Aerial Views of Peachtree Corners and the Chattahoochee

Peachtree-Dekalb Airport (PDK) is a short jaunt down Peachtree Road from the city of Peachtree Corners. One morning, quite recently, I find myself making that drive so I can hop aboard a very small helicopter that is missing its doors. That doesn’t sound safe you say? Well how else am I supposed to take unobstructed photos from the air is my retort to you. I’ve done much more dangerous things all in the name of photojournalism.

The engine whines to a start and the rotors, while slow at first, come to speed with a familiar whompf, whompf, whompf. The pilot takes off and in just a few minutes I start to see familiar landmarks but from a very different viewpoint. Off in the distance is the Atlanta skyline and Stone Mountain. We bank north and in another few minutes a brown snake twists and turns through the trees and past neighborhoods. That brown snake is the Chattahoochee River and it is the main event so to speak for this photography trip.

The pilot makes passes up and down the river within the Peachtree Corners boundary. I can see people fishing and kayaking as well as hanging out on the rocks at Jones Bridge Park. I see what’s left of the actual structure where the park gets its name from. The bridge collapsed a few months ago and the steel girders still sit in silence as the river runs past it.