For a lot less than the price of a balloon ride, you can now enjoy the grandeur of Napa Valley from the air. In the soon-to-be-released book Napa Valley - A View from Above, pilot and award-winning photographer Charles Feil offers an aerial view of Northern California’s Wine Country that is full of surprises.

“People who’ve lived here forever see these photos and go ‘I never knew it looked like that’,” says Feil. Carneros spreads out like the kind of watery puzzle-work kingdom that might come from the mind of “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien. The vineyards of Oakville and Rutherford are vast abstracts of line and texture. The bare, rocky hills around Lake Berryessa are moonscapes.

Flying between 500 and 1,000 feet, Feil photographed the Napa Valley throughout March, May, June and October of last year. “I wanted more than just an aerial perspective. I also wanted to capture the changes of the seasons,” he says.

He shoots from a lightweight Gyroplane, powered by a 130 horsepower Subaru engine. “It performs like a helicopter, but flies like a plane,” he says of his craft, which he has named Rooty Kazooty.

When making photos, Feil holds the camera in his left hand, while controlling the speed and tilt of the aircraft with the stick in his right. Shooting Sonoma has presented a new challenge for the pilot. “Napa is one tank of gas, Sonoma is two,” he says. Feil takes off from the Napa Airport usually before sunset and flies across the undulating Sonoma landscape. He drops in on airports throughout that part of Wine Country as needed to refuel.

From more than 5,000 photographs, only 200 made the final cut in the 112 page book. And Feil is flying high again over Northern California, preparing Sonoma - A View From Above for release in May 2003. With both books, readers will find a wide range of covers to choose from. Many wineries signed on early in both projects and pre-ordered big numbers of Feil’s books. This gives wineries the opportunity to not only be featured in the book, but also to have Feil’s design team create custom covers. Already signed on for the Sonoma book are Simi, Buena Vista, Silver Oaks, Quivera and Geyser Peak. His other books of photography feature views above Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and the Florida Keys.

Napa Valley - A View from Above ($30) will be available in May 2002 in wineries and bookstores throughout Wine Country. For more information, check out www.viewsfromabove.com.