Let me set the scene. Tuesday, September 22, 2026. Downtown Miami. A heavy-lift helicopter is hovering over Kaseya Center, the home of the Miami HEAT, and hanging below it on a longline is a giant pink letter. Then another one. Then another. By the afternoon, the roof of one of the most recognizable buildings in this city reads Vice City.
And we were in the air for all of it.
I've been doing this a long time, and I'll say it plainly: this was one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on. It's not every day you get to help a city you love turn into the version of itself that millions of people already know from a screen.
WATCH THE LIFT
HOW WE ENDED UP ON THE ROOF
We weren't there for the sign. We were there for the helicopter. For about three years I’ve been filming CHI Aviation’s helicopter lifts on rooftop HVAC jobs here in South Florida. CHI flies heavy loads into places a crane can’t reach. When they landed the Vice City install, they called us to document it.
That's the part of this job people don't always see. The relationships you build on the everyday jobs, the rooftop units nobody posts about, are the ones that put you in position when the big one shows up.
FLYING DOWNTOWN IS A DIFFERENT GAME
People see a drone shot and think the hard part is the shot. It isn’t. The hard part is everything that happens before you take off. Kaseya Center sits in controlled airspace a few miles from Miami International, so nothing flies until the FAA authorization is in hand. Then there’s a real helicopter carrying a real load over a real city, and a ground crew on the roof waiting to catch it.
- Airspace first. Authorization secured before the day, not on the day. No paperwork, no flight.
- Stay out of the longline path. The helicopter owns the sky. Our drones work around its path, never through it.
- Plan positions around the lift. Every angle is mapped before the first letter leaves the ground, because you can’t ask a helicopter to wait.
- Eyes on everything. A dedicated visual observer means the pilots can focus on the shot while someone else watches the whole picture.
That discipline is what made this one fun instead of stressful. When the plan is solid, you get to enjoy the moment. And believe me, watching those pink letters swing over the bay with the skyline behind them, I was enjoying it.
WE GOT TO FILM IT FROM THE SKY.
“Some jobs you shoot. Some jobs you remember forever. This one was both.”
Jaime AndresTHE SAME CREW, THE EVERYDAY WORK
Here’s what I love most about this project. The Vice City sign is the headline, but it’s also proof of something bigger. The same aircraft and the same crew that set those letters on an arena roof are the ones setting rooftop HVAC units for contractors every week. So alongside the lift film, we cut a 30-second spot that tells that everyday story.
That’s the move I’d recommend to any company that just pulled off something big: don’t let the big moment stand alone. Use it as the proof that sells the work you do every day.
WHY THIS ONE STAYS WITH ME
I built this studio in Miami because this city never runs out of stories. But some days it outdoes itself. Being up there with my crew, in the middle of downtown, filming a helicopter literally rewrite the skyline, is the kind of day you get into this work for. Huge thanks to the CHI Aviation team for trusting us with it.
If you want the full breakdown of how we planned and delivered this one, the constraints, the crew and the deliverables, it’s all in the Aerial Capabilities & Lift Operations case study.
GOT A MOMENT THAT ONLY HAPPENS ONCE?
At Jaime Andres Media, we plan and fly aerial coverage for lifts, launches, installs and live events, in-house, FAA Part 107 certified, with the airspace work handled before we ever take off. See our aerial cinematography services, or tell us what you’ve got coming up.