World Scenic Flights by HeliGraphix

"You are the worst guys I've ever met!" That was the bottom line of our friend Ken Yap after rushing through town with us for one full day and realizing he will need to get a Three Dee MP-XL for both himself and his friends. :-)

In fact, coming to Singapore was one of the best ideas in recent history. The city is great, and the people are even greater. We've known Ken for a whole while since he had contacted us regarding "Remote Madness" distribution in this part of the world. He has got his own little R/C mail order business and works almost according to European business hours; in other words, don't call before noon local time, but he provides excellent service until the early morning hours. That's perfect for R/C enthusiasts because you usually crash in the evening hours after work, and not after breakfast, right?! :-)
If you ever need stuff from South-eastern Asia, then check out his website at http://www.radiocontrol-sports.com/

Singapore is one of the few city states in the world; it spreads over several islands and has a diameter of roughly 42 km only, the population being about 4.5 million. The speed limit is 80 km/h, but there is roads where you can go faster: 90 km/h! :-D
Many people of Chinese origin live here, as well as people from India and Malaysia – in other words, it's a true melting pot. Consequently, you will find all languages, but also English (or rather the local version of it, called Singlish) since this country, too, used to be a British crown colony. Singapore is a modern country; having said this, they still have a long way to go reworking their system of draconian punishments and death sentence – there is points where it gets close to a violation of human rights.



Assembling the helicopter was a problem this time; our hotel room is so small that in order to fold back the blades you need to put the helicopter onto the bed. The reason may be that the rooms are quite "functional" in a way that our hotel is situated right in the middle of the local red light district – that's one of the things they don't tell you when booking over the internet. Anyway, there's lots of things going on all day long (especially when the police are coming and all the street are running like the lemmings); quite cool, and no safety problem at all.
What might become a problem, though, is the fact that every second stop I need to use a new Jesus Bolt for assembling the heli. I've almost run out of spares and next will have to use the screws for the skids; those are also M4 and have pretty much the same length and properties. Maybe Nicolas will have to send me a couple more with the next shipment.

The most famous monument in Singapore is the Merlion right at the waterfront – as the name suggests, it is a mixture of a mermaid and a lion. Ken had done a fantastic job preparing the location for us, and so the three of us showed up there yesterday in the wee hours. Unfortunately, so did the security, and all explanations were in vain – no way to lift off!
Ken did a couple of phone calls, and some time later we ended up at the SBT (Singapore Tourism Board). We did a lot of clever talking – and finally got clearance for the flights! So the only thing which could stop us now is the weather (we're real close to the equator, so the climate is hot and very humid, and especially during the monsoon months there's ample rain).

Open space is a problem in Singapore, but we finally found a place big enough to at least take off and see if the heli was ok. After the many cab rides in KL where the heli was just in its carrier bag, it had been necessary to change the tail shaft. Saskia has taken a nice shot of Ken & me testing the machine. As you will expect, it was a lot of fun. :-)

We spent the evening together with Derrick and Mike; both are great guys, and while Derrick is also into the R/C business (http://www.skyhobbies.com.sg/), Mike is the founder of the most prominent internet forum in this part of the world (http://www.daddyhobby.com/).

Hopefully we'll manage to get back to you tomorrow night to report about the flights. Stay tuned!