Maybe the copter took over as early as the wide doorway to the deck, so that whoever guided it through the house could duck behind that wall. Unless they got someone that's just that good with a copter and they flew the whole route through the house.

The circumvent the dip, could the copter operator gradually increase lift while the person handholding applies enough grip and pull until judging that they've built enough power to just lift off, or does it not work like that?

Would it even be possible, assuming lots and lots of practice operating, to maintain a steady flight through the transition of indoors to open air, or vice versa? Or do the quad+ copters make that sort of thing trivial?

I'm sorry, but absolutely no way that this is 2 shots. With the talent walking through the transition, no visible marks, the less than solid framing and momentum continuity - that would be pretty close to impossible without some serious compositing/CGI to transition the shots, and on a reality TV show budget and timeline, it is most definitely impossible. Unless you're the luckiest mother fucker in history, it HAD to be practical. If someone was holding the copter and tracking backwards through that complicated house, someone else should have been spotting and guiding them (hand on shoulder), but there was just no time or place for 2 people to hide. Maybe one person was holding the copter for the tracking shot and two people operating the copter (one to fly, the other to frame), but still, I don't see where the tracking shot operator would have hid or when (not to mention the seamless transition from inside to outside). All of this leaves me to conclude: most amazing uncredited copter operator in Australia, possibly the Universe.

When and where anyone that might have handheld this could have hid is a real trick. There is an acceleration at the moment of lift, however, around the time he says "overrode" which feels like some kind of handoff. My money is still on someone handholding a copter through the house. It's just where did they go, if that's the case.

I wish the stream was higher quality. At 360P I can't look for any telltale signs to screen left that one or more people might have been digitally removed. Tracking in clean information wouldn't be a huge deal and might only take a few hours, even in After Effects. They could lay down flat on that deck. Plenty of good edges to track and then it's really only the roto of the railing for holdouts that need to be made but their uniform, smooth edges, coupled with the smoothness of the move makes for a pretty easy job.

Knowing I could do it, that's what I might suggest if there was just no place for someone to duck out.

edit: as to the "Hendocopter", do you have specific references they did the video above? They have a shot very similar, going from indoors to copter flight but there are any number of copters and services that can handle the copter flight.

I was watching the reflections in the window for the Hendocopter video. That one leads me to believe it's all 100% copter if it's a two man crew doing all that. You see the reflection of the two operators in the glass, standing out in front of the building, a bit before the copter lifts up. It comes out the door then makes a slight move screen right with a countering pan screen left to avoid more reflections on that side of screen.

As the copter rises to its widest point the operators aren't anywhere in sight. Either they're also really good at making those sorts of smooth climbs while running away or I'm going to bet they digitally removed themselves. It would have been even more trivial than the scenario on the deck.

If it's all piloting that would make an already impressive shot mind bending. The trip through the house would mean piloting off some sort of video transmission but what about latency? I guess that's what practice is all about.

These guys are wizards.

Minus the dorky purple mu-mu and hat.

I still think there's a chance it's a Strada crane.... watch how they achieve a smooth transition. And maybe the hook/release guy was already on the crane?

@andyharris I assume they used ADR.

Hell with me!
Must has been some copter, but there are some big skills behind nevertheless.

Managing the sound on a Hexcopter would be tricky -- I know how noisy my EVO S800 is!

@andyharris yep, but speech sync would be no problem at all. I'm sure they did it that way.