A few screen grabs from GoPro video.

I did a 3-hour charter flight yesterday, taking a good client to visit cherry orchards between Wenatchee and the Tri-Cities area of Washington. Along the way, we overflew the Columbia River and vast deserts and orchards. I had two GoPro Hero cameras hooked up: one on the helicopter’s nose and one on the right skid.

Here are a few screen grabs from my flights.

These are the Ancient Lakes at Quincy Lakes, shot by my nosecam as I descended into the area from the Quincy Basin. If you’ve ever heard of the Ancient Lakes AVA for wine, these are the lakes that name refers to.

I like this nosecam image of the Rock Island Dam, mostly because of the cloud reflections.

A view of the Rock Island Dam from my skidcam.

The bridges across the Columbia River between Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, shot from my nosecam.

A bird’s eye view from my skidcam as we flew over the bridge to East Wenatchee.

Crossing the Columbia River from west to east near Richland, WA. This time last year those islands were almost completely submerged with snowmelt floods. This is a skidcam image.

A nosecam view of Richland Airport in the Tri-Cities area.

It might be hard to believe, but this area of Washington is desert. This nosecam image, shot east of Pasco, proves it.

In this nosecam image, you can see the Snake River just upstream from the Ice Harbor Dam. My third landing zone was at a shop in the clump of trees on the upper right. You’re looking at thousands of cherry and apple trees here.

Did I say thousands of fruit trees? There are millions in this skidcam image shot near Saddle Mountain.

This early evening skidcam shot of Rock Island and Malaga offers a good look at the terrain of my future home. I’ll be living at the base of those cliffs across the river by Christmas.