World Scenic Flights by HeliGraphix

The night train to Moscow takes 8 hours; it is safe to use it these days, and apart from a drunken guy in our compartment who dropped his beer can and spilled the contents all over the radiator the journey was quite comfortable. "Nice" beer smell though.

Our friend Ruud Westerhout was born in the Netherlands but has spent the better part of his life in Russia. He knows how the system works and how to make use of it – in other words, he's an organizational marvel. He collected us at one of the many Moscow train stations (they have one for every direction), and off we went into the semi-chaotic Moscow traffic. Ruud thought driving here was something you needed to get used to; well, after driving in India, Nepal and Arabic states we think that Moscow is quite moderate for its size.
The greater city counts about 10 million inhabitants by the way; this effectively makes it the biggest European metropolis, and it is the home of the largest number of billionaires. It is commonly known as the world's most expensive city, too.



First stop this morning was at the Hobbyline R/C store (http://www.hobbyline.ru/), a well-stocked helicopter specialist shop run by Igor "Garry" Orlov and his father. Igor is one of the best Russian 3D pilots and – more than that – a bright kid! He holds a PhD degree in law, is a talented musician playing in a Rock-N-Roll band and has many more interests. The striking thing about him is his healthy and unbiased attitude towards model helicopters. He talks frankly about how "famous" 3D Masters goes down the drain by being commercialized, how things there are not always really fair, how narrow-minded many well-known R/C pilots are and think they're cool while they certainly aren't, and how he enjoys the hobby without any pressures. A sharp mind and a good perception like his are rare, so it was definitely interesting and fun talking to him. And no surprise either we took two or three hours before we left the shop for the world-famous Red Square.



Incredible St. Basil cathedral, the Red Square and the Moscow Kremlin certainly belong to the best-known landmarks of the world. Since the latter is the home of the Russian government it goes without saying that any attempts to fly here will get you into serious trouble – and worse than that. So what you need is an official permission! All the people we had talked to said it was simply impossible and advised us to just forget about it. Well, what you guys forgot is that we are HeliGraphix! ;-))
The serious problem for us, however, was that we did not have a helicopter to fly with. Just before we'd left for Moscow Jan Henseleit called and reported that FedEx had contacted him. They could deliver a parcel to almost any place in the world within 1 - 2 days – but not to Moscow. The shipment would be held up by customs for at least one full week! Phhhhwwwww … So that was 'game over' for scenic flights with an MP-XL in Moscow. :-(

We discussed possible alternatives with Igor but sadly had to realize it won't be the same to fly another heli (even with our spare canopy) in front of that monument. Better come back another time and try to get a new permission. This automatically means that for the final WSF movie we'll be using the (absolutely representative) St. Petersburg shots then.
The four of us (Igor, Ruud, Saskia and me) still went to Red Square and checked the location for the best WSF perspective. What's more, we had lots of fun filming a quick scene for the upcoming Sergeji Stanikow movie by HeliGraphix; Ruud plays a Russian government official rushing out of the Kremlin and phoning Sergeji in the German exile to help his country which is about to suffer from a serious vodka shortage … :-) The film is really cool as it is about Sergeji's 'Insane Turbine Cart' (turbine-driven vehicle); it will be released later this year. You certainly don't want to miss that one!



The first day was over way too fast, and the next day we went flying with Ruud's T-Rex 450 in central Moscow. Are there any flying fields? Not really, but we simply chose sort of a traffic island; there was everything you could wish for: Many cars, a frequented railway line, overhead power lines, police patrols (who liked the heli) and bad weather.
Ruud crashed the heli within 10 seconds. :-) But despite some broken parts like cracked blades it flew really well. So the fun lasted all the five battery packs we had; very cool action! :-)



After an incredible time and lots of fun with Ruud and Igor we had to say bye and went back to St. Petersburg. There we met again Alex and heli-Alexey for a relaxing coffee – nice guys! Back at the hotel we packed up our stuff and are now heading for the airport. Another very cool adventure is over – probably the last one before the WSF movie is finally released. Now when's that again?!
As of now there will be another short WSF article in ROTOR 05/2008, and the video will be out pretty much at the same time – so that'd be end of April 2008. Make sure to follow this blog because it's here that the very day will be published first!