Earlier today we told you that Disney would begin capturing aerial footage of the Walt Disney World theme parks and resorts soon. As it turns out, soon actually meant within an hour. While driving through Walt Disney World just now, we spotted a helicopter flying much lower than the Federal Aviation Administration allows.
UPDATE: Is Disney World 3D Mapping Empty Theme Parks?
In case you aren’t aware, there is a flight restriction over Magic Kingdom and EPCOT that doesn’t allow helicopters to fly below 3000′. Local aviation officials can allow a temporary bypass of this restriction, which is what we assume Disney was granted to capture footage of their theme parks. We saw the helicopter flying at 500′ above Magic Kingdom, which is lower than the typical tourism helicopters fly over Disney’s Hollywood Studios at.
As you can see in the photos below, the helicopter was spotted over Magic Kingdom, where it was flying a straight-line pattern down Main Street USA, passing over the Transportation and Ticket Center before looping back around. Here are a few photos we were able to capture.
In this zoomed in photo, you can see the camera in front of the nose of the helicopter.
If you can’t wait to see Disney’s footage, we already flew over some of the theme parks to see what they look like completely empty during the day. To see more, check out our stories below!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com for the latest Disney Parks news and photos. We’ll continue to bring you news and photos, where possible, through the Disney Parks closure due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) and will resume our normal coverage once the parks reopen to guests on July 11th!
[…] PHOTOS: Disney Begins Aerial Filming of Magic Kingdom […]
I was at Disneyland for an employee Christmas party late one night. A helicopter swept back and forth low over Main Street. Later learned it was for the final scene in Soarin’ Over California. So I’m in that film… somewhere.