Do the Smoky Mountains offer amazing scenic views? Yes. Is a helicopter ride a cool thing to do a neat way to see those views? Absolutely. Are the staff friendly? Yes.
Unfortunately, that's about where the positives end. This company is focused on how many people they can get through their doors as quickly as possible, meaning the flights are short (the medium-length tour last under 15 minutes from start to finish) and overpriced (the prices look inexpensive, until you realize how short the ride is).
For our tour specifically, we were really disappointed in the lack of information around the weather. When we arrived, we were told it was a great day to fly, that people were moved from yesterday to today for the better weather, and even tried to upsell us on a longer tour. We stuck with a tour that was medium length for what they offered, paying $89 so that we could go into the Smokies. Once we got into the cabin, our pilot told us that the weather was terrible, with winds so high we would not be able to get anywhere near the mountains. He said his last group was a "guinea pig" though, and he found a nice route above Gatlinburg that was manageable to fly in.
Needless to say, this was disappointing because we specifically selected the tour to see the mountains, but also made us super nervous for the flight. So, our flight was about 15 minutes of us sitting silently and nervously while circling above the dam in Gatlinburg (not very pretty), and hearing the pilot make nerve wracking comments such as:
"The winds up here are a strong as a tropical storm"
"We will experience a lot of sudden drops and movement back and forth. Please don't scream as it's loud in my headset and will make it hard to concentrate"
It took us 3 times circling around before he was able to land - it felt like we were barely in control. My fiance and I were both nauseous when we touched down. While I understand that there's nothing they can do about the weather, we should have been offered the chance to reschedule, get a full refund, or be refunded the $50/person difference between the mountain tour (what we paid for) and the dam tour (what we got). While the staff are friendly, this is clearly a business that prioritizes quantity over quality.
From a COVID perspective, there are zero precautions taken. I recognize that this is sadly on par with the area and a result of very loose TN laws, but this is a tourist area with people traveling from all over. None of the employees were wearing masks (front desk, pilots, etc.), nothing was sanitized between passengers, and employees got right up close to everyone. In the midst of a global pandemic, I expect more from business owners. read more