Precision Helicopters

Tour DeVine by Heli started in 2016 with a straightforward proposition: the Willamette Valley looks entirely different from 1,000 feet, and getting between wineries by air beats driving. It’s operated by Precision, a McMinnville aviation company flying since 1983, out of their own hangar minutes from the vineyards.

Each tour focuses on a single sub-appellation — Eola-Amity Hills, McMinnville, Chehalem Mountains, Dundee Hills, Ribbon Ridge, or Yamhill-Carlton — landing at partner wineries rather than driving between them. That’s the whole appeal. Instead of forty minutes on winding roads with someone watching their consumption, you get eight minutes over the top of it, and you step out onto a vineyard lawn.

Days run to a real itinerary, timed to the minute. Past tours have opened with champagne and appetizers from Red Hills Market before splitting guests into groups, then moved between tasting rooms with a winery lunch built in — Youngberg Hill and Maysara have both hosted.

You’ll fly in either an AS350, known as an A-Star, or a Bell 206 LongRanger. The A-Star carries four guests plus two pilots; the Bell handles smaller groups. Both have good sightlines from every seat, and both are outfitted to carry up to fourteen cases of wine in exterior compartments — which tells you they know their passengers.

Safety is handled seriously. Precision operates under an FAA Part 135 certificate, meaning commercial charter rules with high standards for maintenance, training, and pilot hours. Mechanics run checks before every flight and every tour opens with a briefing.

Custom tours are available if you want a specific route, a particular winery, or you’re traveling solo and want to join an existing group.

The consistent theme in guest accounts is that people arrive nervous about flying and forget about it within a minute of takeoff. What stays with them is the landing.