Molotok asked whether it's possible to keep the VCN Maverick for Sir, Yes Sir, so I did some testing and came up with this. In testing I found it to be ~0:45 faster than the old route (with Cuban Hermes), though someone who's actually good at the game should test it for exact gains. In addition, you have the VCN Maverick instead of the Police Maverick so you'll be slightly faster all the way through Shakedown, since you're using a faster heli.

The route change in a nutshell: (Park the VCN Maverick at Diaz Mansion after The Chase as normal.) Do The Fastest Boat with the Infernus instead of the VCN Maverick. Don't re-park the boat after The Fastest Boat, it won't be used. After Supply & Demand, take the VCN Maverick to Cortez. Starting Sir, Yes Sir, take the VCN Maverick to the tank. Park it next to the military convoy (so NOT in its path) so it wont blow up once you're in the tank. To unlock the tank, simply shoot the gunner. After delivering the tank, run back to the VCN Maverick, taking the Lance call as it comes up. Fly the VCN Maverick to the Malibu club. Take the Kent call at the club. (Continue as normal with Death Row.)

Other things I tried that could be worth looking into but didn't work out:

1. Parking the VCN Maverick slightly further away at the Cortez Marina, take the Lance call there. The after starting Sir, Yes Sir, take the Cheetah the short stretch to the VCN Maverick and continue as normal (Despawned the VCN Maverick as soon as I got into the Cheetah. Not likely faster either, since you already take the Cortez call there).
2. Instead of going directly to the tank, park the VCN Maverick at the Vice Cheetah, take that to the tank, then after delivering the tank go back to the VCN Maverick. (the VCN Maverick had despawned when I got back to it. This is most likely slower anyway.)

Getting into a vehicle other than those in the video will obviously despawn the heli.

Will try this on a run later!

Just had a run where I saved 30+ seconds with these strats compared to my PB. Even made a horrible driving mistake on my way to fastest boat with infernus that cost me at least 10 seconds. Viable as hell, great find Lighnator.

As S rightly pointed out, taking the Cortez call at the marina instead of before Supply & Demand is a bit faster.

I would like to add this to it.. VCN Chopper strats for Copland..

It saves around 15 seconds compared to Infurnes with Sparrow strats.. Saves also 5 seconds to Kaufman Cabs compared to the Sparrow...

but what if you don't have dudes? ? :P

Providing you have the guys as the Mansion to start with, I like this strat. Will have to try this out later. Combined with the new Police Heli skip, this should save a minute overall if all goes good :)

Aces have you tried hitting Lance so he doesn't get in the heli for the line skip too? And does the heli stay spawned during Bar Brawl then? I presume it would as long as you didn't take one of their bikes.

As Lee said though, dependent on getting guys at Vercetti :/

Put the chopper where i put it.. If you put it to close it will despawn when you start Copland.. But yeah it can be tricky with the gang member spawns... And no i havent tried it yet Bollard..

Also.. Dont forget that you can only use the Infurnes between starting Bar Brawl and starting Copland otherwise it will despawn..

did this and it failed, not sure what I did wrong but the heli despawned.

Getting into a vehicle other than those in the video will obviously despawn the heli.

ok I got it figured out , hmm I like this new route already because fastest boat is back to using infernus :P

Was running earlier and parked the heli as standard for bar brawl, then during bar brawl I managed to despawn the infernus during the cutscene where two bikers make a run for it? Naturally I grab the first thing available to complete the mission and do PP, but when I get back to take copland the heli's still there? I would have ¤thought¤ that would despawn it but clearly not (wish it had as it had too much damage and exploded when escaping from copland Kappa), I don't know whether that's just bad infernus parking on my part?

@sixfour - I think once the infernus despawned it was out of the memory, so your new car just took the infernus' previous spot, so the vcn was fine

That's what I guessed, I'm wondering whether there's any way to exploit this but I can't think of anything reliable immediately. Maybe if our infernus is heavily damaged prior to PP we can despawn it there and take something else back to copland (how near is the PCJ fixed spawn)?

Well, one idea is to snipe 1 guard, take his PCJ and then go on as normal. The second guard goes in the direction you want to go anyway, the chopper doesn't despawn the few times I tried it. Now it's just a matter of timing it out. On it now. EDIT: Ok, timed it out, Infernus strats are faster. Not only that, sniping a guard off his PCJ can be tricky, and it's a run killer if you miss and don't get a good car right away.