Friday, November 30, 2007
The Panama Canal Challenge
There is one special place along the Panama Canal where it gets so narrow that only one ship can pass at a time; it's called the Gaillard's Cut. We spent a long time trying to find it, without success. The public road ended in a city called Gamboa; but since the canal was hidden behind rainforest most of the time it was probably easy to miss that part. Darkness had fallen and we had no choice but to give up for the first of our two day's stay in Panama (in fact we had long found the Gaillard's Cut, but it looked too different from all the pictures we had seen!).
Gamboa is only accessible by crossing a one-way bridge; this means there is traffic lights at each end and you have to wait half an eternity until you get a go signal to cross the bridge. Bridges are often built over water, aren't they, and when you cannot kill yourself by jumping off, then there usually aren't any fences! Hmm …
We had a look at the surroundings and discovered a parking lot right next to the canal. Entrance prohibited! There was kind of a shed; the sign over the door read something like Canal Authority Electronics Department. If you crossed the tracks of the Panama Canal's own railway company you stood right next to the water – no fence! We couldn't see much in the dark but decided to return the next day and give it a try. None of us had a good feeling; all of this smelt like big trouble.
The next day it was raining cats and dogs. In the early afternoon we decided to drive to the place we'd found the evening before and to wait for a rain break. So we drove there and waited, and waited, and waited … Despite the camera problem (condensing air humidity, see last post) we had to activate the A/C from time to time in order to not drown inside the car because of the moisture. Really, it was so bad we felt like in a Turkish steam bath! There were times when the rain got lighter, but then it started to pour again.
We don't know how long we had to wait, but in the late afternoon the rain had finally become a drizzle. After a look into grey skies we were convinced it wouldn't get any better; either we pulled off the stunt now or never!
The original idea from months ago had been to find the Gaillard's Cut, position on top of the hill and wait for a cool ship. Today we were happy if it didn't rain, to say nothing of a ship! Like mentioned in the last post every vessel is accompanied by a patrol boat; in other words: If you wait for a ship the mission is over before it starts!
Of course we waited for a ship. :-) However, we let it pass so it wasn't too obvious for the guys on board that an aircraft was flying over the canal. In addition we kept the heli low over the water so it was even harder to spot against the dark backdrop. Very unfortunately we got another problem with the video camera and thus had to do a quick landing. By the time we could take off again a couple of minutes later the big freighter had become a little bit small in the distance.
The automatic mode of the camera did not work well and lead to more or less black silhouettes; we thus chose the image properties manually and took off again. After just three low passes over the canal the first patrol boat was approaching at full steam (you'll see it in the video!); most likely they'd been attracted by the first flights already. We continued to fly and once they were near I did a nice pirouette to greet them. :-)
Less than two minutes after take-off a patrol car rushed onto our parking lot honking like wild (certainly the boat crew had contacted them by radio). Time to land and to take one last deep breath; let's hear what the guys have to say …
A couple of minutes later we were free again. No more flying, but taking pictures obviously was okay. We prayed to God that our short film contained a usable sequence and we didn't have to leave with empty hands.
For the moment we thought it was best to wait for another ship (this takes about half an hour!) and to take at least stationary pictures, i.e. without the heli in the air. Finally, another freighter came, we positioned next to the canal, the camera clicked a couple of times – and hooray! – the patrol car was back!
It was not allowed to even stand next to the canal or the railway tracks. Difficult situation as we wanted to also do an AFD panorama. It hadn't been possible in Mexico (they'd probably have arrested us for trying that) and Panama was the only other country of the "region". So we prepared everything, positioned the tripod near the canal – and 'honk, honk!' our friends were back. To avoid an escalation of the situation we showed the WSF pictures and put all our stuff into the car ostentatiously. You need to be very diplomatic in such situations; causing trouble repeatedly leads to being arrested faster than one thinks!
We finally did manage to shoot an AFD panorama, but the light was not overly good; let's hope that IPACS/Ikarus will make use of it.
Somehow it is funny. In a number of countries they think the heli is a flying bomb and you are a terrorist; that's most dangerous because this way you may end up being shot. Some other times authorities are concerned about the safety of objects and people. Next is the class where they are convinced you are a spy and the heli carries a camera (the heli as a camera carrier is the first thought of nearly everybody, by the way); we had more than once problems with armed forces for exactly this reason. It is mostly in over-regulated Europe that you will need a number of special permissions to operate a remote-controlled aircraft in or near cities, monuments, etc. And finally there is sites like in Mexico where they don't care about the helicopter at all but where it is a matter of image rights. Really, it is strange and funny at the same time how the focus varies across the world!
Labels: Panama, Panama Canal, patrol boat, security problem, topical rainforest, tropical climate
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The Green Hell of Panama
The Republic of Panama is a rather young country and has a total population of only 3.2 million. The pretty much most important source for foreign exchange is the Panama Canal. It connects the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea and thus the Atlantic Ocean; length of the passage is merely 80 km. It is the strategically most important canal in the world and is mainly used for trade between the East Coast of the USA, China and Japan since the circumnavigation of South America means an extra 15 - 20,000 km! Cost for the passage depends on the size of the ship and are typically 50 - 150,000 USD; the crossing takes about 10 hours.
The first plans for a canal had been made in the 16th century already, but it wasn't until 1881 that France actually started excavations, approved by Colombia (Panama did not yet exist at that time!). Why France? Well, it was a French company that had successfully built the Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea through Egyptian terrain. Inspired by this success they thought it was as simple to build a channel through a jungle as it had been to build one through a desert.
After many scandals the works ended in fiasco in 1889. An unbelievable number of 22,000 people had lost their lives in the green hell of Panama, mainly because of Malaria and Yellow Fever (at that time little was known about how these diseases spread). Only 1/6th of the canal had been completed by that time.
The remains of the canal were sold to the USA in 1902, but Colombia did not agree to the terms of the USA for continuing work on the project. So the history repeated itself, like so many times before and also till present day – the USA supported a revolution within the country, leading to the foundation and independence of Panama from Colombia in 1903. A few months later in 1904 a corridor around the projected canal became U.S. territory – "forever", so the contract.
The construction continued from 1906 to 1914; another 6,000 workers died. Since its official opening in 1920 the Panama Canal has caused repeated political tension between the USA and Panama; on 31st Dec. 1999 the canal was finally given to Panama.
In 2006 it has been decided to expand the current Panama Canal so it can be used by larger ships, the so-called Post-Panamax class. Works have begun this year and completion is scheduled for 2015.
When checking in for flights to South America you have to show your official vaccination card with proof of vaccination against Yellow Fever. The flight from Mexico to Panama is only four hours; at the Panama customs we ran into serious trouble with the helicopter. We're pretty sure it might have become the same nightmare as in Egypt if it hadn't been for our many, many pictures of the heli in front of monuments worldwide. We explained a lot and were finally allowed to enter the country. No need to say how happy we were when thinking back to the interrogations we had had to endure in Egypt; that really had been hell on earth, there is no other words for it.
The customs officials had told us that radio frequencies were a big issue in the Canal Zone and that for use of any radio equipment permission from the Canal Authority was necessary. We of course nodded but were sure that with robbe/Futaba's 2.4 GHz FASST system and the low output power of R/C transmitters there would be no problems whatsoever. We were right about that (no surprise), but little did we know about the loads of other problems associated with flights over the Panama Canal.
The climate in Panama is tropical which means one good shower a day and extremely high air humidity. Regardless of what you do, your clothes are wet all the time; very good, of course, when changing from air conditioned rooms and cars to the outdoors and back. It's a wonder if you don't catch a cold. Another problem in this context is that when taking your film/photo equipment or the heli and transmitter out of an air conditioned car the lense, display, etc. will immediately steam up. You can't take any pictures for up to half an hour until the equipment has reached ambient temperature! We solved the problem by using the A/C as little as possible; the price you pay is that you sweat like hell and feel eternally worn out after just one or two hours. If we'd closed our eyes we'd have fallen asleep in no time …
Talking about A/C: Our hotel room of course did have such a cooling system. Unfortunately, it was so loud that normal conversations across the room were a problem! Turning it off was no good as humidity (not the heat) would have killed us. So we had to put up with the noise – it felt like sleeping in the generator room of a power plant! The best way to deal with this situation was to use earplugs. Not a comfortable stay at all, but when booking hotels in 20 countries over the internet you cannot spend hours checking every last detail of every place.
Panama-City is the capital and quite a flashy city with a nice skyline – but better not scrape off the shiny surface! Apart from some major roads the infrastructure is not the best and driving is neither relaxing nor fun. Multi-lane roads often don't have any road markings, a number of one-way streets make navigation difficult and signs e.g. on the highway are mostly ONLY at exits; in other words, when you can read the sign it is usually too late to react and you can only continue on the current road. To make it extra hard they use an especially narrow type font so you don't get the chance to read the signs already from a distance (in the unlikely case you see them coming).
Did we talk about the torrential rains? It is so bad that parts of the streets are flooded – it pays to think twice before crossing such fords. Some of the cars are equipped with snorkels for exactly these situations. And the worst: There are some really, really deep potholes! The tricky thing is they are completely filled with water so it looks as if an ordinary puddle was coming. But it isn't! Instead it's a hole which can swallow "half" a car. To us it happened twice; the cars around you drive like wild and keep you busy by using their horns so that the pothole traps catch you by surprise. We tried to turn right when all of a sudden – WHUMPP! – a good portion of our front dived down into such a hole filled with water.
Okay, where is that canal?! In maps and satellite pictures you could see a small road following the course of the canal; we tried hard to find it, but after about five hours we had to realize that it was merely a support road and not open to the public. It may sound as unbelievable to you as it sounded to us, but the Panama Canal is one of the best-secured structures we have ever seen. There are high fences everywhere, usually with barbed wire on the top (and no, we didn't have a ladder at hand this time :-) ). The streets near the canal are patrolled by a number of security cars of the Canal Authority. Every big ship is accompanied by a tug boat plus one patrol boat. Between the ships a wealth of such fast canal patrol boats go back and forth. In other words: There is no reasonable way to get close to the canal! You think this cannot be true, but it is. You stretch your hand out over the water, they will come for you.
The reason for all the fences and stuff may be that the terrain used to be U.S. American property. Remember, the canal didn't belong to Panama until the year 2000! Now, are all the 80 km fenced in?! Good question, and the answer is: Probably not! BUT: That's not necessary anyway because the canal leads through tropical rainforest. This kind of forest is so dense it is totally impenetrable; hard to imagine, but even a huge tank wouldn't make it more than a few feet into the thicket. It's often swampland, too, and the home of a wealth of animals you don't want to meet; we saw the first big silver-grey snake cross the street while driving along some deserted roads. And then, even in the theoretical case you'd make it to the canal banks, how could you possibly lift off?! So 'Game Over' for the Panama Canal?
Labels: camera problem, Green Hell, Panama, Panama Canal, security problem, topical rainforest, tropical climate, Yellow Fever
Monday, November 26, 2007
Mexico – Home of the Beetle
Greater Mexico-City counts more than 20 million people and is – maybe apart from Tokyo – the largest metropolis in the world. We were surprised that the airport is comparatively small, and after some discussion at the customs because of the helicopter we found it wasn't allowed to take the trolleys out into the arrival hall. Instead you had to pay somebody to take your luggage to the taxi; including our carry-on baggage we have a total of over 80 kg and thus not much of a choice. As pointed out in ROTOR 11/2007 and especially after the attempted express kidnapping in India we made sure to take a pre-paid and registered taxi to the hotel.
The ancient city of Teotihuacan in the state of Mexico is one of the most important archaeological sites of the country. In 1987 it was added to the list of … you know what! These guys … :-)
It is situated within reasonable distance of Mexico-City so we went there on a private tour. Our driver and guide Jose Luis was simply great; he spoke perfect English and had done all of his homework properly. In fact, Mexican tour guides have to study at university for three years and learn at least one foreign language. What's more, they have to attend additional courses every other year to keep themselves up to date; if they do not show up of fail the test they lose their license. That's the reason why these guys do not talk as much nonsense as many freelanced guides in other countries.
Anyway, the city of Teotihuacan was a political and religious center for many centuries. Most notable are its broad central "Avenue of the Dead" flanked by the world-famous Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. The founders of the city are unknown till present day; fact is that work on the smaller buildings started about 200 BC while the large pyramid was completed around 100 AD.
The Pyramid of the Sun is the third largest pyramid of the world. Its height is 63 m, the base length an impressive 220 x 220 m; this accounts for a total weight of about 3 million tons! Unlike the Egyptian pyramids both the Sun and the Moon Pyramids were no tombs; instead, they were platforms for temples used during ritual ceremonies. They used to have a nice dark red color in former times.
Since the Pyramid of the Sun is not nearly as high as the Gizeh pyramids it made no sense to picture them from a greater distance, e.g. from the hills in the vicinity. Another advantage in Egypt was the missing vegetation; this made those pyramids look even bigger. And finally, the Egyptian buildings were surrounded by hills which allowed a perfect view.
Upon arrival at the archaeological site we bumped into big signs stating that photography was not allowed unless you paid a small fee. Not a problem, but professional photography had to be additionally authorized by the archaeological office. The term "professional" meant using non-miniature cameras or a tripod, not to mention a somewhat bigger video camera. So we obviously fell into the "professional" category and problems were preprogrammed.
We went straight to the boss of the pyramid site and explained the WSF project. We literally drowned him in a sea of pictures, showed our multi-language project description, our travel itinerary and other documents. It seemed he was most impressed with our visit to Gizeh/Egypt; those pictures (all WSF pictures!) are really priceless and maybe the best cover shots ROTOR magazine ever had. It's a pity you can't be on the cover all the time; the World Scenic Flights are without any doubt the largest project in the history of model sports and there is countless new photographs which should be in big print on a front cover rather than a line-up of smaller images somewhere in the middle of a magazine. Having said this, we know that being an editor is not an easy job and there are many different aspects that have to be taken into account when putting together an issue.
We finally got permission to take pictures from the ring road around the archaeological site. Like explained earlier the luxuriant vegetation as well as a high fence with barbed wire on top made it impossible to get a good view. From wherever you looked, it was the big fence, then trees, trees, trees and the tip of the pyramid in the distance. We therefore drove around the whole site and eventually stopped at a restaurant behind the moon pyramid; the owner was a really nice guy and we got access to the roof. Quite a good view … but not good enough as the position of the sun was bad, also there were some overhead power lines plus two big trees, and finally we could only see the rear side of the pyramid.
We continued driving back and forth; there had to be a suitable spot, only we hadn't found it yet. We got out of the car and walked up and down the fence. After a lengthy while we ended up in one spot where the trees almost formed an avenue towards the pyramid. Yes, this place seemed to work; if only the damn fence were out of the way! It was really high – how could you possibly film over it?!
We decided it was best to have lunch as an hour later the sun would be in a much better position. We ate some traditional Mexican food including cactus. Saskia liked it but it was not made for me. We hear Japanese researchers claim eating this kind of cactus raw is very healthy – the only problem being it then tastes several times worse than the cooked version! This is another indication that nature doesn't want us to grow really old; if it did, it wouldn't be that hard to lead a healthy life, would it?! ;-)
After lunch we returned to the designated spot. We had borrowed a ladder and a high chair to be able to look over that disturbing fence. :-) As you would expect the whole construction was quite shaky! Saskia was busy not to get hurt by the barbed wire while I was busy not to fall off the chair while piloting the heli. What made the flying even more interesting were some trees over the take-off/landing area; it wasn't that bad, still I had to be careful to cross the fence at an altitude as low as possible.
Flying at the other side of the fence was not a problem; robbe/Futaba's 2.4 GHz system performed flawlessly also under these conditions. The nasty thing for me was the uppermost wire of the fence which constantly obstructed my view of the helicopter. It was a problem to judge the distance to both the machine and the nearest cactus and tree. Making bigger movements while standing on a chair is not the most brilliant of ideas, so I simply tried to either fly in closer distance or to remain rather stationary between the trees. Because the size of the helicopter has to be in reasonable proportion to the backdrop (in this case the pyramid) you often don't have much of a choice but to fly in a way that it looks good in the picture. Man, the good old days at the flying field where you could just fly what, where and how you liked were really great …
We managed to do two quick flights of five minutes each. Right after the second landing security showed up from all directions – really, it looked like if we were under siege! Our tour guide was a big help negotiating with the people. We explained we did have permission, but unfortunately they couldn't reach the chief of the pyramid site on either of his phones. He had left the office around noon and thus nobody believed we'd really talked to him. All explanations of the WSF project were in vain; we had to leave our contact details and were told we could not use our photographic material unless approved by some central authority in Mexico-City. Most of the guys were quite reasonable but seemed a little bureaucratic; from our point of view things were made much more complicated than they actually were. We better spare you the details of these lengthy negotiations; we are glad our hard work wasn't confiscated right on the spot. At the moment we are still in contact with the guys to make a point of the outstanding nature of the WSF project and to find a good solution to create a win-win situation.
Meanwhile we have continued to Panama in Central America. We have long given up the idea of a day off to relax and just look around. Insanity never sleeps, and we are right in the middle of the next adventure. Stay tuned!
Labels: Aztec, Maya, Mexico, pyramid, Teotihuacan
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Mystery & myth: The Mayas and Aztecs – a living legend
Contrary to common belief, Mexico – or the United States of Mexico, to be more exact – is a North American country; only its very southern parts belong to Central America. It consists of 31 states and one Federal District which is more or less identical with Mexico City, the state capital. Total population is 110 million; this makes Mexico by far the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.
The Spanish conquerors first arrived in 1519, defeated the original inhabitants and set up a colonial rule lasting as long as 300 years. What used to be the Spanish Empire's largest colony finally got back its independence in 1821. And now the interesting question: What was before the Spanish invasion?!
Today as much as in former times people are fascinated with the ancient cultures of the Mayas and the Aztecs. Partly this may be due to the practice of human sacrifice as featured in many Hollywood film productions. The reality is much more complex; fact is that human presence in this area could be proven to exist as long as 40,000 years! At this stage of the Paleolithic Age and for the next 30,000 years to come people were of course hunter-gatherers. Some 9,000 years ago corn was domesticated in this area, leading to an agricultural revolution; the consequence was the same as in other parts of the world: People began to settle and formed civilizations.
A wide variety of civilizations and tribes used to be present in Mesoamerica in the past 3,000 years. Best-known are the Olmecs, Mayas and Aztecs. The Mayas were the first to develop a comprehensive written language, they had a phenomenal understanding of mathematics and astronomy, and also they are known for quite monumental architecture. Their heyday began around 300 AD and continued more or less until the arrival of the Spanish. And now comes the most striking: The Mayas still do exist today! Much of the rural population of the Yucatan peninsula, in Guatemala and in Belize are Maya by descent; a variety of the different Mayan languages are still spoken there as primary language and are at least in Mexico protected by law.
The Aztecs came a lot later than the Mayas. A good definition of who or what actually were Aztecs is quite difficult; commonly the term refers to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico who spoke a language called Nahuatl. They came from the North (maybe even from today's Southwestern USA) and achieved military and thus political dominance over significant parts of Mesoamerica. Like the Mayas they, too, were a very advanced civilization and most active from the 14th throughout the 16th century. Their rule was abruptly ended by the Spanish invasion.
The above shot shows some authentic Aztec dancers – quite cool and they may have been more impressed by the helicopter than vice vesa. :-) BTW, the chief of the troupe (standing to my left) is Nahui-Martin Chavez – that's the exact same guy who with his team represented Mexico during the 2006 FIFA Football World Cup in Germany!
On this occasion they also demonstrated the Aztec version of an ancient ball game (the Mayas had called it "pok-ta-pok"). Two teams played against each other; the aim was to shoot a rubber ball through a small ring fixed to one of the side walls of the field in a certain height. Since in this version of the game it was only allowed to touch the ball with one's elbows and the ring's inner diameter was not much larger than the ball, it took a whole while until one of the teams succeeded. Sounds like a cool game? Not really. The captain of the losing team was beheaded right after the end of the contest (some people considered this a great honour at that time).
At the time of this writing we are still talking to Mexican authorities. We hope to get clearance and come up with a post regarding our flying action at Teotihuacan very soon.
Labels: Aztec, Maya, pok-ta-pok, Spanish invasion
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The Grand Canyon Flights
The Grand Canyon certainly is one of the most impressive natural structures of this planet. It is situated in Northern Arizona and has an unbelievable length of 450 km, its width varying from 6 to 30 km. One distinguishes the higher North Rim, the South Rim and the Inner Canyon; the depth is up to 1.8 km and thus it is no wonder that on the way down through five different climatic zones both flora and fauna change significantly.
Natives already lived here some 3,000 years ago, but it wasn't until 1540 that a Spanish expedition (who else at that time!) first reached the South Rim – they were impressed and realized it was impossible to cross the canyon. So they left, and it took more than 300 years until the first serious explorers and cartographers came back to the area.
How did the Grand Canyon came to be? About 70 million years ago the Rocky Mountains were born and blocked the Colorado River which used to flow in south-eastern direction. So it changed its path in western direction, right across the newly formed Colorado Plateau. The rock there was comparatively loose and melted snow and ice from the Rockies let the Colorado grow into a mighty river; an unstoppable erosion process started, and here we are, 50 million years later, left breathless with such an incredible piece of nature.
Guess what – the UNESCO guys were also here! In 1979 the Grand Canyon was added to the list of world nature heritage. We really wonder when these guys will show up in our backyard at home …
After exchanging the main drive wheel of the Three Dee MP-XL I thought it was a good idea to do a quick test before flying it out over the Grand Canyon. Some guys who know me personally will smile now, but: With age comes wisdom …! ;-)
All kidding aside, the problem was that the whole area is densely covered with trees; except the roads and the parking lots in the Grand Canyon National Park there are no suitable spots for flying. We drove 25 miles through the park and finally found what appeared to be a former road into the woods. It was quite covered with trees, too, but at least reasonably firm soil so the heli wouldn't disappear in a cloud of dust during take-off and landing. I lifted off – nothing unusual. The gears were louder than normal but that's nothing uncommon with new gears. After 10 seconds I got bored and did a couple of precision flips between the trees. Everything seemed fine; very well then, back to the canyon!
It is until the very edge of the canyon that the terrain is completely covered with trees – one more step and the mighty canyon opens up before your eyes. Wow! – There is no words for this. One keeps looking in all possible directions, desperately trying to get this view under control; the sheer size and depth of the structure are just unbelievable. And now comes the problem …
The human eye and brain are a marvel that technology will never be able to hold a candle to. Capturing ultra-wide structures like the Grand Canyon is generally a big problem: The picture of any type of camera is limited! Granted, you could use special wide-angle lenses – but then the only way to create impressive scenes is to project them onto a large cinema screen. And even this leaves you with the danger of picturing just a plain "wallpaper" with not much of a depth perspective. Next issue when going for panoramic or full shots are the shadows. On the one hand they help you to add a third dimension to the scene – that's good! On the other hand this generates a high contrast situation – and that's very bad! Once again, other than the human eye film cameras – and especially digital video/photo cameras – have a very limited contrast range. Or in other words: If you don't want smaller details to break away in brighter spots the camera has to reduce the luminance of the picture. But this comes at a price: In the darker regions of the picture some objects will blend in with the background. So isn't it possible to brighten the picture just in the darker regions while not sacrificing details in overexposed spots? You'll guess the quick answer: No, you can't (you'd loose contrast!). It all boils down to increasing the dynamic range of the recording device, and like said before there is only so and so much that technology is capable of. Also think of videos of 3D aerobatic flying: When the sky is clouded and thus much light is reflected and the heli suddenly goes down and flies below the tree line it just disappears in the dark.
Okay, so we obviously have a problem – how can we fix it? Well, depending on what you actually want to express and to show with your pictures there is a number of things you can do. Even though it is very interesting to discuss such camera related problems, let's just focus on our very situation.
To add depth to still shots you will want to add "layers" to your picture. Find a bush for the foreground, then place the main object (person, heli, etc.) behind it, further in the background could be a distinct mountain, and only then follows the "wallpaper" far behind. Have a look at the shot below, it's quite three-dimensional.
Compared to still photography filming is always more difficult but at the same time greatly increases your possibilities. We wanted the viewer to first focus onto the helicopter and not to reveal the incredible backdrop at once. So at first the camera follows the heli with a close-up or at least a medium long shot while it is travelling towards us more or less along the edge of the canyon. At the point where it is closest the picture is almost fully open (heli still big!); the machine then dives down into the canyon, the camera zooming behind. It glides to the right and starts kind of a nose-in pie dish manoeuvre. The camera does not follow anymore but now opens the picture – wow! The vast size of the canyon becomes obvious while the heli gets smaller and smaller; the picture now slightly pans to follow the motion of the aircraft. When returning to the cameraman and pilot the picture again zooms in. Very impressive!
This simple kind of camera movement solves a couple of problems at the same time. First, the heli is presented to the viewer; his attraction is not torn between what the machine is doing and where it is flying. In addition, limiting the view quite effectively avoids bright and dark spots in the same picture; thus it is easy for the camera's automatic mode to light the scene correctly. Third, there's the "wow!" effect when the picture finally opens and the heli glides over the vast canyon structure.
The above sounds simple – and that's what it is in principle. However, good timing is required to create the "magical" scene we were looking for. It took us 2.5 battery packs to achieve an acceptable result. This means there was not much airtime left for still shots; so unfortunately we had to compromise a little on those.
Flying over the Grand Canyon was different from all other flights before. To get rid of the trees in the foreground and avoid disturbance by other visitors of the national park we had to climb down a couple of meters into the canyon. Not so easy with a helicopter, transmitter, battery packs, cameras and a tripod; one wrong step and you may end up on the rocks a kilometer beneath you! Same problem while flying and filming: You focus so much on the heli and the camera picture that the reference around you for keeping the balance is somehow missing. It feels somewhat like standing on top of a ladder while looking up into the sky; only the drop is a little longer … Now does this mean you have to stand directly at the edge?! Yes of course, how else could you fly and film down?! :-)
Crashing into a river, the sea or also into difficult terrain like at the Great Wall of China means the heli is completely lost – no way to get it back. But it was never more obvious then when flying over the Grand Canyon; the heli flies out and dives down until it is a mere speck in the sky, soundless, somehow lost in an unbelievably wide environment, gliding 1.5 km over the ground. I nearly got a heart attack when all of a sudden the tail swung around!
Emergency landing. Hell, what was that?! I had a very close look at the whole helicopter but couldn't find anything. After watching the situation on the video a couple of times I decided it was an RPM problem. Now how's that possible?
A couple of people have noticed (and asked by email) we sometimes use Kontronik's Power Jazz 63 V as electronic speed controller, and some other times the big Schulze ESC. The governor mode of Kontronik ESCs is legendary, and we use Kontronik equipment in pretty much most of our electric machines. However, when flying with throttle curves rather than flat lines (i.e. governor mode) we often prefer the Schulze controller. At the Grand Canyon site we wanted the heli to dive down into the depth as smoothly as possible. It looks best if you do not force it down in 3D mode or with constant RPM, but if you actually let it autorotate; in other words a throttle curve will work best in this case. Again this comes at a price: You cannot fly fast backward autos and/or do pirouettes forever. There is a point when the tail comes round and the machine "locks" into forward flight. That's what caught me a little by surprise, so … phew!
The 800 km drive back to LA was smoother than expected, and we had half a day left for visiting the Universal Studios; as cool as always. Personally I'm pretty sure that if I started my life again, I'd become a filmmaker. Isn't HeliGraphix moving more and more towards filming anyway? That's true; still there is a significant difference to Hollywood (at least up to now): HeliGraphix is NO special effects! Every second of film footage you see is REAL! Real people, real stunts, real adventures, real helicopters, real challenges, real crashes in a real world! Our life is no different from yours – that's what makes HeliGraphix so exciting, so tangible, so cool. And so insane … ;-)
Labels: Arizona, camera problem, Grand Canyon, Kontronik, Schulze, Universal Studios
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Hollywood Heights
Personally, I've been to the USA quite a number of times and visited something between 10 and 15 states. Last time I was in the Los Angeles area is exactly 9 years back; the focus wasn't on R/C helicopters then, but the trip was lots of fun nonetheless. Actually Hellman and I (watch the famous "Tool Time" video on the HeliGraphix website in case you really don't know who this guy is!) had toured quite some part of the west coast and visited Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Those were the good old days … :-)
We arrived in L.A./California at 5 AM and had to wait 6 hours until we could collect our rental car; getting it earlier meant returning it earlier on the last day (which was no option for us) or paying an extra day. So we waited patiently at the LAX airport and were positively surprised that after sunrise it got significantly warmer than expected.
We finally got the car and – after a lengthy procedure of another 3 hours! – also got a GPS (that's what they call the sat navigation systems here). The first thing we did was to get us something to eat; right after this we drove to a supermarket parking lot and slept for two or three hours. We had tried to find some better location first, but we were so worn out that we just had to stop and get some rest immediately.
Los Angeles is an amazing city and certainly one of the largest in the world. While still driving to downtown we could already see the famous Hollywood sign in the hills. One of the original ideas was to find the sign and to fly there. Despite 4 to 6 freeway lanes for every direction (!) traffic was bad and by the time we got to the area it was already dark; the sun goes down around 5:30 PM. Unfortunately, the big white letters are not lit in the night, so the only thing left to do was to find a motel and sleep the sleep of the just.
The next morning we drove through Hollywood and some of the famous streets and took in Beverly Hills along the way. This is definitely a nice place to live, at least if you have the necessary pocket money to buy or rent one of the villas there. Many celebrities live here; however, you won't get to see anyone – they all hide behind big walls and the signs leave no doubt you aren't welcome. Quite understandable, though.
Since we are notoriously pressed for time we were quite happy that none of the famous guys came around the corner and spotted us. Imagine a similar scene like in the Australian hobby shop: We drive happily through Beverly Hills, and all of a sudden Bruce Willis jumps out of his driveway, dressed in pants and wearing a bloody shirt. He then limps to our car, rolls over the hood, stares at us through the windshield, frowns and shouts: 'Hey, aren't you those crazy German helicopter guys?!' Thank goodness he stayed at home so we didn't have to sign autographs and lost more time. ;-)
Finding the Hollywood sign was a nightmare. If you get closer you cannot see it anymore because buildings and trees obstruct your view. We went to nearby Griffith park, and while Saskia was busy to pull some thorns out of her hand after falling into a huge cactus I climbed two impressive hills to get an overview. BAD idea – the way up is always one thing, but the way down … Saskia decided to look away to not see me fall down. Anyway, after quite a while I made it without injuries; and the good thing was: We'd gotten a pretty good idea where to find the sign!
Our GPS this time was a lot better than the Australian one; still we've seen better devices. Driving through the hills of Hollywood was the next nightmare. It's all narrow streets, sometimes one way, and it takes you ages to reach a certain point. It reminds you of driving in Oslo (Norway), and there is also a remote similarity to the part of Zurich (Switzerland) situated on the hillside. Driving from there to work every day will cost you lots of time, and the view isn't that good either – quite often you just see the roofs of other houses and the horizon lies in the haze (another serious problem when trying to get good pictures in the Hollywood bowl!). We had no idea why someone would want to pay a million dollars or more for a small home in this area.
In the late afternoon we had finally gotten as close to the Hollywood sign as one could get. It is not allowed to hike up or do anything else except taking a picture. Lots of full-size helicopters are circling over the area all the time. We especially liked the above information sign: If you try to reach the big letters, they will either arrest you or/and you will have to pay $103. Not $102 and not $104, but exactly $103! :-) We could name more such cases where every last dollar matters.
To tell you the truth, the big white letters and the scenery around are nothing to really get you excited. Since there was not much space for flying anyway we decided to only take a couple of cool pictures rather than a video. The result was nice and worth all the trouble, but the film sequence would never have made it into the final WSF movie. We therefore put the machine away right after the flight – a good decision since not much later one of the air patrol helicopters came looking, and another few minutes later a patrol car showed up. This was exactly the time we left, so they just talked to a couple of other tourists which happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. :-) Having said this, we don't think it was us who attracted the air patrol.
Yesterday evening and the whole day today we drove a total of 800 km through the Mojave Desert. Currently we are close to the Grand Canyon national park and hope to get some impressive footage there; fortunately no snow yet!
This evening I finally found the time to replace the Three Dee MP-XL's old main drive wheel; it looked as if bigger load changes would have killed the remains of what used to be its teeth. Let's hope the problem is gone now, at least for the second part of this world tour.
Labels: Beverly Hills, California, Hollywood, LA, Los Angeles, main drive wheel, repair, USA
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Hawai'i – Outpost of Civilization?
Hawai'i is a piece of intact world. Hundreds of good-looking people lie on beautiful white beaches as far as the eye can reach, the water is clear and blue, the girls wear colourful bast skirts and sing and dance all day long. Coconuts are for free, the sun shines all the day, cool music plays and the only word you have to know is "Aloha" after they hang one of the many nice flower garlands around your neck. This is Hawai'i – or is it not?!
Nope, it isn't; not at all! Hawaii is situated right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is actually a group of islands; the larger ones are scattered over almost 1,000 km, and when also counting the most remote ones then it is over 3,000 km in total! Culturally they belong to Polynesia and to some degree unite Eastern and Western culture. Hawaii joined the United States of America in 1959 as 50th state and today has a respectable population of about 1.3 million people. Doesn't sound too much? Wrong, because the islands are quite different from the pictures that travel agencies spread all over the world. 75% of the population live on the main island Oahu (O'ahu), 400,000 alone in the state capital Honolulu; the rest is spread over smaller cities mainly along the south coast. Taking all of this into account, it is quite densely populated.
About 40% of the residents came from Asia (mainly Japanese, but also from the Philippines and China), further major ethnic groups are people of European (25 %) and Polynesian (< 10%) origin. Main languages are English (sometimes the very local version of it) and the original Hawaiian language.
Okay, so where are the beaches? Well, the most famous one certainly is Waikiki beach, a surfer's paradise where the waves can grow to a size of several meters. Hmm, does this mean it is very windy there?! Yep, you got that point … ;-)
We've only seen Oahu and think it shouldn't be famous for beaches. Instead, the unusual looks of the high mountains and the steep shoreline are most impressive; after all, Hawaii is almost entirely of volcanic origin! They simply grew from the bottom of the sea some million years ago. On the Big Island, called Hawaii (just like the state itself), there are still active volcanoes. They'd have made a perfect backdrop for WSF, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go there (about 400 km by sea). Thought Mt. Everest was the biggest mountain of the world? Well, its summit certainly is the highest point above sea level, but when measuring from the foot of the mountain to its top, then Mauna Kea is the world's tallest mountain with almost 9,500 m!
When returning from Ayers Rock to Sydney it was quite late at night, and since our 9.5-hour flight to Honolulu left early the next morning it made not much sense to spend money on another hotel night but to sleep at the airport instead. They close it at night but you could stay in the train station next door. Below's a shot taken at 3 AM showing what sleeping in an airport looks like.
We dozed most of the flight since we were eternally tired – but no worries, we crossed the international date line and that means we won a day (or one night to be more exact). Usually you lose time when travelling eastwards; not so when crossing the date line! In Australia we were 10 hours ahead of CET, in Hawaii we were suddenly 12 hours behind. It's sort of a déjà vu feeling when the date changes from 11th to 12th the second time. Winning a day like in the famous novel by Jules Verne (which was based on a more or less true background, BTW) was one of the main reasons why we chose travelling around the planet in eastern direction.
Hawaii is an expensive place! We found out the very first minutes when taking a taxi to our hotel. The driver was the unconventional type of person – we could not really understand what he said since the bass of his subwoofer was so strong that we got worried it might actually disintegrate the heli in its transport box in the trunk. Anyway, we reached the hotel and got a nice flat in the 23rd floor; we could even see part of the shoreline, so that was pretty cool.
Again, where are the beaches? Since Oahu is a modern island and the life style fairly typically American it was clear we needed a rental car. So we got one and started driving around to find a suitable WSF location. Not an easy task! Like said before, there is no such thing as the typical island paradise beach with a nice lagoon; the island is mostly covered with mountains. Theoretically you could drive around it, but there is a point where you need 4 wheel drive to continue!
How about Pear Harbor?! It is the most important US military base in the Pacific and gained fame in a tragic way when the Japanese killed over 2,000 people and sunk eight war ships during their plane attacks in 1941. It might have looked cool to do a long tail slide over some navy vessels and pull up just a couple of inches off the deck, but then …
After some time we figured that typical of at least this part of the Hawaiian Islands are mountains of volcanic origin (like the famous Diamond Head), plus beaches with waves and some palm trees. This would be a healthy mixture of the real Hawaii and the pictures in travel catalogues. So we just continued driving …
On day 2 we finally found a really good location. The wind was insane, look for the palm trees bending in the final video! One more time that one definitely misses the smoke trail of I/C helis – that'd have been a very cool look! After the flights we continued to Sandy Beach to take some static shots (no more battery packs!). As for that wave: No, I didn't see it coming!!
We went back to the hotel later that night (the sun goes down at 6 PM already), perfectly in time to collect the two FP 4900 mAh battery packs from Rainer Hacker. Nicolas and BBT had also fedexed a new RM cap (yes!) plus a spare main drive wheel and a vertical fin (remember, in Korea some guy stepped on it).
Back in the room we realized the video shots were bad – too shaky. Not good because it meant we'd have to return the next day after noon; earlier didn't make sense since the sun would be in the wrong place. What's more, I had worked on the computer until 6:30 AM and thus was really tired.
Anyway, we decided to drive to the same spot the next day. It was even more windy and the clouds moved fast thus leaving only short time slots for the flights. The scenery is great when lit but looks like nothing when the light is gone.
Despite the time pressure we did an AFD panorama as well. The fixed wing guys will hate this one! However, there was no better alternative and this way you can fly at exactly the same spot that we chose. Personally I love the challenge of landing an airplane here; you'll have to come in close to yourself in order to avoid the 10 m high bush work in just a few meters distance (I guess that's where most people will end up) – but still high enough to fly over a bench and a table nearby! Quite a challenge, but there is some stones in the water which will help you on approach. Like said before, you'll hate it at first but love it later on! :-)
For heli pilots it is no problem anyway; I'm just sad that the strong wind and thus some of the flair will be missing. Maybe Ikarus should ship a ducted fan together with the simulator, and it activates automatically once you choose this very scenery. ;-)
It took us about one hour to disassemble the heli and pack it into the box for the flight to California. We then rushed back to drop the rental car, collected the rest of our baggage, repacked parts of it and then went to the airport. Hmm, we really liked Hawaii – a shame it was over before we got the chance to see more of it. I'm actually typing these lines while on the plane to California – we'll come up with more cool news from there, so check back soon!
Labels: AFD, airport sleep, beach, date line, Hawaii, island, Oahu, Polynesia, volcano, Waikiki
Monday, November 12, 2007
Ayers Rock – Spirit of the Aborigines
The next day we got up at 04:30 AM (don't ask when we went to bed!) in order to drop our rental car before boarding the plane to the Australian Outback. Due to a little confusion at the filling station (the rental company had no signs in the car at all what fuel it uses) we ended up with the wrong fuel in the tank – and broke down a kilometer later, still four kilometers away from the airport. It was clear we'd miss the flight; luckily a nice guy from Peru helped us and took Saskia to the airport. While she arranged that Qantas gave us a later flight I was standing in the rain for 2 hours waiting for a tow truck and dealing with the rental car company. Shit happens!
Ayers Rock is simply amazing! In the language of the local Aborigines it is called Uluru; not too far from it lie The Olgas (Kata Tjuta), another interesting rock formation and significantly larger than Ayers Rock. Both were formed about 800 million years ago in the same geological process; the whole land was flooded several times, and mud, sand, gravel, pebbles, rock, etc. accumulated in depressions. The whole mixture got heavily compacted (we're talking about geological time spans here!) and was finally pushed back to the surface. Erosion formed the structures visible today; and yes, this means we just see the tip of a much larger formation extending a couple of kilometers down into the earth. Please note that unlike Kata Tjuta the Uluru mainly consists of arcose sandstone; its original color is grey, but it contains a significant amount of iron minerals. The weathering process forms iron oxides which account for the nice red color; the whole mountain and desert around are rusting, if you want. :-)
Ayers Rock is about 350 m high (The Olgas over 500 m) and has been declared world natural heritage by the UNESCO (yes, these guys are everywhere! It is a mere matter of time until the whole planet is a UNESCO world something heritage …).
The local resort is called Yulara; it's basically a couple of hotels around a ring road including a supermarket and a filling station. That's it, and you won't find anything else in a radius of several hundred kilometers. The main language there is German! :-)
We inspected our baggage and found that the "fragile" stickers of the airline actually mean "please drop it extra hard!" Repairing the Three Dee MP-XL took about three hours, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed. On this occasion we discovered that the main drive wheel showed strange signs of wear (see picture). The teeth in four parts of the gear wheel were heavily worn leaving big grooves between what's left of the original teeth. The four areas are the consequence of a slight noncircularity of the drive wheel (that's nothing unsual). As to what causes this strange kind of abrasion effect we're not absolutely sure. We have marked everything and will inspect it after every flight.
BTW, our last FP 4900 mAh pack was significantly ballooned after the air transport from Sydney to Ayers Rock – this is actually the first real indication that the constant transport under low pressure conditions may be (one of) the problem(s). The spare packs from Rainer Hacker (fedexed by Nicolas and BBT) should reach us Tuesday evening in Hawaii.
Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are sacred in Aborigine belief and they were given back to them by the Australian government in 1985. Today the whole area is a national park; you can visit it for a fair entrance fee but have to follow the rules which means don't leave the marked paths, only stop in special viewing areas, etc. Not so good for flying; but then, there weren't too many people around so you could just jump over the fence or walk a little into the desert. Temperature? We had everything from 10 to 30+ degrees centigrade.
Okay, are the flights a homerun then? Not really, for several reasons. First difficulty is the weather; at least during our short stay it kept changing constantly. The funny thing is that the clouds appear out of nowhere within half an hour, but they do not move. After some time they simply dissolve and rematerialize somewhere else. The very moment it gets cloudy the wind freshens up to a point where your cap gets blown off; this can happen within less than five minutes. The next thing is, clouds cast big shadows onto the Rock – and this makes it look very dull in the picture.
The bottom line of all of this is: Find a good spot to fly where the Rock is not too near (so it'll fit into the picture) but still looks impressive, then wait in the car for as long as it takes, and when the lighting situation seems to get well jump out and fly.
The hotels at Yulara Resort provide (expensive) internet access; you get a fast download connection, but the upload is as slow as 2 KB/sec. which means most programs give up due to timeout when uploading pictures. This was the reason why we couldn't update the blog for three days. But transfer of the digital material to the computer, picture screening and selection, then post production and finally data backups kept us over-busy anyway. It's insane how much time such straight forward computer work takes – one day is nothing at all!
All in all the trip to Ayers Rock was both a success and adventure. To those of you appreciating the silence of a desert, the only sound being caused by the wind flowing over the landscape, combined with a clear vision till the "end of the world", we can only recommend this place.
The very cool image above is a pure HeliGraphix shot outside the WSF. Apropos, don't forget to check out our regular website as well! In our latest video we explore what happens if you fly with your R/C helicopter through a car wash. :-)
Labels: Aborigine, Australia, Ayers Rock, breakdown, desert, main drive wheel, national resort, Outback, repair, Uluru, Yulara
Friday, November 9, 2007
Madness Strikes Again!
Ladies & Gentlemen, this is HeliGraphix Australia; please fasten your seatbelts! All persons and incidents described are real; part of them may not be suitable for all ages. If you are under the age of 16, please read on when you have reached this age or continue with the next post. Thank you. :-)
We were pretty much in a rush to the airport since our navigation device lead us the way to every place BUT the airport. We thought this might be some kind of built-in advertising: You tell the device where to go, and if you just buy the budget version instead of the full upgrade it won't choose the fastest way but drive you to a couple of partner shops first ...
The first thing we did after collecting Andrew Palmer was to find a breakfast place - as you will imagine there were loads of things to talk about; after all, we hadn't met him in person for almost two full years. It's not that you don't exchange messages over the internet or do occasional phone calls; still there is nothing greater than sitting together and talking face to face. Honestly, if I had one wish granted by a fairy godmother, then it would be to bring together all the HeliGraphix people from all over the world for one day.
What distinguishes HeliGraphix videos from pretty much all the rest on the net is that they're never outdated; even after years they're as much fun to watch as on day one. Consequently, the download rates stay pretty constant rather than decreasing over time. With several 10,000 downloads the "dequeering video" (official title is "HeliGraphix Helps!"; www.heligraphix.de/download/HeliGraphix_helps_part1.zip) from 2005 is one of the best examples. It was shot out of a notion and minutes before we had had to leave for Christchurch airport (New Zealand). It went down in history and has inspired a generation of pilots - it's as much CULT as the world-renowned HeliGraphix rule for breaking in new helicopters and engines: They have to go inverted the very first day, else they will become "queer" (www.heligraphix.com/QA/qa_section2.htm#TM41)! We could compile a book full of cool stories that have been submitted to us in this context by people from around the planet. Maybe next time … :-)
When talking about the good old days in New Zealand and the dequeering video we realized that on the occasion of our meeting the world might expect a sequel!?! Andrew hadn't brought along any helicopters, and even though it would have been a cool stunt to throw a Three Dee MP-XL off the Sydney Harbour Bridge and wind up the blades, this was definitely the worst point in time for giving it a try. We had a look at the watch: 4 hours left before Andrew had to fly back another 2,500 km to NZ. Okay, what could you possibly do in such a short time span? Not much!? Think again, this is HeliGraphix!
We drove to the nearest post office and grabbed the Yellow Pages. There seemed to be quite a number of model shops in the greater Sydney area; the closest one was "Wings 'N' Things" (www.wingsnthings.com.au). We don't know why, but somehow we always manage to make the right choices…
Full steam ahead to Wings 'N' Things! Park the car, jump out, walk into the store. Impressive, really big - and a couple of helicopters on display, from small coaxial ones to real 90 size I/C machines. The first guy spots us and looks us up and down. – "We're looking for a small helicopter, a budget version." – "We have these coaxial ones; the small ones here don't fly as well as that bigger one. They're all for indoor use." The guy knows what he's talking about. "What do you need it for?"
Now THAT's cool, isn't it? Meanwhile the number of people around us had increased a little and the guy walks over to a shelf; a few seconds later he returns with a "Remote Madness" DVD in his hand. Well, what could you possibly add here …?! :-)The owner of the store is Zak Kiternas, and the guys called him down to the shop. I think we could have talked to them for another hour, it was simply great. We even learned they'd contacted Jan Henseleit the other day regarding distribution of Three Dee helicopters! A small world, really.
Anyway, we explained what we'd come for and without making a fuss of anything Zak just handed over the coaxial Bell 47 we wanted to have. Plus a can of our favourite pink spray paint, plus some batteries. "It's all yours. Don't make it survive!" he said. NOW HOW COOL IS THIS?! Below's a good shot by Saskia showing Rob Pirazzi, Zak Kiternas, me & Andrew, Denis Johnstone and Carlo Iarossi (from left) outside the store. The mailman just happened to drop by and thought it looked fun what we're doing and thus wanted to be in the picture, too. Cool world! :-)
3 hours left. We walk back to the car and open the motor hub; there is no second we can afford to lose, so we decide to charge the Bell's lipo while driving back to our "hotel" and fetching the video camera. Some adhesive tape does the job and holds the charger and battery in place in the engine bay.
1.5 hours left. We're back at the Harbour Bridge to inspect the location and find a good point for throwing down the helicopter. The QHT ("Queer Helicopter Theory") states: Queer helicopters float while dequeered ones sink! So if you throw a queer one off the bridge and it happens to fall into the river, then you will be able to tell whether the mission was a success or not. B-)
LOTS of security and surveillance cameras on the bridge! We talked to the guys and there was a chance to get semi-official clearance for the stunt. Never mind, we'd have done it anyway … ;-)
However, there was another problem: If you video a scene where a small heli is dropped from a mighty bridge in quite a distance, then it is only a small dot in the picture. Not good at all, so we had to come up with a new idea fast!
40 min. left. We were prepared to do an ultra-cool introduction interview and test the ultimate dequeering strategy. We figured that if the little bell (it comes pink and plugged out of the box!) made it across the bay (700 meters!), it would be dequeered and could be used safely by any pilot. The "point of transformation" had to be somewhere on the way which left us with the question: What if the Bell didn't make it? We knew this was unlikely, but … ;-))
Well, as mentioned before the "Dequeerer's Guidebook" states that queer helicopters float! The puzzle now was complete, the story brilliant, and the three of us were highly motivated to do the stunt and help to dequeer Zak's Bell so it could lead a happy heli's life ever after.
25 min. left. It was so much fun doing the interview and explaining the story to the viewers, we could have continued for hours. Unfortunately, a strong wind was blowing right towards us; we ran back to the car (i.e. Andrew walked most of the way …) in order to drive over to the other side of the bay. This way the heli would have the wind behind it.
10 min. left. Security also on the other side, but there is nothing we have to lose anyway. While driving we had done dry runs of the scene so we'd be able to start right away – and that's exactly what we did! The outcome is insane, fun and marvellous at the same time! You will LOVE this production! B-)
-5 min. left. We're on the way to the airport and our navigation system – as always – causes more trouble than it is of help. We call Zak and tell him the mission was a great success; he is delighted and can't wait to see the video.
Okay, good question, when's that blockbuster-like thing coming out? Well, there's some post production extras required – we think late in January or early in February 2008 is realistic. Don't miss this film, it is CULT!
Finally, here's a snap shot of one of the planes at Zak's place. Hmm, we may have to return one day … ;-)
Labels: Andrew Palmer, Bell 47, dequeer, Harbour Bridge, New Zealand, pink, Remote Madness, Sydney, video, Wings N Things, Zak Kiternas
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The world-famous Sydney Opera House
Sydney has the strangest weather we've ever seen. First it is stormy (only people from New Zealand would still classify this as a firm breeze) and pours like hell, some 30 minutes later it is moderately windy and only slightly overcast, another 30 minutes later it is the Deluge again. Now what does this tell us? Quite simply put, the long time of the British Commonwealth Empire has left its traces … ;-)
All kidding aside, this kind of weather thwarts all your plans. Partly helped by our sat navi (see last post!) we just drove out to the waterfront opposite the famous Sydney Opera House. It's quite a distance, still the monument is not a speck on the horizon. We arrived perfectly in time for a rain break, and since there was a lonely security guy nearby we thought it was best to start off with an AFD panorama. It may give the fixed wing guys a hard time, but it's simply great for helicopters! :-)
We had just completed the photographs and not even measured all the distances to obstacles and waypoints when the next rain front came in (BTW, in ROTOR 12/2007 we'll explain in detail how the AFD shooting works and what is needed to generate a photorealistic simulator scenery). It was so fast we didn't really know what had hit us …
About 40 minutes later we dared to get out of the car again. The good thing about the situation was that virtually everybody (including the lonely security guy) had run away because of the heavy rainfall. As we learned today there is actually LOTS of security all over the place and especially around the harbour bridge; Sydney is quite afraid of terrorist strikes and the security guys aren't the funny type. So we were pretty lucky we got away with a quick flight!
The result is absolutely cool! Apart from the wind and that flying over water is never truly relaxing there are two more things which spoil the game a little: First, the next rain front was already forming on the horizon, and second we could only fly 4 - 5 min. because of our already slightly ballooned last 4900 mAh battery pack. And finally, it is a matter of time until you have the usual annoying water drops on the lens. But anyway, the shots are good, we couldn't have done them better under these conditions, and this is what counts!
When we came back to our "hotel" it was all dark – power failure! No electricity, no light, no internet, no nothing! It took about 4 hours until at least the lights worked again, and charging the batteries meant I had to sit in the corridor (no sockets in the room!) until 4 AM in the morning. :-(
Not so nice since today we had to get up at 7 AM in order to collect Andrew Palmer at the airport. He's a true friend and came all the way from New Zealand just to meet us for one day. And it was one hell of a day! In fact, we had such a great time that it's worth writing an extra post about it; you will be more than thrilled to hear what's going on in this part of the world! :-)
Another very good news is that Rainer Hacker (did we mention he really is a great guy?!) contacted Nicolas Kaiser: There is three brand new 4900 mAh Flight Power battery packs on the way to our home base in Switzerland! That's perfect timing, thank you very much! Consequently, the two 3700 mAh packs which had been sent via the UK and had not made it to New Zealand in time have been routed back by Nicolas.
BTW, we have learned that the pressure in the passenger section of an airplane is the same as in the cargo bay. Thus it does not make a difference whether you transport the batteries in your carry-on or in your checked in baggage (you cannot have it in the hand luggage anyway). The reason for the observed ballooning must therefore be another one. We checked our chargers, but everything fine here as well. It remains a mystery …
OK, this was the end of a long but successful day. The next post will feature the most incredible story how we managed to shoot a sequel to our most successful "dequeering" video from 2005 (the official title is "HeliGraphix Helps!") even though neither Andrew nor we had brought along a helicopter for doing this! :-))
Labels: Australia, Flight Power problem, Opera House, power outage, Rainer Hacker, Sydney
Monday, November 5, 2007
AUSTRALIA – Take 1
Right before boarding the plane to Australia I was taken aside and told that there was a security problem with our baggage. But no reason to worry, the lady continued, the officers had just opened and resealed it … You can imagine we had a very nice 9.5-hour flight, constantly wondering what Asia Airlines might have done to our baggage and which one of the two boxes (helicopter box or transmitter, power supplies and chargers) had been opened. These guys had been unfriendly at check-in as well; they are Star Alliance member, we're booked on Star Alliance, but they just wouldn't give us the respective conditions (they have to!) but charge us overweight instead. Annoying.
Sydney really is an expensive place; to reduce cost we had prebooked one of the more budget backpacker hotels (and this still costs a lot!). Well, the room is smaller than ever, we do not have electricity (except one light, but no sockets) and we have to share the showers with 200 other people. This minimalistic size of the room is a new record, the only other places that can keep up with this one were at Mount Cook/New Zealand where each of us had to share the bedroom with 7 more people (separate rooms for male/female!) and in France. Below is a shot of our mobile communication platform. :-)
We arrived in Sydney early this morning, and for the first time since this continuous trip has started we rented a car. The main reason is that on Thursday our old friend Andrew Palmer from New Zealand will fly all the way to Sydney to have fun with us for one day. That's true spirit and we very much look forward to seeing him!
For just a few bucks extra we got a sat navi; it's made by Pioneer and the most user-unfriendly device we've ever seen. If you type in a target and drive according to the instructions, how's it possible that the distance to the destination keeps increasing?! Does it lead you the other way around the globe? Also we set it up so it won't be using toll roads. And boom - 10 minutes later we end up in the first toll tunnel without cash booths. Damn, to avoid a toll infringement notice we now have to call the guys and give them our credit card details.
Regarding battery packs, thanks for all your input! Nicolas Kaiser did a lot of research and called today - it seems we'll be co-sponsored by Kokam. That's good in a way that in the past months quite a number of people had written to us anyway and asked how's Kokam compared to Flight Power. It will be interesting to see whether the ballooning is a FP specific problem or a general one.
Jan Henseleit also left us a message and offered his own packs. Ken Yap wrote in and said he would be able to organize AirThunder packs for us. Marc Endres discussed the problem on RC-Line forum, and they came up with the same suspicion we have: The low air pressure during the long distance flights might be the problem for the ballooning. Andrew Palmer called this evening and reported there's no hobby shops in Sydney carrying 12s battery packs.
BTW, we'd like to seize the chance to explicitly thank the Big Boys' Toys crew (manufacturer of the famous MANIAC blades and carbon accessories) who provide the WSF FedEx logistics. Nobody believed this would become such a crucial part to make the WSF project a success. Thank you very much, this is appreciated!
Next problem is that for some reason FedEx sent the two spare 3700 mAh FP packs via United Kingdom to Andrew Palmer in New Zealand (he was supposed to bring the packs to us on Thursday). The time delay is fatal as they will not arrive in NZ before Andrew boards the plane to Sydney. So we're currently trying to reroute the parcel to the location here and to collect the packs when we come back from Ayers Rock, just prior to departure for Hawaii. (How come that always when it seems we could take a quick break something like this happens?!)
As you see the WSF are as exciting as ever and you can actively influence them by leaving comments. This is the project of a big team rather than a handful of people; like mentioned often before, HeliGraphix is "open source". Be part of the new flying era and join us for writing R/C history!
Labels: Australia, ballooning, BBT, Flight Power problem, Kokam, navigation system, Sydney
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Korea – more problems ahead!
As some of you have noticed the last post was written on a Friday, not Thursday! This tells you two things: First, we have TOTALLY lost track of what weekday it is – we do not have any breaks and it is one rush all day long. Second, contrary to what's written in the brochures there's self-guided tours through the Changdeokgung Palace site on other weekdays as well! :-)
Yesterday we walked to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the second best of the five major palace sites in Seoul. We had a look at the buildings and open spaces and finally explained at the tourist information what we'd come for. The woman there was very understanding and guided us to the responsible office; unlike in other countries every palace site has its own office. The people there liked the WSF project as well, but – like a number of times before – next door were some government buildings, and this was special security zone. Thus no flying permit. (The picture below was taken the first day - it is great, but like explained we do not have anything on video.)
However, the tourist office advised us to drive to the culture park right in the city center. There would be houses in typical Korean architecture style, plus we'd have a wonderful view of the Seoul Tower. OK, board a taxi and off it goes through the usual traffic chaos.
The site was nice but too small in a way that you always had not so nice parts of the city in the background - the harmony was somehow missing. As for the tower, not the nicest one we'd ever seen, but quite impressive; the only problem was that the sun spoiled the picture. The staff there were nice, a flying permit no problem. We flew one 3700 mAh pack to have at least something on video; the shots are quite ok but nothing compared to the Great Wall in China or the Taj Mahal.
The shock came right after landing: The 3700 mAh batt pack was ballooned as well! Hell, if the batteries continue dying at this rate then we lose one pack per flight!
What next? Well, there is three kinds of landmarks suitable for WSF. The first category is cultural monuments, in this case one of the famous palaces. The second group would be world-renowned technical structures, e.g. the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia. This leaves the third category, characteristic landscape or natural formations.
Okay, if the palace thing absolutely doesn't work, then let's go for the Seoul Tower! But similar problem like in Kuala Lumpur: No space for flying within the city! Most of the ancient settlements and towns were built near rivers: For one, this offered the possibility of agriculture and second, it was the gate to the world and enabled people to trade. Seoul, too, is divided by a mighty river – and that's exactly what we headed for next (don't let's talk about walking on highways with R/C helicopters …)!
It was quite cold and a firm wind blowing, still the flights were successful and left us with some good shots; we think they will look cool in the final film. After landing one of the Korean spectators fell over the helicopter and broke the vertical fin. Annoying, but not a problem – back in our small pension I replaced it by a new one.
Both Saskia and I are reasonably well again. The major problem now is another one: Our Flight Power battery packs. After the river flight our fourth and last pack showed signs of ballooning, too! We did not have any problems with Flight Power packs until the WSF project started; but it is fact that even though they haven't seen more than 40 cycles each, they obviously cannot cope with the fast changing conditions of WSF flights.
Rainer Hacker is one of the greatest guys we've ever met - if you have a problem with motors or battery packs, he'll do his very best to solve them for you. We got pretty much most of our batteries through him (Hacker Motor GmbH) - very unfortunately, we cannot reach him at the moment! They're on a trade fair and do not check their emails or answer the phone.
We talked to Nicolas Kaiser and Steven-V as well as our old friend Andrew Palmer from New Zealand (he'll be flying over to Australia just to meet us there - simply great, isn't it, and we'll talk about that once in Australia). All three of them are currently trying to locate 12s battery packs and checking alternatives. The situation is serious, but we're confident to find a durable solution.
Like mentioned earlier: As of now it is unclear what causes the ballooning of the FP packs and there is a chance it would have happened to ANY brand. BUT: You have to see our situation, too! We have flown half around the world and are fighting our way through a world-unique and very demanding mission. All our battery packs are dying like flies, and the project is at stake! So we have to do something FAST and NOW! Any thoughts/comments from you are welcome, too.
Right now we are minutes from boarding the plane to Australia; the flight is 9.5 hours, and we'll continue from there. Stay tuned!
Labels: Flight Power battey failure, health problem, Seoul Tower, South Korea
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