We are trying to see what costs are to get a helicopter to our event this year. Or a photographer on a boat. Anyone know of any people that would be good to contact for this?

That should not be too difficult. We pay $600 an hour for an R - 44 which is adequate to cover some of our Ft Myers Offshore events. Generally 1.5 to 2hrs max will do the job. Nothing better than having Jayboat train his lens on us from 100 ft above !
How far is the nearest sizeable airport? Pay them a visit, check the yellow pages, ask for references. You might be surprised to find that someone with this type of experience is not that far away.
Bob

Owensboro, KY. We do have a regional airport here. Flies small jets to nashville and other majors. The poker run is set for July 10. We do the poker run as a benefit for the Boys and Girls Club of America. They donate us some grab bags filled with items so we are not used to having to pay for much But I would like top make our poker run a postmark here on the river. We run alot of poker runs but this is what I try to do to help out our town which only has the river. We have averaged about 30 boats or so and the party acquires 300+ people.

Funding... and a few phone calls...

if you want to do it on the cheap, you can use a airplane but you wont have the vercitility of a helo

Otherwise GLH hit it on the head
Money and a few phone calls gets the job done

Good luck

Thanks guys for the input. I am going to talk to the regional airport today to see what they can do for us.

Thats actually a good alternative. We had a plane on one of the LEOPA runs several years ago and it worked pretty good.

Generally, they fly there however I'm sure there are other options available

Aircraft rental in the telephone book will generally have someone that does helo rental. Then it's a matter of making the calls.

Make sure to find a chopper service that will take the doors off the helo and be willing to fly 20 feet off the water. Helos are supposed to have floats if they fly low over water and some pilots won't streatch the rules or have the nerve to fly so low.