A great aerial sequence is rarely the result of what happens once the helicopter lifts off. It’s the result of everything that happens beforehand.
Specialist Helicopters provides complete aerial production coordination—from creative planning and risk management through to regulatory approvals, airspace coordination, specialist aviation assets and operational logistics—so your production team can stay focused on making the film.
When ambitious aerial concepts push beyond standard approvals, we work with regulators and stakeholders to develop the safety case that makes them possible, including first-of-kind operational approvals where required.
Guide: how to choose the right aerial operator ›
What’s includedThe most demanding aerial sequences are won long before the blades turn. Our aerial producer and head of safety & compliance, Jen Bewes — a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS), recognised for her work in aviation safety and innovation — plans them meticulously behind the scenes, so producers, operators and crews can deliver ambitious aerial work and stunts safely, legally and on schedule. It is a role that lives in the background; without it, the cameras don't roll, the pilots don't launch, and the vision doesn't fly.
On The Mongoose, that meant overseeing safety for high-speed aerial stunts — including extractions from moving vehicles into helicopters, and multiple aircraft flown low, fast and unforgiving.
On Anyone But You, it meant working through a maze of regulatory barriers to enable night rescue sequences over Sydney Harbour — work that called not just for permits, but for changes to existing aviation rules to make the scenes possible.
On Parkway Drive, it meant working with multiple government and heritage stakeholders across many months to secure world-first approvals for a helicopter stunt over and onto Australia's most iconic building — the Sydney Opera House — clearance that, reportedly, even Tom Cruise's team had been refused.
When several aircraft are in the air at once, Jen steps into a ground-control role — monitoring frequencies, holding situational awareness and preventing airspace incursions, and acting as the bridge between the director's vision and the pilots flying it. It demands calm under pressure: managing the flow of communications and filtering instructions so no one is overloaded.
Bringing fast-moving, complex parts into alignment is never simple — but that is exactly where the most demanding operations are decided, because it is where safety can't slip. In the middle of it all — watching, listening, guiding — comes the moment when everything just works.
Not by chance. By design.
The plan is
the production
Specialist Helicopters secured the first-ever approval for a helicopter stunt over and onto the Sydney Opera House — clearance that, reportedly, even Tom Cruise’s team had been refused.
The aerial unit only works when every moving part is planned long before the rotor turns. We lead the coordination of every aviation third party and can source the entire aerial production — so it's one conversation, not ten. We don't just do our bit and leave the rest for your aerial-unit producer to work out; that saves time and money, especially on complex aviation.
He made a difficult project happen when most pilots would not have bothered — up there with Fred North. Many shots and locations simply would not have happened with any other pilot.
Thanks to David’s technical skill and intuitive understanding of camera, we captured great-looking, unique material in a couple of hours — more than I’d managed in days with other aerial crews.
Recent credits — Anyone But You · Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F · SAS Australia · Mad Max: Furiosa See all ›
The aerial coordinator manages everything that makes aerial work safe and legal — risk plans, CASA approvals, permits, airspace and ATC liaison, aircraft and crew — and briefs additional pilots on multi-aircraft shoots to keep flight profiles and safety margins consistent.
Yes — securing CASA approvals, location permits and authority sign-off is core to our service, including complex and first-of-kind operations.
Yes. We lead and brief additional pilots to ensure consistency in flight profiles, safety margins and creative execution across the whole aerial unit.
Tell us the shot, the schedule and the location — we'll build the aerial unit, stunt and coordination plan around it.