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Flying
and Filming at Inyokern Airport
BY
RUTH JUSTIS (rjustis@ridgecrestca.com)
Daily
Independent Staff
Reporter
Published: February 10-11, 2007
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Not only does the Indian Wells valley Airport
provide a much-needed service for the residents of the valley,
it has also become the site of choice for many filming crews
making commercials. Many are shown only in Europe, but some
make their debut on American television. "Filming at the airport brings in thousands
of dollars of revenue each year, It's great for the airport
and the community," said Manager Scott Seymour.
Two
commercials appeared with Super Bowl programming earlier
this month - a Lexus commercial, where a car is dropped
from about 40 feet in the air, was shot at the airport, as
was an AT&T advertisement involving five black L-39 Czech
trainers, an A Star helicopter with a space cam and the Patriot
Demo Team. The production company "Untitled" handled
the shoot.
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Clay
Lacy, pilot of the Lear Jet photo plane at Inyokern Airport |
On
location to assist with the aerial photography of the AT&T
commercial was Clay
Lacy, a well-known California pilot.
Lacy has special astrovision camera equipment mounted
in his Lear Jet, enabling him to film while in flight.
Lacy is known for his career as a show business
pilot, military jock, experimental test pilot, air race champion,
aviation record setter, United Airlines #1 pilot, teacher,
and entrepreneur - he owns a charter jet company.
He's
the unchallenged holder of the highest number of jet flight
hours of any active pilot.
Since
the 1970's Lacy has been involved in close to 20 movies,
including Top Gun, Flight of the Intruder,
The Client, Firefox, and Octopussy.
The project took three days - Dec. 12 to 14
- and netted the airport $40,000.
An
added bonus - "we didn't have to close any
runways to accommodate them," Seymour said
Click
HERE for more pictures of the AT&T filming operation
. . .
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