Bend Tour Company
Segway, E-Bike, Heli Tours, Art Safari, Beer Tap Tours
Air Adventures
ADVENTURE FLIGHTS AND TOURS
The Bend Tour Company offers Segway Tours, E-Cruiser Tours, E-Bike Tours, Heli-Tours, Ale Trail & Beer Taps Tours, Art Safari and Sunset Spectacular Tours. The Bend Tour Company offers informative and entertaining explorations of Bend’s past and present. The tours highlight Bend’s great history, and its wonderful sights and attractions, exceptional restaurants and unique shopping opportunities.
Guided tours take guests past the many historic homes and buildings throughout Bend’s Old Mill Quarter, Downtown and West Side neighborhoods. Guests glide along the magnificent Deschutes River and through the beauty of Farewell Bend, McKay and Drake Parks and around and over exquisite Mirror Pond. Did we mention you get to ride a SEGWAY?
Our Sunset Spectacular Tours are just that… SPECTACULAR! The tours include all of the great history, sights, shops, restaurants, breweries and attractions included in many of our other tours, plus stunning views of our incredible summer sunsets over Oregon’s magnificent Cascades mountain range! Choose to experience the Summer Spectacular Tours on our SEGWAYs, Cycle ‘Rounds, E-Cruisers, or Electric Bikes. You simply can’t go wrong with these tours!
Electric Bike Tours: Our partners Bend Electric Bikes and Let It Ride Pedego Bikes – Mount our Electric Bikes and experience the heart of Bend as you travel through the parks and along the river from the saddle of one of our super comfortable Pedego electric bikes and Bend Electric Bikes. Your tour guide will take you places that most don’t see as you enjoy the ride on your electric cruiser style bikes learning where to shop, dine and play in sunny Central Oregon. You’ll enjoy the sights of Downtown Bend, the Old Mill District, beautiful nature trails along the river, historic Drake Park and all of the award winning breweries along Bends famous Ale Trail.
Big Mountain Heli Tours: Known as the “outdoor playground of the West,” our town is world famous for both its outdoor pursuits and its pristine beauty – but that’s just half of the story. Bend has a second, unlimited, playground that starts at 10,000 feet. It’s a place of unparalleled vistas that stretch for miles, sunsets that take your breath away, millions of years of volcanic history, and unfettered access to remote and unusual locations in the Central Oregon high desert. Big Mountain Heli Tours, in partnership with Bend’s premier flight school, Leading Edge Aviation, is staffed by highly experienced commercial pilots and mechanics who have a passion for flying helicopters in and around Bend’s big blue mountain playground. Big Mountain Heli Tours was created to showcase the very best of Bend and Central Oregon to the estimated 3 million guests who visit us each year.
The unparalleled mobility of the Eco-friendly tours from Bend Tour Company offers groups to glide safely along the pathways of Bend, providing a truly entertaining and unique sightseeing experience with extraordinary access to everything that Bend has to offer!
Segway, E-Bike, Heli Tours, Art Safari, Beer Tap Tours
Big Mountain Heli Tours is Bend, Oregon’s premier helicopter tour company. Join us for incredible scenic flights to local mountains, vineyard tours and explorations, weddings, events and unique flight adventures throughout Central Oregon and beyond!
Big Mountain Heli Tours, offers a variety of tours such as the Bend Winter Wonderland Tour, Bend City & Lava Lands Tour, and the Helicopter Wine Tasting Tour.
It’s ski season here in Bend and our backcountry is covered in deep, beautiful snowpack. Our Winter Wonderland Helicopter Tour is perfect for Bend visitors and locals who want to experience and explore as much of our magnificent snowcapped Cascade range as possible. Looking for that special place? Big Mountain Heli Tours can take you to new heights to see pristine mountain peaks, blue crystal lakes and rivers not to mention the natural beauty of the high desert.
Bend City & Lava Lands Heli Tour: With stunning Cascade Mountain views to our left and right our helicopter pilots will take you and your friends on a scenic tour of Bend, Oregon “Beertown USA” and on to our local lava flow at Lava Lands State Park a National Volcanic Monument. Over the past 300,000 years massive volcanic eruptions have left volcanic scars outside of Bend. You may have visited Lava Lands and walked through the ancient flows but seeing their sheer size from the air is a unique look into the awesome power of Mother Nature, frozen for all time just as they happened, and devoid of life for thousands of years.
Tours range from half-hour to hour flights and Big Mountain Heli Tours can customize a trip for you. Book your Tour Today
Scenic Tours – An Experience Like No Other
Experience “The Art of Flight” with Big Sky Balloon Company. Hour long scenic hot air balloon flights provide a one of a kind experience in Central Oregon.
Join us for an unforgettable experience! Big Sky Balloon Company. is the premier hot air balloon ride operator in Central Oregon. We offer scenic hot air balloon flights in this remarkable part of the Pacific Northwest. Our unique, custom hand painted balloon reflects the landscape around us as we float over some of the most dramatic land features the area has to offer.
For early morning flights be sure to dress in layers as it can be cool in the high dessert, but it warms up quickly and you’ll want to adjust accordingly. Temperatures in flight are actually much warmer than on the ground. Make sure your camera is fully charged so you don’t miss a thing.
Ballooning is a hands on experience and we welcome you to help with the inflation as well as the take down of the balloon if you like.
We conduct one flight a day early in the morning when wind conditions are calm and the air is stable. Flight times vary depending on the time of year, we typically like to be in the air within 1 hour of sunrise.
Recommended by TRIP ADVISOR, The Erickson Aircraft Collection proudly displays a vintage aircraft collection started by Jack Erickson in 1983. The collection features over twenty-five rare aircraft, most of which are still in flying condition, such as the P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang, Ki43 Hayabusa, F4U Corsair, SBD Dauntless, Grumman Duck, Me-109, FW-190, B-17 Flying Fortress and many more. The Erickson Aircraft Collection is the Pacific Northwest’s premier Flying Collection.
The museum features one of the top collection of vintage warbirds in the country and offers a ride/membership program called “Soaring with the Warbirds”. Take a ride in a WWII aircraft and experience history in flight. Our top-notch pilots fly you out over areas such as Lake Billy Chinook, up close and personal with Mt. Jefferson, Haystack Reservoir, Lake Simtustus, Smith Rock, or where ever you want to fly within our 20-minute time limit. In the air, you can experience the beauty of Central Oregon from a totally different perspective and have the experience of a lifetime.
Location
We are located at the Madras Municipal Airport on NW Berg Drive. To get to the hangar, take the NW Cherry Lane exit just off highway 26 and turn right on NW Berg. If you are navigating to the museum using Google Maps or other mapping services, just type in “Madras Municipal Airport” and follow NW Berg all the way down. In most cases, NW Airport Way has yet to be changed to NW Berg.
The roots of the Airshow of the Cascades started more than 30 years ago when pilot Ron Ochs held “fly-ins” at his ranch just north of Madras. One plane at a time and through homegrown hard work, the Airshow now draws upwards of 15,000 people.
With the help of our sponsors Willow Canyon Properties, Steve Forster/RE/MAX Out West Realty and the Airshow of the Cascades, we look to continue this spirit by taking a night to celebrate the many volunteers, businesses and members of the Central Oregon community that keep the tradition of aviation alive in Jefferson County.
COME SEE OUR WWII WARBIRDS
The Boeing Stearman PT-17 was typical of the biplane primary trainer used during the late 1930s and World War II and one of the most revered by pilots. Powered by a 240 hp seven-cylinder Continental engine, it was respected for its ruggedness, ease of maintenance, low operational costs, and flight characteristics. Challenging to an inexperienced pilot was its tendency to ground-loop in crosswinds. Over 10,000 were built for both the U.S. Army Air Force and the U.S. Navy and today many have found a new lease of life on the warbird circuit or serving as agricultural crop dusters and spraying aircraft.
SPECIFIC HISTORY
The aircraft on display is a typical Boeing PT-17, USAAF serial number 42-16242. This aircraft was purchased surplus from the U.S. Government in February 1946 for $770.00 by a commercial aviation company and used as a pilot trainer until it was sold in January 1955. Over the next 32 years, it would be bought and re-sold seven times before coming to the Museum’s collection in 1992.
Skydive Awesome! is an adventure skydiving school who provides the thrill of jumping out of perfectly good airplanes to jumpers of all experience levels. At Skydive Awesome! you can take your first leap into parachuting with a tandem skydive, where you are harnessed to an instructor who will guide you every step of the way. Once you’re completely addicted to the freedom of flying, you can learn to skydive on your own through our Advanced Skydiver Training program.
Already a licensed skydiver? Skydive Awesome! is stoked to provide a USPA drop zone in Central Oregon where you can advance your skills and fly with awesome friends! We are located on the Madras Municipal Airport in Madras, OR, located 45 miles north of Bend, OR. Call us to book your tandem skydive today!
Cross the dream of flight off your bucket list with a tandem skydive! At Skydive Awesome!, we feel your first skydive should be more than just a joy ride, and believe in a higher level of personalized service. You deserve to experience what it feels like to fly as a skydiver! From the moment you arrive until the time you leave we truly hope you depart feeling you’re part of our awesome skydiving family!
Specialized Aero Works provides specialized flight training using highly experienced pilots & instructors. We also offer aerobatic flights for non-pilots. Scenic tours coming soon!
45 Minute Adventure Flight
If you want to fly the airplane through aerobatic maneuvers, this is the ride for you! Arrive at our facility, get thoroughly briefed, strap on your airplane, and off you go for up to 45 minutes of serious fun on your flight in the Super Decathlon (entire flight is approximately 1 hour). Your instructor will demonstrate how to fly each maneuver then give you the controls to try each maneuver yourself (if you wish to). Fly as gentle or hard as you like. When you return you can watch the video of your flight so all can watch and take it home with you. We will also take your picture with the airplane to commemorate your adventure.
20 Minute Adventure Flight
For the person who wants to experience the thrills & joys of aerobatic flight without taking the controls. You come to our facility, get your briefing, strap on the airplane, and set off for up to 20 minutes of extreme fun in our Super Decathlon while our pilot does all the flying (entire flight is approximately 40-45 minutes). We will fly as gentle or extreme as you like. When you return you can watch the video of your flight so all can watch and take it home with you. We will also take your picture with the airplane to commemorate your adventure. Custom flights may be available also.
Guided flight training and adventure flights