Ya I would stick to the woods if you can. As far as I could tell from the air I would say that all those holes are different plants. But what a joke. I'm sure the cops had a field day when they flew over that in the helo.
As for getting in a plane, just go to your local flight school and book a "scenic" or "intro" flight. Will set you back like $200 for an hour but you can really cover a ton of ground and scope out some really good places to grow. Just bring along a gps if you have one and mark way points as close to the places as you can. Then head back on foot and search it out. Just have a area in mind and tell them you want to go take some photos of your buddies land/farms. Aerial recon will beat google earth any day!