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
Friday, November 2, 2007
South Korea - problems ahead!
South Korea is a modern country, and even though the capital Seoul is situated slightly more South than Beijing, it is quite cold here. Part of the city looks like many of the modern metropolises, which means life at a fast pace and expensive, many lights and heavy traffic. They give you about 15 seconds to cross the major multi-lane roads. After that the pedestrian lights go to red again and it's waiting for another 5 - 10 minutes. This really trains you to RUN!
What's the best-known monuments in Korea? Well, for one there is the city of Gyeongju, but with 400 km distance it's too far away from here. No need to go there anyway since in Seoul you will find the remains of the Joseon dynasty (15th century). It's basically a town-like structure with a collection of many beautiful buildings, temples and pagodas. Due to vandalism in the past you can only walk through it on guided tours. However, self-guided tours are available on Thursdays - lucky us! We found the office in charge, and the Korean guys there called some nice English-speaking representative. We explained the WSF project, and she seemed less worried about the heli but that we'd have to pay quite a sum to get a permission to take pictures. Sounded reasonably good, so we'd be back the next day (= Thursday).
This morning we walked up to the ticket office and paid the fee for taking pictures as well as the money for the regular entrance tickets. Looked good, so far no trace of problems. The nice lady from the office guided us right to the open space in front of the biggest and most famous palace called Changdeokgung. It's UNESCO world cultural heritage again, by the way (we should ask them for a map with the rest of that stuff :-) ).
The open space turned out to be not as wide as it appeared to be from the pictures; there seems to be a pattern behind this, some clever wide angle photography. It's the same all over the world: You go there, and boom - where's the magic from the pictures?!
After 25 minutes of waiting (did we mention that extra time costs extra money?!) we realized that the constant stream of new guided tours just didn't end. The nice lady said she was surprised, too, but we should start after the current tour had left. There's always one idiot who lags behind the group and has to take 10,000 extra pictures of the same object from angles as different as one arc second. We waited patiently until his guide called out to him, then wound up the rotor.
The first minute was reserved for pictures so the lady and other people would get used to the looks of the heli and that it's safe. Next we pulled out the camera and tried to let the heli fall into the picture, morph it into a pie dish, and then exit to the side. Not trivial in this confined area.
After a total of 4 minutes somebody came running and shouting, and we had to land. The guy was so mad he tried to block my vision of the landing heli. Luckily, Koreans aren't that tall. Anyway, the guy was quite upset and it turned out he was the guide of a group from the building next door, and that people had complained about the noise. Hmm …
Electric helis and blade flutter can cause some resonance, but it is highly unlikely this was louder than all the school kids crying around. What probably happened was that for the four minutes nobody cared about the building, but everybody liked the heli; the guide just couldn't cope with that. After this incident we did not get permission to take off again - because of the noise! We tried hard, but no way.
And here comes the worst: Due to a seemingly trivial camera problem we do not have any recordings at all! I was (and still am) so shocked I refused to speak much.
We'd like to seize the chance to thank you for emails and comments as this really motivates us. We do read all of them; you're welcome to feel at home and leave any thoughts on whatever topic you may have.
BTW, the internet is censored here in Korea as well, so we still cannot see the blog (including comments) and have to use the backdoor for updates!
An additional problem is that since we do not have many breaks we're quite exhausted after all the travelling and long walks. I sort of collapsed from exhaustion yesterday night, and Saskia is in poor condition today (vomited several times).
Then we found out that either after the heli flight in China or on the way to Korea our second FP 4900 mAh pack has ballooned. We have no idea what's the problem. The HeliGraphix SwissUnit around Nicolas Kaiser are busy to fix the problem for us. It looks as if we won't get a spare 4900 mAh, only 3700 mAh. That's bad because like here in Korea you sometimes only get the chance to do one single flight - and it's crucial that this one does not last just 4 min.
Keep you fingers crossed that we're back on our feet tomorrow and will be able to come up with a backup plan.
An additional problem is that since we do not have many breaks we're quite exhausted after all the travelling and long walks. I sort of collapsed from exhaustion yesterday night, and Saskia is in poor condition today (vomited several times).
Then we found out that either after the heli flight in China or on the way to Korea our second FP 4900 mAh pack has ballooned. We have no idea what's the problem. The HeliGraphix SwissUnit around Nicolas Kaiser are busy to fix the problem for us. It looks as if we won't get a spare 4900 mAh, only 3700 mAh. That's bad because like here in Korea you sometimes only get the chance to do one single flight - and it's crucial that this one does not last just 4 min.
Keep you fingers crossed that we're back on our feet tomorrow and will be able to come up with a backup plan.
Labels: complaint, health problem, Seoul, South Korea
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The Badaling Challenge!
Originally we had planned to drive to the Great Wall at Jinshaling (app. 160 km West of Beijing) rather than Badaling. The latter is much more overrun by tourists, and this is exactly what you would not want for R/C helicopter flights. However, Ken Yap thought it was possible to pull off the stunt at Badaling, and this would save us about 1.5 days of extra time which we really needed for finishing the latest ROTOR article, the blog, data backups, email communication, and for repairing equipment; our heli transport box had gotten a heavy blow on the way from Singapore to China.
Thanks to the help of some nice local guy we got a good taxi flat rate to Badaling; they drive like they queue up - all lanes are in use, and it's an overtaking (doesn't matter which side) and squeezing back in all the time, especially during heavy traffic or jams. 'Congratulations!' one thinks, 'it's now one million less one car in front of you!'
Badaling really is a tourist place. We took the cable car to the top of the hill (quite hard to take a big 90size heli with you!) and went straight onto the Great Wall - and that's definitely what it is! The structure has been built and rebuilt over centuries starting 500 BC and stretches over app. 6,700 km.
We were lucky with the weather - the day we arrived it was fog everywhere, the next two days (including our trip to the wall) were sunny, and after that it got extremely cold plus stormy. So at reasonable temperatures of around 10 °C and light wind blowing up the hill we lugged 15 kg of equipment up and down this huge structure. Quite exhausting as there are almost no horizontal sections; on the contrary, sometimes it gets close to climbing up and down vertically. People often couldn't really believe why somebody would take such bulky equipment to this place and even cheered on us when we got stuck in one of the vertical sections. Funny.
The big problem for heli flying is that you will need a horizontal section to both take off and land. And it does neither help you if this is kilometers away nor when it's down in the "valley" and thus not giving you a good view.
After an hour of walking we nearly dropped dead at some good viewpoint. We were sweating like hell; this means you have to take extra care not to catch a cold when stopping all of a sudden. Of course the heli bag drew the attention of the people around plus a guard. We found some English speaker who helped translate what the WSF project was all about. There was no way around this as the Great Wall is just about 3.5 m wide and we'd have to block it for the flights (We're not sure if anybody has blocked the Great Wall in the past 100 years or so?!).
Quick calculation: 3.5 m - 1.60 m rotor diameter = 1.90 m. Two handrails on each side, app. 25 cm off the wall, that's 1.90 m - 0.5 m = 1.40 m. Divided by two gives you 70 cm clearance to each side. Since the ground is quite uneven, you may have to land a little more to the left or right, depending on how the heli comes in. Add to this a constant breeze plus a tree hanging half over the area, and there you have it: The perfect spot for take-off and landing! Did we mention we had just lugged 15 kg of weight around for an hour? :-)
After some negotiations we actually got clearance for our remote-controlled toy. Someone asked what happens if he put his hand into the rotor disc. Well …
Most of the people visiting the Great Wall were Chinese, not foreign tourists. And it was the same problem with people just squeezing through narrow spots instead of queuing up. One guy even managed to fall over the helicopter in its carrier bag while I still had it over my shoulder (just don't ask …)! Consequently, we got a little worried somebody might actually fall into the rotor disc after the landing. Our translator was a big help, and we had him make extra clear to the guard that the area needed to be entirely clear when the machine came back in.
OK, take-off! There was no way to test the heli after assembly this time, so we just gave it a try. Add pitch, and --- it leaves the ground and sits in the air. Smooth and stable, as always. That's a Henseleit, one thinks, and slowly adds fore cyclic and right aileron to leave the wall and fly out to the countryside. As expected, all the spectators now gather around you and make it hard to walk over to the camera. One wrong step and you will fall about 30 m down the stairs - the descent is nearly vertical (you will see it later in the video)!
The flight was interesting in many ways. Not that we complain about people blocking our vision or jostling against us, but there was quite a breeze coming up the hill. At just over zero degree pitch the heli was still climbing towards us. You had to be careful not to fly into the occasional invisible tree that had already lost its leaves. Once the heli has nearly reached your position, do a combined ail/ele flip and let it dive down the wall inverted backwards, just a little offset so it won't hit any people in case something goes wrong. Finally morph the slide into a large diameter funnel, and that's it for today.
After repeating and modifying the exercise a couple of times we pull out the photo camera and shoot dozens of pictures within just one minute. We know there won't be a chance for a second flight, and you have to allow for 2 - 3 minutes of landing. No surprise the walk back to the landing area took a while and it was a nightmare getting the people out of the way. Then slide in the machine and touch down fast. The moment when it goes below the height of the smaller side walls is critical because it loses lift and you have to stop compensating for the side wind all of a sudden. But no problem this time, it lands as smoothly as ever, and it's just a matter of keeping the people from jumping into the rotor disc now.
Since the Great Wall was pretty crowded everywhere, attempting to shoot an AFD panorama was hopeless. It wouldn't have made much sense anyway since the only spots suitable for at least a heli take-off and landing were bad for flying because the pilot cannot change his position (like we had to) in the simulation. So we walked another 40 min. until we found a reasonably good location. Let's see what Ikarus/IPACS will be able to make of it.
The last shock came when we discovered we had ended up on the other side of the hill where a train goes up to the wall, and not the gondola! We called Ken Yap in Singapore, and he called our Chinese only speaking cab driver; the driver claimed there was no way around the hill. Uuups!?! Should we really have to walk back now for two hours with all that baggage ("queuing" up for the train would have taken the same time plus also walking for 30 min.)? I had a feeling the heli would not survive that trip – and we wouldn't, either.
Saskia volunteered to recheck if there really wasn't a way around the hill by car. 20 eternal minutes of pointing and gesturing later we found someone to drive us (may God decide what will happen to the lost soul of our cab driver …). Phew …
We're on our way to Seoul/South Korea - we originally wanted to slow down a little. But unfortunately, the next problems are already shaping on the horizon … We'll keep you updated!
Labels: AFD problem, Badaling, China, crowd, Great Wall
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Welcome to China – Home of the Olympic Games 2008!
China is one of my old favourites; last time that I came to Beijing was in 2003. The city seems to have changed in some ways, part of this may be due to the upcoming Olympic Games in summer 2008. At least some of the major road signs are now bilingual, and the number of English speakers in bigger facilities has increased at little. But then - just VERY little. :-)
What hasn't changed, unfortunately, is the Chinese's unability to pay attention to people around them. Nobody has ever heard about the concept of queuing up, and in crowded places at least the European mind sometimes feels reminded of ants running all over the place in a confused manner. Add to this the uncommon habit of spitting in public (to name just one; you will find this in a number of other places, too, but less perfected; the coolest is if your taxi driver stops, opens the door, spits, and then drives on), and there you have it - an interesting, fascinating Eastern culture. Don't let's talk about things like human rights and intellectual property, but let's concentrate on the terrific food and happy, friendly and diligent people.
With over 1.3 billion people, the People's Republic of China is the largest people in the world, and the economy grows at a startling pace. Together with India and Vietnam it has the potential to become one of the leading global market players, and it will be interesting to see what the situation will be like 50 years down the road. There isn't one China, by the way - in fact, the seemingly uniform country consists of countless "states" with their own languages, their own traditions, and their own unique way of life. This is what creates a difficult political situation, but it also accounts for one of the richest cultures and a long history.
Our good friends Dong Yu and Shen Dong are currently in Texas/USA where they had been offered a good postdoc position. This leaves us a little more to our own devices; it cannot be denied that communication is a REAL problem. Even in large cities like Beijing (which, after all, happens to be the capital) virtually nobody understands or speaks English, so it is difficult to order food, go to places by taxi, etc. Thought the menu in restaurants is bilingual? Nope.
Funny story: I had been looking forward to one of the famous "Peking ducks", but we simply didn't manage to find a place where they serve it. So we drove to one of the biggest hotels in town (I happened to have the name in Chinese letters on a name card so we could show it to the taxi driver); I knew they have it, and I knew they speak English. We walk into the lobby - very impressive! Turn left where the restaurant used to be four years ago. Hmm, no restaurant there, just a number of smaller rooms with tables, plus posters showing delicious dishes. It is 9:30 PM; a lady spots us and addresses us in Chinese. We try to tell her what we've come here for. Totally blank look, she does not understand a single word. OK, so we point at the food posters and rub our stomach. "Aah!" she makes, puts on a bright smile and points us the way --- to the hotel's business center! Heh?! Why do you think people come to a restaurant and rub their belly? "No no, look, food!" We make gestures and sounds like we're eating and drinking. "Aah!" she makes again and points upwards. Hmm, second floor?
The escalator did not work; we couldn't help but had a hunch there wouldn't be any open restaurant upstairs. Yep, right, this time we found ourselves in a conference room! The people there spoke no English (what a surprise!) and we went downstairs again to talk to the guys at the front desk. Bad English, but they got the point. The restaurant had been moved over to the other side of the stairs, about 50 m away from where the nice lady had sent us to every part of the hotel - except the restaurant! You think this is an exception? Nope again, this happens dozens of times every day (and there is times when it's hard to see the fun side of it).
Before we close this post there's three more things we'd like to pass on to you:
1) In China the internet is censored. We cannot view or access this blog - nobody can do it from within this country! It's equally impossible to address many .com domains. The reason is that blogs had become an important means to share free and unbiased opinions, so the government eventually cut it. We are lucky that through a back door we can at least post these lines - we just cannot see the result!
2) ROTOR 11/2007 should be out be now. We recommend buying the issue! It reveals most interesting details on how exactly this complex trip was planned and prepared; you'll be more than amazed!
3) Tomorrow (31st of Oct.) it's Nicolas Kaiser's birthday - we'd like to extend our best wishes to him! :-) If you get the chance, why not do the same?!
With over 1.3 billion people, the People's Republic of China is the largest people in the world, and the economy grows at a startling pace. Together with India and Vietnam it has the potential to become one of the leading global market players, and it will be interesting to see what the situation will be like 50 years down the road. There isn't one China, by the way - in fact, the seemingly uniform country consists of countless "states" with their own languages, their own traditions, and their own unique way of life. This is what creates a difficult political situation, but it also accounts for one of the richest cultures and a long history.
Our good friends Dong Yu and Shen Dong are currently in Texas/USA where they had been offered a good postdoc position. This leaves us a little more to our own devices; it cannot be denied that communication is a REAL problem. Even in large cities like Beijing (which, after all, happens to be the capital) virtually nobody understands or speaks English, so it is difficult to order food, go to places by taxi, etc. Thought the menu in restaurants is bilingual? Nope.
Funny story: I had been looking forward to one of the famous "Peking ducks", but we simply didn't manage to find a place where they serve it. So we drove to one of the biggest hotels in town (I happened to have the name in Chinese letters on a name card so we could show it to the taxi driver); I knew they have it, and I knew they speak English. We walk into the lobby - very impressive! Turn left where the restaurant used to be four years ago. Hmm, no restaurant there, just a number of smaller rooms with tables, plus posters showing delicious dishes. It is 9:30 PM; a lady spots us and addresses us in Chinese. We try to tell her what we've come here for. Totally blank look, she does not understand a single word. OK, so we point at the food posters and rub our stomach. "Aah!" she makes, puts on a bright smile and points us the way --- to the hotel's business center! Heh?! Why do you think people come to a restaurant and rub their belly? "No no, look, food!" We make gestures and sounds like we're eating and drinking. "Aah!" she makes again and points upwards. Hmm, second floor?
The escalator did not work; we couldn't help but had a hunch there wouldn't be any open restaurant upstairs. Yep, right, this time we found ourselves in a conference room! The people there spoke no English (what a surprise!) and we went downstairs again to talk to the guys at the front desk. Bad English, but they got the point. The restaurant had been moved over to the other side of the stairs, about 50 m away from where the nice lady had sent us to every part of the hotel - except the restaurant! You think this is an exception? Nope again, this happens dozens of times every day (and there is times when it's hard to see the fun side of it).
Before we close this post there's three more things we'd like to pass on to you:
1) In China the internet is censored. We cannot view or access this blog - nobody can do it from within this country! It's equally impossible to address many .com domains. The reason is that blogs had become an important means to share free and unbiased opinions, so the government eventually cut it. We are lucky that through a back door we can at least post these lines - we just cannot see the result!
2) ROTOR 11/2007 should be out be now. We recommend buying the issue! It reveals most interesting details on how exactly this complex trip was planned and prepared; you'll be more than amazed!
3) Tomorrow (31st of Oct.) it's Nicolas Kaiser's birthday - we'd like to extend our best wishes to him! :-) If you get the chance, why not do the same?!
Labels: Beijing, censorship, China, communication problem
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Indonesia Island Flights
At 10 AM we met up with Ken at the Harbour front and bought the tickets for a fast ferry transfer to Batam/Indonesia. The check-in was a similar procedure to that at the airport; after all, you are entering a different country, even though it somehow doesn't feel that way.
The ride as such was smooth and really fast; about one hour later we disembarked and went to the immigration - you need to purchase a visa to enter Indonesia unless you are a Singapore resident or from a handful of selected countries. There was only one person issuing the documents, and even though there were just four people in the queue, he clearly couldn't cope. One visa required something like a hundred work steps, and the part we liked best was when the guy manually typed our passport numbers into two different computers, printed out dozens of different documents which he stamped, folded and tore off in a complex manner, and finally zipped (!) our passports through an automatic reader!?! What an amazing way to burn time!
Ages later we finally left the terminal, and our friend Lee was already waiting to pick us up with his car. Batam is an island off the coast of Sumatra and the home of many fishing villages. In recent history it is being heavily industrialized plus opened for tourism. Compared to Singapore it is a day and night difference, everything is very basic, from the roads to the housing and lifestyle. It immediately reminds you of countries like Egypt, Nepal and India.
We had lunch at some seafood restaurant which was built on stilts into the river/sea (like most of the houses on the whole island); you first had to choose the stuff you want to eat, then they fished it out of some basin for you and cooked it. Not really something I like, and especially not Saskia; however, the final product was quite good.
Just a couple of meters away from the restaurant was a half-sunken ship; together with some smaller boats, more buildings on stilts and the turquoise water this formed a unique and unusual scenery - perfect for flying! However, Lee and Ken pointed out this might get us into serious trouble as the villagers didn't like aliens. Lee reported about an earlier incident where insane amounts of money had to be paid to the corrupt authorities just to get out of such a situation alive.
Since the villagers were all Muslims and thus filming can be difficult (they sometimes believe that pictures take part of their soul away), we decided it was best to walk away with a bleeding heart rather than ending up in difficulties.
We continued to a kind of hill with a good overview over a wide river cutting through the endless green of tropical forests and a couple of houses in the distance. A good backdrop for a long pass with the heli, and we pulled out the machine and camera for a flight. Everything worked nicely, and a couple of minutes later it was all finished. The shot below was taken later and shows Ken, myself and Lee.
We sometimes regret not to be able to do some real hardcore 3D flying ?but this not what the WSF project is all about, and any kind of fun flying just puts the heli at stake. Damaging or crashing the machine could be the end of this tour; it may be hard to understand from a comfortable chair in front of a computer screen at home. But it becomes very real if you travel half way round the world, have to negotiate with security and authorities in half a dozen languages and feel like you haven't slept in three months.
Next we visited some other places on the island but found nothing that would have beaten the first scenery. So after a nice and all too short day Lee dropped us at the ferry terminal, and we went back to Singapore.
Ken had brought along his Dremel tool to cut a groove into the Three Dee MP's Jesus Bolt so we could use a normal slot screw driver to get the bolt out of the center piece. It turned out tricky so Ken had to go back home in order to fetch some heavy duty tools. In the meanwhile we started packing our stuff for air transportation plus transferring the latest data to our notebook and burn it onto DVDs.
Ken was back just after midnight, and we worked through things until about 2 AM; like mentioned earlier, he's an incredible person and a real man of action. Without him it would have been a serious problem to disassemble the helicopter. We hope to see both him and Derrick at next year's Toy Fair in Nuremberg/Germany - we'll do our best to arrange some hotel rooms right in the middle of Nuremberg's red light district for them. :-)
After just 1.5 hours of sleep we boarded the taxi to the airport ?next destination is China, and we'll be reporting from there!
Labels: 3D, Dremel, fast ferry, Indonesia, Jesus Bolt, Lee
Friday, October 26, 2007
Singapore Skies - VIDEO!
Ken Yap and I have an ongoing competition for who can pay for the most cabs and things. He seemed to win, but we caught him off guard a couple of times, so we are about to catch up. :-) In other words, Ken is a very big help in organizing things and making the WSF project a success both here in Singapore and in Indonesia; we're deeply indebted to him.
07:00 AM this morning we showed up at the waterfront again - and were lucky! The weather forecast said it would rain, but the sun had just come up behind the horizon, and the sky was clearing up. Ken and Derrick were there, too, and we discussed once more what the shots should look like, and what would be the best flying sequence. You usually have to fly a scene a number of times until you are familiar with the surroundings and the manoeuvers look smooth; the camera also needs time to get a feeling for when to pan and zoom to where without shakes. Since the city has quite a skyline, we had to use the wide angle converter again to get everything into the picture. The nice image below shows Saskia and me at work.
We still have to go through the material but think there's a couple of good shots. One of the coolest might be where the heli passes under the water jet coming out of the Merlion's mouth; the picture then opens and the machine spirals "up, up and away". We did this scene three times - the last one was pretty close, the blades actually hit the water jet, and I immediately pulled the heli back down. It's quite hard to see when exactly the model is through! What happens if you fly through a water jet is known from "The Water-Cutter" stunt on our "Remote Madness" DVD; you would not want to repeat that one!
Transferring all the image material to the computer and select the best shots always takes HOURS and is an exhausting procedure; most of the time it will cost you one full day. Add to this regular data backups, writing the blog, writing for ROTOR magazine, assembling/disassembling and packing/unpacking the equipment as well as cleaning and maintaining it, and you know how jam-packed our days are.
Derrick (he's the left one in the above picture) recorded a little fun video where we say hello to the great Singaporean nation; somebody already mentioned it in the comments to the last post - you guys are quicker than we are! :-) Derrick really did some incredible editing here, this is a MUST HAVE SEEN!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_6t_snRX4
Tomorrow we'll be going over to Indonesia by fast ferry. Our friend Lee Aik Heng will collect us at the port. That'll be another cool adventure, but before this we have to come up with a solution for the MP's Jesus Bolt. Like we'd feared before, the screw is now round and we cannot get it back out of the rotor head center piece. That's a problem because this way it will not fit into our box for air transportation. As always, we're under severe time pressure to find a solution.
Labels: Merlion, Singapore, video
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Singapore – City of Tomorrow?
"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!
Labels: city state, Jesus Bolt, Ken Yap, Merlion, SBT, Singapore
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Kuala Lumpur City Flights
Finding a suitable location for flying with a good view of the famous Petronas Twin Towers turned out to be a problem. The only accessible places are parks, but security is ultra strong here. We got the phone numbers to do it the highly official way, but since we were pressed for time, we tried hard to find another solution.
To protect our sources and the many people who helped us, we cannot talk about details. But what counts is the result, and it is nothing short of brilliant: :-)
Right now we are on our way to Singapore and are looking forward to seeing our friend Ken Yap. He will collect us at the airport and has the spare battery pack as well as some image material with him. Let's see what this country is like!
Labels: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Monday, October 22, 2007
Kuala Lumpur/MALAYSIA – City above clouds
After landing in Malaysia, we took the KLIA Express (Kuala Lumpur Intl. Airport) to the city and tried to get a taxi to our hotel. The question where exactly it is, how to drive there and what it would cost drew the attention of five people, all of them Arabs. Europeans are usually lost in such situations (like in many others) – they have never seen real poverty, they don't know natural disasters except floods, they live in a stable political environment, dangerous animals are only known form the zoo, and everything is labelled with the price it actually costs.
"The ride will be 30 Riggits." – "Hmm, I will pay you 20." (I had no idea what it costs, but negotiating about the price is perfectly normal for this society) – "It's far away, you have to pay at least 25!" – "Come on, it's not really far, 20 is ok!" – "Hrrrgh, ok, you go for 20."
So the driver and I walked out onto the street where Saskia was waiting with all the baggage on an overloaded trolley. I called out to the driver and pointed to her. You could literally see his jaw dropping. "No – no – no! You tricked me!" He couldn't believe it. "Look, you have a big car anyway, it doesn't make a difference." – "You tricked me!" He really couldn't believe it; we obviously were the first Europeans in his life who ever got a better price than he was willing to give. :-)
The other four guys showed up and also started talking to me; the baggage would be extra. "Now it's really 30!" – "Like I said, I will pay you 20, and that's a fair deal, Sir." – "Make it 25." – "22 is fine." – "Ok." :-)
I really hated this kind of negotiating until some time ago; it eats up precious time and is simply a pain, and if you're not used to it, you will always have a bad conscience – and that's their trick here! Unless you are in a public place where there are dozens of other potential customers, simply walk away if you're not satisfied; this usually helps. And the last tip: NEVER give the impression that you really need or want something, because then it's over.
Kuala Lumpur is just incredible! You cannot really compare it to other big cities; the citizens are mainly Malaysians, Chinese and Indians, and quite a number speak basic English; probably one of the results of British, Dutch and Portuguese colonial rule (they left in 1957). Other languages are – as you would expect – Malaysian, Indian and Chinese. There are many Hindus here, only 55% of the population are Moslems – still, the Islam is on the advance, and discrimination against other religions is a reality.
Flying in KL (it is always abbreviated this way) will be a problem! There is almost no spaces where you could take off and fly, because security in town is strong (especially in parks); also, if there's tall buildings all around you, you don't see the wood for the trees! And then, almost every day in the early afternoon as well as in the evening there are heavy rainfalls (you're really worried you could drown in the street) plus some impressive lightning.
There are some hills outside the city, and we drove there (see the "funny" sign we found inside the taxis; pic. below) – but while the view is incredible at night, the vision is totally blurred during the day because of the high air humidity. Hmm, so unfortunately flying against the skyline will not work.
We addressed the security around the world-renowned Petronas Twin Towers. They had been completed in 1997 and were the tallest buildings in the world until 2003 (452 m); the weight is app. 270,000 tons per tower, and they are built on the world's largest foundations. Petronas is the state-owned oil company, BTW, and the towers were a prestige project. The ground plan is an octagonal star – for Islamic cultures this symbolizes order and harmony. The building cost were app. 950 million EUR.
After some discussion we managed to get the chief of security in all KL on the phone. He was nice and understood the WSF project, but pointed out that all activities related to the Twin Towers required clearance by the PR guys sitting in the tower. He said that any attempt to lift off would be immediately stopped by the security forces. About this we have no doubt, because they're really everywhere. Hmm, we'll have to see how to cope with this. It's really a hard nut to crack. We'll keep you posted!
Labels: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Petronas Towers, taxi ride
Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Magic of Wat Chai Watthanaram
The next afternoon we arrived with our Tuc-Tuc, cameras, transmitter case and heli in a special carrier bag; the latter one works great, by the way. We walked up to the booth to buy our entry tickets – and it's all big eyes! "Gaa-gaa-waa-aaa-agaahaa?!" – "It's the toy model helicopter, we talked about it yesterday, all is fine!" – "Waa-aagaa-na-aahaag!" You don't have to speak Thai to realize something is just about to go terribly wrong. Our Tuc-Tuc driver happened to at least understand basic English, and after lengthy discussions we found out that the heli was NOT the problem – but the transmitter! In such cases where communication is a pain it's very important to stay extra calm and to be exceptionally friendly; else the discussion will heat up, because the employees only want to do their job, and it's equally hard for them to cope with the situation.
Okay, nobody there had ever seen a somewhat advanced transmitter before, and it looked frightening to them. So we played the mime game to show them how the flying would work. After a while, the ice was broken, and we were allowed to take both the heli and transmitter onto this ancient site.
STOP! STOOOP!!! Stop? What's now again?
This time they were pointing at our tripod and camera equipment. It was not allowed! Heli, yes. Cameras, no. Hell, things had looked so simple this time, and now it was all problems and we had to go through that lengthy discussion again. We understood that next door was the king's summer residence or something, and they were very concerned about paparazzi. To resolve the problem, we were offered to buy a disposable Fujifilm camera (the kind you use once and then give away as a whole for developing the film) – it happened to be available at the booth for two dollars. Hmm, after a quick glance at our several thousand dollar camera and photo equipment, we decided the little single-use camera was not exactly what would help us. :-)
We finally did manage to get clearance and walked to the designated flying area we'd chosen the day before. Before attracting a crowd by flying, we decided to shoot another AFD panorama. The view is simply breathtaking! You will love flying there in your computer simulator! We'd like to describe things in more detail, but this is something you simply have to experience – words are not enough.
After fetching our bags and the heli (you need to hide them behind trees/objects so they're not visible in the AFD shots, but in a way nobody can steal them), it was time for take-off. The shadows of the trees behind had come pretty close to the temple by now; that's something you don't want, because if the heli is first lit and then flies into the dark section, this gives a bad contrast – a general problem of filming, no matter what equipment you use. That's why in film productions artificial lighting is so important! The only way for us to deal with the situation was to move a little closer to the structure and to use a special wide angle lens on the camera.
The flying itself started smoothly – I felt the machine was lacking power, but then, it was really hot, and as we know from Egypt, electric models have some problems with that, too. So we continued and tried to create a scene where the heli first dives down out of the sky, the camera picture following closely. When it comes through the towers, the picture suddenly opens and – woooaah! – the full size of the monument becomes apparent. This leaves you breathless! The heli continues down towards the camera, after a short pause the picture follows and zooms in just a little bit. Then a quarter flip to the left, and up it goes in a cone. The camera follows at first, but stops when the machine has reached the outer left position, and the picture then fully reopens. The viewer is left with a fantastic full shot of the scenery while the heli spirals out of the picture into the sky.
For all the R/C pilots among you it will be clear that flying such a sequence over a terrain with obstacles is not the simplest thing. If, in addition, you have to get a good film shot, then one battery pack is damn short!
Having said this, the Hacker (Flight Power) 12s 4900 mAh pack we were using seemed to be flat after just five minutes of moderate 3D; when really pushing it, 4 - 5 min. is okay, but in this case, 7 - 8 min. should have been no problem. All of a sudden, the heli lost head speed, so quite obviously there was a problem. I switched to throttle hold and brought it down in an autorotation. We took off the canopy to have a look, and – uuhh! – everything was incredibly hot, especially the battery pack. I pulled it out and immediately saw that the six cells in the back were ballooned! Okay, put it in a safe place so it won't damage anything if it goes off! We imagined what would have happened if it had caught fire in flight, and if we had crashed into this world cultural heritage site or the king's summer palace next door …
Having said this, the Hacker (Flight Power) 12s 4900 mAh pack we were using seemed to be flat after just five minutes of moderate 3D; when really pushing it, 4 - 5 min. is okay, but in this case, 7 - 8 min. should have been no problem. All of a sudden, the heli lost head speed, so quite obviously there was a problem. I switched to throttle hold and brought it down in an autorotation. We took off the canopy to have a look, and – uuhh! – everything was incredibly hot, especially the battery pack. I pulled it out and immediately saw that the six cells in the back were ballooned! Okay, put it in a safe place so it won't damage anything if it goes off! We imagined what would have happened if it had caught fire in flight, and if we had crashed into this world cultural heritage site or the king's summer palace next door …
Anyway, we kept the simile and put in the second pack to take some cool photos. No problems this time, so right after the landing we packed together and left for the hotel. The whole action had taken about two hours; it's insane how much different things there are to do besides the flying as such.
Back in the hotel we informed our home base around Nicolas Kaiser, Lukas Grunauer and Samual Hänger about the battery problem. Next we talked to our friend Ken Yap in Singapore (the next but one stop) if he was willing to accept an international express shipment for us; no problem, and we forwarded the address to Nicolas Kaiser. You sometimes get the impression this man acts faster than his own shadow – less than 30 minutes later he informed us by SMS that the spare pack was already on its way to Ken Yap in Singapore. Thanks a lot – and well done!
Okay, that's it for Thailand.
+++ mission completed. end of transmission. +++
Labels: Ayutthaya, battery pack problem, Thailand, Wat Chai Watthanaram
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Coming to Ayutthaya/THAILAND
We had a cool flight with Thai Air – during the take-off in Nepal, some beverage cans came rolling along the aisle, plus the front video screen came down on all of us sitting in the first row. We prayed that the rest of the airplane was in better condition and that we'd make it to Bangkok safely. :-)
The new Bangkok airport is built exactly how you imagine a futuristic architectural building style – almost artificial. The immigration was not much of a problem, and after leaving the arrival hall and getting rid of all the guys offering taxi rides at unrealistic prices, we found a good one to take us to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya? What's this?!
Ayutthaya has a lot more tradition than Bangkok since it was the capital for over 400 years. So if you are looking for great historical sites, this is the place to go.
The countryside in this area reminds you of Florida/USA in some ways. The climate was hot and humid, and there is lots of swampland. Many of the houses are built on stilts, and there is lots of water and many canals. Unlike Florida, the water level varies from year to year.
The people themselves are friendly, the language is funny and very different from what we'd heard before. It's hard to articulate for speakers of Western languages, there is not much melody in it, and it all sounds like "waa-gaa-goo-chiiaa-gaa-gaack"; one cannot help but it reminds of hens picking corn out of the dirt in the backyard. So it is no wonder that for Thai speakers it is equally hard to articulate the sounds needed for proper English. Just like in China, only very few people speak English at all, and to a) realize that they now communicate in English and b) understand what exactly they are saying, some fantasy is needed.
Incidentally, Saskia was addressed by an elderly woman; quite obviously she really wanted to tell her something. It took several minutes, and it was all pointing and gesturing until the lady had successfully communicated her concern: She was an English teacher in Thailand! :-)
We rented one of the famous Tuc-Tucs (see picture), basically a trike with open trunk and modified for transportation of people; in Europe they'd sue you for driving around with this and lock you away forever. :-) We'd marked the most famous temples in a map and shown it to the driver. The aim was to screen all the locations for WSF appeal and the possibility of R/C flying. The driver was a nice lady, and after a while she somehow accepted that we were probably the strangest tourists she'd ever seen. "Yah, yah, please go to the next temple!" – "Waah-gaa-gaa-wachkaaah!" – "Yes, whatever it is, please go there, thank you!" Then jump out of the car, walk around for five to ten minutes only, hop on again, and off it goes to the next one.
Because of this swampland character, there are lots of mosquitoes in some places – not nice, you never know if and which diseases they communicate. The last site we visited was quite an impressive structure – a white pyramid-like building, but surrounded by lots of trees. We thought it would be nice to climb up the stairs to the top so we had a good view over the city. – BAD idea, since there were some wild dogs, and they made very clear it was their territory, and that it had already been closed for today.
The site we liked best was the so-called "Wat Chai Watthanaram". Some other people also thought it was nice, and that's why it has been declared world cultural heritage by the UNESCO. So no flying here!?
We found the chief security officer, and by chance there also was a German-language guide that day. We explained the WSF project, and after some discussion they all agreed this was the greatest project they'd ever heard of, and that the flights would be ok the next day. Very nice, things usually don't fall into place that easily.
Unfortunately, appearances are deceptive …
Labels: Ayutthaya, Thailand, UNESCO world heritage
Thursday, October 18, 2007
NEPAL – Gateway to the Himalaya
We got up at 04:30, just in time for another power outage, and left for one of the local mountains just after 05:15 AM. The goal was to fly right after sunrise and not to be seen by any locals or the many airplanes carrying tourists for scenic flights through the Himalaya; there's Maoists everywhere, we'd been told, and this might land us in serious difficulties.
NOW WHAT'S THIS?!! Believe it or not, at 05 AM ALL Nepal were on their feet! The streets were crowded just like during daytime. How's this possible? We were told this was kind of a morning sport.
Whatever the reason, it meant problems for us. We continued through army checkpoints and finally made it to some high-up viewpoint. It was still dark, and we could easily smuggle the heli (I had completed it during the short night under candlelight conditions) covered with a blanket to the only suitable place for take-off.
About one hour later around 07 AM, the sun came up behind the mountains, and far down to our feet lay a mountain valley, partly covered with clouds. What a look! The bad thing was, a number of other tourists also showed up, and the Himalaya was still hidden in the clouds. We had chosen Pokhara for two reasons: First, you could go there by car (most of the cities in Nepal are not connected by streets), and second, you have a great view of the glowing Himalaya, first and foremost of the famous Machhapuchre mountain. Very distinct shape, and similar to the beautiful Matterhorn in Switzerland (from the South it's even hard to tell the difference).
The bad news was: The clouds were thick, and we had a clear view only for half a minute every now and then. The problem was that after lift-off the time was ticking, and we would have to leave the spot within minutes for reasons of safety. So we finally decided to not lose more time and reveal what's under our blanket. After all, we still had another 6 hours of going back to Kathmandu before us.
The flight was smooth without problems, and the people were much more civilized (or reserved, if you will) than in India. We had brought sweets for the kids, but that wasn't even necessary. We think we have a few worthwhile shots which will look good in the final WSF film. We shot no AFD panorama this time since the location would have made an unusual place to fly, but the magic of the glowing Himalaya was blurred by overcast skies.
Nepal was quite an experience and there's certainly something to it, but we never really felt safe. When returning to Kathmandu it started to rain, and the next day it was just pouring. After all, we think we got the maximum out of Nepal and we were glad to finally board the plane to Bangkok/Thailand. That's where we are right now – and the adventure continues …
Labels: Himalaya, Machhapuchre, Maoists, Nepal, Pokhara
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
NEPAL – times of upheaval
The political situation in Nepal is complex, and there have been many changes since 2001. The king has only got representative functions since last year, and the seven major parties have formed an alliance to establish democracy in the country. The only exception is the communist party of the Maoists (rebels) who fight for abolition of both the caste system (actually there is several in Nepal) and the monarchy. In late 2006 the 12-year long civil war has officially been ended, but discrimination and exploitation of minorities, the lower castes, women and children still create a war-like situation at least in some parts of the country. The German foreign ministry as well as many local voices warned us not to leave the capital Kathmandu.
Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries, and except from the tourist quarter Thamel in Kathmandu, this is visible all over the place. The staff at our hotel advised us that attempting to fly a toy model helicopter :-) in Kathmandu was not a good idea; we might get shot easily, or at best have to stay in the country for weeks or months until all formalities had been cleared. Having said this, except for the royal palace and the monkey temple there was nothing suitable for the WSF project anyway. What's more, Nepal is famous for something else, and that's what we came for: The Himalaya!
Several people told us the world-famous mountain range was visible from the capital – well, this is not true at all, and so we were suddenly pressed for time to find a good viewpoint. Very unfortunately, this turned out to be a big, big problem.
We'd initially thought of Mt. Everest which is the highest mountain of the planet (depending on how this is defined), but you'd have to travel up to 2.5 weeks into the Himalaya until you can see it, plus it involves going to places that are controlled by the Maoists. Travelling into a war zone is nothing that would have stopped us, but the time span was totally unrealistic; and second, Mt. Everest looks like any plain mountain – nothing special about it at all. If you look at a panorama, you will not be able to tell which one it is; so this is a WSF knockout criterion.
Instead, we decided to drive to the city of Pokhara, the second largest of the country. It's only 150 - 200 km away, but it takes 6 hours to go there. The ride was bumpy and bad, sometimes the road had been washed away by a landslide, sometimes we had to cross small rivers with our taxi. It was almost an off-road trip, and our transport cases and parts of our equipment got damaged. Our guide spoke almost no English which made things even more complex, and it didn't help either that the engine of the car quit every now and then (we think it was running too lean :-) ). The driving itself was even worse than in India! We'll most likely comment on this in ROTOR 12/2007. The picture below shows a part of the road that had been cleared after a landslide.
We arrived in Pokhara late at night, and while still checking in at the guest house, there was the first power outage. Quite funny, the city was totally dark, like if it didn't exist, and the staff in the lobby were using their mobile phones as torches. Nobody lost a single word about the situation, and this tells you it is nothing uncommon. The picture below shows our lunch + dinner that day.
Labels: Himalaya, landslide, Machhapuchre, Nepal, Pokhara, safety problem
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Hell of Agra
Namaste!
When thinking about monuments representing India, the first thought will always be the Taj Mahal in Agra. Since for the past years there has been a constant wave of terrorist attacks shocking the country, the government is (probably justifiably) worried about this national monument. What's more, India faces serious problems with Hindus and Moslems fighting each other – about three months ago there was such an incident in Agra, and the remains of the battlefield are still visible today. It's an issue which will most likely never be resolved; that's one of the real problems when it comes to different religious backgrounds, combined with poverty and little education.
Even before we left for India, we knew it was practically impossible to fly at the Taj Mahal. Still, we drove the 230 km from Jaipur to Agra to have a look at it ourselves; driving in India is something you could write a book about – we'll reveal stunning details in ROTOR 12/2007. Just this much for now: It took one full day to get to Agra; we may add another little video some later time.
Some people think that planning limits spontaneity; that's not true – on the contrary, it shows you the alternatives! However, in situations where the relevant factors are not or insufficiently known, detailed plans are of little value. What you should have then are two things: An aim, and one or more strategies.
Well, once in the country we talked to many people about flying at the Taj Mahal site – and learned, it won't be possible, like one had expected. Having said this, since the media interest in the WSF project was high from the beginning, we came up with one of the most insane ideas ever: To become national celebrities in India within two days and then show up at the government offices responsible for the security in Agra (no, this is not a joke)! :-)
It would lead too far to explain in detail how it worked, but what counts is the result, and this was more than impressive: We were featured in several newspapers nationwide (including Nepal), plus invited to TV studios in Delhi to give an interview for the best-known Indian TV evening news. :-)
The good thing about the Taj Mahal is, it's fully symmetrical; this means you don't have to fly in the "front yard", but you can approach it from the back. Now there are three major problems: First, it's hard to get there since you have to cross the Yamuna river – and traffic around the only bridge is a nightmare; it takes almost one hour to drive over it, and combined with the incredibly heavy smog you sometimes think you won't make it. Second, the thick smog blurs the vision of the monument (no kidding!). And third, there is an 0.5 km no-flying zone around the building; we went there twice, first to take a look, and later for some stationary shots with the heli. No way! The military liked the heli but made clear they will shoot us even if we showed up without transmitter. Okay, clear stand. So it was time for the joker.
With a couple of current newspapers under the arm, plus a confirmation we work for ROTOR magazine, plus a certificate of an international insurance (with insanely high coverage, we could have blown up almost half the building), plus a writing from the German foreign ministry that we have a clean record, plus many documents explaining the WSF, we showed up at the Indian Government Tourism Office. Due to the unbelievable traffic, we had no choice but to walk; funny thing, we guess no-one's ever appeared with an R/C helicopter in the streets of Agra before (did we mention it was really HOT and there is plenty of dust and smog everywhere?!). The officials were friendly and got the point fast – but couldn't help because this no-flying zone thing was issued by the Indian Supreme Court. I suggested we call them and claim it's a matter of national importance; well, you may frown now, but it's all a matter of definition. The WSF do represent the country – and it's the only way to get such VIP persons on the phone. If you succeed, then you usually can say a maximum of three sentences until they realize what's going on; so better choose your words wisely!
Anyway, we couldn't get the phone number fast enough, so we continued to the Department Tourist Office; they're responsible for all the monuments in Agra. A lengthy story … but they couldn't help us either, even though everybody liked the WSF project a lot and tried hard. Next stop was the Tourist State Office – closed on Fridays … (the Sat./Sun. weekend is only common in Western countries, but not in Asia!). Okay, what's left? The Archaeological Office; this had helped us in Egypt, but they have not much to say in India. This was clear to you? So it was to us, but don't forget one thing: Federal offices are often interconnected; we managed to persuade the guys there to call the Ministry of Defense – unfortunately, no-one answered the phone, so we finally called the security forces at the Taj Mahal. They simply said we should show up with the heli, so we jumped back into the car and headed for that famous monument.
Did we mention the Taj Mahal is closed Fridays? This means you cannot go there by car! New plan? Rickshaw! It is worth mentioning that part of our trip was followed by the press. The really striking thing was: We left the guy of "India Today" behind at the Archaeological Office; less than 10 seconds after sitting in the rickshaw he materialized in front of us and took pictures (we had the heli with us). We have NO IDEA how the guy did this!?! He can't have been faster than us, also he didn't know where we were going!
The talk was nice, the weapons impressive, and the result: No flying within 0.5 km radius, but a little further would be tolerated. Okay, better than nothing, and since the light started to fade already, we now had to find a suitable location fast … that's a story of its own, and we'll reveal a few more cool details in ROTOR 12/2007.
With a couple of current newspapers under the arm, plus a confirmation we work for ROTOR magazine, plus a certificate of an international insurance (with insanely high coverage, we could have blown up almost half the building), plus a writing from the German foreign ministry that we have a clean record, plus many documents explaining the WSF, we showed up at the Indian Government Tourism Office. Due to the unbelievable traffic, we had no choice but to walk; funny thing, we guess no-one's ever appeared with an R/C helicopter in the streets of Agra before (did we mention it was really HOT and there is plenty of dust and smog everywhere?!). The officials were friendly and got the point fast – but couldn't help because this no-flying zone thing was issued by the Indian Supreme Court. I suggested we call them and claim it's a matter of national importance; well, you may frown now, but it's all a matter of definition. The WSF do represent the country – and it's the only way to get such VIP persons on the phone. If you succeed, then you usually can say a maximum of three sentences until they realize what's going on; so better choose your words wisely!
Anyway, we couldn't get the phone number fast enough, so we continued to the Department Tourist Office; they're responsible for all the monuments in Agra. A lengthy story … but they couldn't help us either, even though everybody liked the WSF project a lot and tried hard. Next stop was the Tourist State Office – closed on Fridays … (the Sat./Sun. weekend is only common in Western countries, but not in Asia!). Okay, what's left? The Archaeological Office; this had helped us in Egypt, but they have not much to say in India. This was clear to you? So it was to us, but don't forget one thing: Federal offices are often interconnected; we managed to persuade the guys there to call the Ministry of Defense – unfortunately, no-one answered the phone, so we finally called the security forces at the Taj Mahal. They simply said we should show up with the heli, so we jumped back into the car and headed for that famous monument.
Did we mention the Taj Mahal is closed Fridays? This means you cannot go there by car! New plan? Rickshaw! It is worth mentioning that part of our trip was followed by the press. The really striking thing was: We left the guy of "India Today" behind at the Archaeological Office; less than 10 seconds after sitting in the rickshaw he materialized in front of us and took pictures (we had the heli with us). We have NO IDEA how the guy did this!?! He can't have been faster than us, also he didn't know where we were going!
The talk was nice, the weapons impressive, and the result: No flying within 0.5 km radius, but a little further would be tolerated. Okay, better than nothing, and since the light started to fade already, we now had to find a suitable location fast … that's a story of its own, and we'll reveal a few more cool details in ROTOR 12/2007.
It took us several hours to go back to Delhi; on the road we stopped and packed the equipment for air transportation since our flight to Nepal was leaving in the early morning hours (check-in at 05 AM). At 02 AM we collected the Three Dee spare parts, at 03 AM we were at the airport, and at app. 03:20 was the attempted kidnapping (see last but one entry).
Still anyone thinking we're on holiday?
Still anyone thinking we're on holiday?
Labels: Agra, newspaper, strategies, Taj Mahal
Monday, October 15, 2007
VIDEO flight preparations in Jaipur/INDIA
The Indian people are extremely friendly and helpful – a wonderful country which we can only recommend. The interest in the WSF project was high, and there was not just press, but also many people showing up at the flying sites. This didn't really make things easier …
Here's the little YouTube video we promised to give you an impression:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec1M4YLIwt0
Labels: flight preparations, Jaipur, video
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