Just minutes after lifting off from our private hangar at the Scottsdale Airpark, the desert stops being brown. The saguaros thin out, the Bradshaw Mountains rise on your left, and then the whole world turns the color of a struck match. Sandstone spires. Deep green ribbons of Oak Creek. Buttes standing in open air like something built rather than eroded. You have seen photos of Sedona. Almost nobody has seen it from 1,000 feet with nothing between them and the rock but a pane of glass and a quiet, air conditioned cabin.
That is the honest pitch for a Sedona helicopter tour out of Scottsdale. It is not a shortcut. It is a different Sedona entirely.
Why Sedona Looks Completely Different From the Air
Sedona is a landscape built in vertical layers, and the ground gives you exactly one of them. From State Route 179 you see the front faces of Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. From a trailhead you see the wall in front of you. What you cannot see, at any price, from a road or a jeep seat, is the geometry. The way Cathedral Rock’s fins fan out like a hand. The way Oak Creek Canyon knifes north into the Mogollon Rim and turns from red rock to ponderosa pine in the space of a few miles. The way Boynton Canyon closes into a box with sheer walls on three sides.
From the air, those relationships snap into place. Guests who have hiked Sedona for years say the same thing on the flight home, that they never understood how the place fit together until they saw it whole. That is the perspective shift people are actually paying for. The helicopter is just the delivery system.
What You Actually Fly Over Between Scottsdale and the Red Rocks
The route north is not filler. Our Sedona Experience runs a 25 minute flight through the Red Rock canyons, and the approach to get there is a tour in its own right. You climb out over the McDowell Mountains and the north Valley, cross Black Canyon City and the wide open country of Bloody Basin, run the eastern flank of the Bradshaw Mountains, and drop into the green sweep of the Camp Verde Valley with the Verde River winding underneath. Then the rock changes color and you are into red rock country, working the canyons at an altitude that makes the formations feel close enough to touch.
The whole experience, Scottsdale to Sedona and back with time on the ground in between, is a two hour block of your day. Driving the same 115 miles up Interstate 17 burns roughly four hours round trip, most of it spent looking at asphalt.
The Sedona Airport Layover: Where a Flight Becomes a Day
Here is the part people do not expect. The Sedona Experience an optional layover at the Sedona Airport, which sits on top of Airport Mesa, a flat table of rock in the middle of town with one of the most photographed views in Arizona right off the end of it. Many guests like to enjoy lunch at the famous Mesa Grill which is located at the airport. Guests can enjoy watching planes takeoff and land at the Sedona Airport runway from the comfort of the restaurant. Guests who want a longer window on the ground can extend the layover when they book.
So it reads like a scenic flight and it functions like a day trip. You get Sedona itself, without the drive, and you are back at the hangar in Scottsdale in time for a dinner reservation in Old Town.
Sedona Helicopter Tours in Summer: Quietly the Best Time to Go
Late summer in Arizona sends most visitors indoors, and this is exactly where flying beats every other outdoor option in the Phoenix Valley. Our AS350-B2 A Star has a fully air conditioned cabin. While a jeep tour, a hike, or a balloon basket puts you out in the heat, you are sitting in cooled air watching the state go by. Sedona sits about 4,500 feet up and runs meaningfully cooler than the Valley floor, so your time on the ground on Airport Mesa is comfortable in a way midday Scottsdale is not.
Monsoon season adds something too. Late summer storms scrub the air and green up the high desert, and the light after a cell moves through is what photographers drive across the country for. Weather occasionally moves a flight, and we never charge for a weather cancellation.
Common Questions About Sedona Helicopter Tours
How long is a helicopter tour from Scottsdale to Sedona?
Plan on about two hours total. That includes the flight north through the red rock canyons, a layover of at least an hour at Sedona Airport, and the return flight to Scottsdale.
Do Sedona helicopter tours land in Sedona?
The H5 Sedona Experience offers an optional add on layover at Sedona Airport on Airport Mesa, so you get time on the ground in town rather than only a flyover.
Are H5 flights private?
Every flight we operate is private. You are never seated with strangers. The aircraft carries up to 5 passengers, subject to an 850 pound total passenger weight limit, and the entire helicopter belongs to your group.
Where do the flights depart from?
Our private hangar in the Scottsdale Airpark at 16114 N 81st Street, Scottsdale, adjacent to Scottsdale Airport. Guests arrive 20 minutes early for check in, a hangar tour, and a safety brief.
Who This Flight Is For, and What Comes After It
Couples celebrating an anniversary book this one constantly, and so do families who want one unforgettable day instead of a week of scattered activities. Groups in town for a conference use it as an executive add on, and the destination management companies we work with across Scottsdale and Phoenix build it into itineraries for clients who have already done the golf and the resort spa.
If Sedona is the appetizer, the Grand Canyon Experience is the full meal. It includes everything in the Sedona Experience and then continues north through the Zuni Point Corridor over the Grand Canyon, with a layover at Grand Canyon Airport plus the Little Colorado River Canyon, the Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, and the ponderosa pines of the Mogollon Rim on the way home. It is our most requested flight, and it captures more of Arizona in four hours than most people see in a lifetime.
H5 Helicopters is veteran owned and family run, flying out of Scottsdale since 2008 with two pilots holding more than 55 years of combined experience and a perfect safety record. The same aircraft has flown aerial work for Apple TV, Netflix, National Geographic, IMAX, and Discovery. When you book, you get that airframe and those pilots to yourself.
To check availability for the Sedona Experience, or to talk through a custom itinerary for a couple, a family, or a corporate group, call us at (480) 272-1100 or email info@h5helicopters.com. Tell us the date and how many are flying, and we will build the day around it.