World Scenic Flights by HeliGraphix

Scenic Flights anywhere in the greater London area certainly aren't a good idea after those terrorist strikes in recent history – especially since there are so many other suitable landmarks. We again asked all the people we could get hold of what sights they associated with Great Britain. The answers were varied, but one of the things we heard the most often was "Stonehenge".
Stonehenge definitely is English Heritage. It's basically concentric stone circles used for religious ceremonies, dated back to the Bronze Age (about 2,000 BC) and even further. The stones are really huge so many people today have their very own theories about Stonehenge and who could have built it – even aliens from outer space (no, not the French!).

Stonehenge is situated in the county of Wiltshere near the city of Salisbury. You cannot miss it when driving on the A303 or A344 – or maybe you can since the stones don't glow and are primarily not much more than some rocks in a meadow. We scanned the vicinity a little and found three large military camps plus at least one airfield. Certainly not the best of conditions for operating a remote-controlled model aircraft!

Today the stone circles themselves are fenced in; inside the area are marked footpaths which mustn't be left by any visitor. Right, this means you cannot go directly to the stones and touch them! There is security on the site to make sure everybody keeps to the rules; they are there around the clock to prevent madmen from sleeping on the stones or doing other nonsense. Too bad because this also keeps out the "good insane guys" like us! ;-)
At the Stonehenge ticket office we explained what we had come for and were a little surprised they could not really help us. We'd have to call the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) plus the director of the site to obtain an official permission. Since the director was on holiday there was no realistic chance to get an authorization within our limited time frame. On this occasion we also learned that there is a 200 m no-fly zone around the stone circles. Hmm …

Knowing that we are the good guys we showed up the next morning just after sunrise. The site is still closed at that time, only the security guys wearing bright yellow jackets are on patrol. We positioned on the hill across the street in a distance of about 500 m. Quite large but the only reasonable way to pull off the stunt without causing trouble.
What actually matters for WSF pictures is the size of the heli in relation to the monument; the further you are away from it the further also the distance between heli and pilot needs to be. This in turn has two major consequences:
1) The camera angle is very acute which means the corridor in which the heli can move is ultra small.
2) It's easy to end up with blurred images or a shaky video.

The sloping terrain was a problem for the helicopter. Taking off fast was okay, but landing was definitely impossible. So we had to allow for two extra minutes for running (!) up the hill and landing on a more even surface. Sounds funny, but it isn't! Running like hell with the heli in front of you, flying low over the ground to not make it an obvious target in the sky is quite exhausting. The small 2.4 GHz aerial is a big help here; we're not sure if you could have done the same thing with one of the long 35/72 MHz antennas.
Taking the above explanations into account there was not much we could actually do to have both Stonehenge and the heli in the picture. We tried to drift sideways inverted in direction of the stones; unfortunately this meant flying in greater distance and thus close to or even over the busy street. This puts even more load on you – bad feeling! Add to this the cold and strong wind, and there you have it, another real adventure!

WAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! All of a sudden it happened! It hit us like a bolt from the blue. There was nothing I could do – I worked the controls like wild, but no effect! The machine did not respond to any transmitter commands. It just sat there, in 150 m distance, inverted and not too far from Stonehenge. But wait! Why does it not crash?! We cannot believe it but there seems to be a faint glow around the silhouette of the helicopter. And then it happens! Off it goes with full negative pitch, 90 degrees up into the sky, then another sharp turn to the right. Next is two loops, followed by a vertical descent and another horizontal section. NOW WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! It looks like if it is trying to communicate with us by painting letters into the sky: "F – O – O – L"! Heh?! What does that mean, some kind of abbreviation?!

Heh heh heh, just kidding folks, sorry. :-) But it was too cool, we just couldn't resist! ;-)
There is nothing mystique at all about Stonehenge, at least nothing stronger than robbe/Futaba's 2.4 GHz FASST system. ;-) Sorry again! The heli behaved well and the footage we shot was quite good given the circumstances.

Salisbury is a nice place which could also be classified as – well – "typically English". They have a famous cathedral there, and it is really --- WOW, big! We had inspected the site the day before and found that despite renovation works on two sides of the building there was one angle from which it looked good and where it was possible to fly. The light situation was bad, though – overcast skies usually mean that any larger structure will just appear as a black silhouette against the bright white sky. Sure, you can do something about that, but then smaller contours like the helicopter will fade away. It's pretty much the same kind of high-contrast problem we discussed at the Grand Canyon (you may want to reread that interesting post). Anyway, we chose a suitable contrast and ended up with some useable footage.

The nice watchman in the picture below first explained to us that it was not possible to fly near the cathedral. Then we explained to him what a great project the WSF actually are – and were allowed to carry on under his supervision. Isn't that fantastic?! :-)

Right now we are undecided whether to use the Stonehenge or the Salisbury flight in the final WSF movie. If you have an opinion, why not let us know?!

So after a little odyssey we are about to leave the British island again. Maybe it's not the most brilliant footage we've ever shot, but it's definitely cool and we will cherish the memories of this adventure. There is not much left to say except: Great Britain has become a successful part of the World Scenic Flights project; it was a great trip!