20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
3. It's Not The Size It's How You Use It
Sulu commandeers (though we never quite find out how) a Huey 204 helicopter in Star Trek IV. This is to solve the logistical problem of their whale tank. It's all well and good to secure the actual panels, but how are they going to get them to the Bird-of-Prey in Golden Gate Park?
This issue was somewhat shared by the filmmakers. How were they going to capture shots of a Huey in flight over San Francisco? They were told very early on that there was no chance they were going to be given permission to fly, so how could they capture the shots seen in the film?
Resorting to their earlier method of forced perspective that had worked so well for the bridge, the filmmakers simply built a radio-controlled model of a Huey! This allowed them to film it in such a way that it looked as though it was crossing the San Francisco skyline. Likewise, the shot of it rising above the cloaked vessel was simply another shot of the toy. Sulu's Huey never actually takes off from the ground, yet the shots in the film are excellent.