into five decades of the fabled director’s film memorabilia, set within a spectacular Mediterranean ambience.
Visitors to Napa and Sonoma who soar with Butterfly are often surprised to find vistas that reveal the San Francisco Bay Area, perhaps because it can take so long to drive to the valleys from the Bay Area. A one-hour helicopter tour travels as the crow flies, an elaborate traversing of a fascinating topographical map. This tour flies guests along the Russian River and then continues out to Sonoma Coast State Park and Point Reyes National Seashore, where fliers maintain a keen eye for whales, sea lions, and, possibly, resident great white sharks. The Golden Gate Bridge comes into view shortly thereafter to complete the visual kaleidoscope of golden hills and winding rivers with one of the most iconic landmarks in the world.