Thursday, November 15, 2007
Hawai'i – Outpost of Civilization?
Hawai'i is a piece of intact world. Hundreds of good-looking people lie on beautiful white beaches as far as the eye can reach, the water is clear and blue, the girls wear colourful bast skirts and sing and dance all day long. Coconuts are for free, the sun shines all the day, cool music plays and the only word you have to know is "Aloha" after they hang one of the many nice flower garlands around your neck. This is Hawai'i – or is it not?!
Nope, it isn't; not at all! Hawaii is situated right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is actually a group of islands; the larger ones are scattered over almost 1,000 km, and when also counting the most remote ones then it is over 3,000 km in total! Culturally they belong to Polynesia and to some degree unite Eastern and Western culture. Hawaii joined the United States of America in 1959 as 50th state and today has a respectable population of about 1.3 million people. Doesn't sound too much? Wrong, because the islands are quite different from the pictures that travel agencies spread all over the world. 75% of the population live on the main island Oahu (O'ahu), 400,000 alone in the state capital Honolulu; the rest is spread over smaller cities mainly along the south coast. Taking all of this into account, it is quite densely populated.
About 40% of the residents came from Asia (mainly Japanese, but also from the Philippines and China), further major ethnic groups are people of European (25 %) and Polynesian (< 10%) origin. Main languages are English (sometimes the very local version of it) and the original Hawaiian language.
Okay, so where are the beaches? Well, the most famous one certainly is Waikiki beach, a surfer's paradise where the waves can grow to a size of several meters. Hmm, does this mean it is very windy there?! Yep, you got that point … ;-)
We've only seen Oahu and think it shouldn't be famous for beaches. Instead, the unusual looks of the high mountains and the steep shoreline are most impressive; after all, Hawaii is almost entirely of volcanic origin! They simply grew from the bottom of the sea some million years ago. On the Big Island, called Hawaii (just like the state itself), there are still active volcanoes. They'd have made a perfect backdrop for WSF, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go there (about 400 km by sea). Thought Mt. Everest was the biggest mountain of the world? Well, its summit certainly is the highest point above sea level, but when measuring from the foot of the mountain to its top, then Mauna Kea is the world's tallest mountain with almost 9,500 m!
When returning from Ayers Rock to Sydney it was quite late at night, and since our 9.5-hour flight to Honolulu left early the next morning it made not much sense to spend money on another hotel night but to sleep at the airport instead. They close it at night but you could stay in the train station next door. Below's a shot taken at 3 AM showing what sleeping in an airport looks like.
We dozed most of the flight since we were eternally tired – but no worries, we crossed the international date line and that means we won a day (or one night to be more exact). Usually you lose time when travelling eastwards; not so when crossing the date line! In Australia we were 10 hours ahead of CET, in Hawaii we were suddenly 12 hours behind. It's sort of a déjà vu feeling when the date changes from 11th to 12th the second time. Winning a day like in the famous novel by Jules Verne (which was based on a more or less true background, BTW) was one of the main reasons why we chose travelling around the planet in eastern direction.
Hawaii is an expensive place! We found out the very first minutes when taking a taxi to our hotel. The driver was the unconventional type of person – we could not really understand what he said since the bass of his subwoofer was so strong that we got worried it might actually disintegrate the heli in its transport box in the trunk. Anyway, we reached the hotel and got a nice flat in the 23rd floor; we could even see part of the shoreline, so that was pretty cool.
Again, where are the beaches? Since Oahu is a modern island and the life style fairly typically American it was clear we needed a rental car. So we got one and started driving around to find a suitable WSF location. Not an easy task! Like said before, there is no such thing as the typical island paradise beach with a nice lagoon; the island is mostly covered with mountains. Theoretically you could drive around it, but there is a point where you need 4 wheel drive to continue!
How about Pear Harbor?! It is the most important US military base in the Pacific and gained fame in a tragic way when the Japanese killed over 2,000 people and sunk eight war ships during their plane attacks in 1941. It might have looked cool to do a long tail slide over some navy vessels and pull up just a couple of inches off the deck, but then …
After some time we figured that typical of at least this part of the Hawaiian Islands are mountains of volcanic origin (like the famous Diamond Head), plus beaches with waves and some palm trees. This would be a healthy mixture of the real Hawaii and the pictures in travel catalogues. So we just continued driving …
On day 2 we finally found a really good location. The wind was insane, look for the palm trees bending in the final video! One more time that one definitely misses the smoke trail of I/C helis – that'd have been a very cool look! After the flights we continued to Sandy Beach to take some static shots (no more battery packs!). As for that wave: No, I didn't see it coming!!
We went back to the hotel later that night (the sun goes down at 6 PM already), perfectly in time to collect the two FP 4900 mAh battery packs from Rainer Hacker. Nicolas and BBT had also fedexed a new RM cap (yes!) plus a spare main drive wheel and a vertical fin (remember, in Korea some guy stepped on it).
Back in the room we realized the video shots were bad – too shaky. Not good because it meant we'd have to return the next day after noon; earlier didn't make sense since the sun would be in the wrong place. What's more, I had worked on the computer until 6:30 AM and thus was really tired.
Anyway, we decided to drive to the same spot the next day. It was even more windy and the clouds moved fast thus leaving only short time slots for the flights. The scenery is great when lit but looks like nothing when the light is gone.
Despite the time pressure we did an AFD panorama as well. The fixed wing guys will hate this one! However, there was no better alternative and this way you can fly at exactly the same spot that we chose. Personally I love the challenge of landing an airplane here; you'll have to come in close to yourself in order to avoid the 10 m high bush work in just a few meters distance (I guess that's where most people will end up) – but still high enough to fly over a bench and a table nearby! Quite a challenge, but there is some stones in the water which will help you on approach. Like said before, you'll hate it at first but love it later on! :-)
For heli pilots it is no problem anyway; I'm just sad that the strong wind and thus some of the flair will be missing. Maybe Ikarus should ship a ducted fan together with the simulator, and it activates automatically once you choose this very scenery. ;-)
It took us about one hour to disassemble the heli and pack it into the box for the flight to California. We then rushed back to drop the rental car, collected the rest of our baggage, repacked parts of it and then went to the airport. Hmm, we really liked Hawaii – a shame it was over before we got the chance to see more of it. I'm actually typing these lines while on the plane to California – we'll come up with more cool news from there, so check back soon!
Labels: AFD, airport sleep, beach, date line, Hawaii, island, Oahu, Polynesia, volcano, Waikiki
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Back in the Air over India!
After over 55 hours with very little sleep and without food (no time!), we got serious headache attacks and thus swallow pills all the time. Even the last people will have understood by now that this is no holiday but three months of working non-stop.
Last night we found that the tail drive train of the Three Dee MP was a lot more damaged than it had seemed to be at first view, and that repair would take quite some time. So we had no choice but skip all other tasks and start repairing with our poor emergency tools. One part to be replaced was the front bevel gear – a rare sight, but luckily we did have one at hand.
In the early morning hours we sent a pre-warning to our home base in Basel/Switzerland; Nicolas Kaiser was quick to respond, and after it was clear that no further parts except tail blades were needed (in case the same problem would occur again in the future), he and Jan Henseleit prepared our first FedEx Next-Day-Air shipment (see ROTOR 11/2007 for all the details!). In the meanwhile we called an Indian friend to find a suitable address in Delhi/India to which the parts could be sent. After a while he got back to us, but the phone line was bad and the address sounded complex (at least for European ears), so he suggested to send it by email. Good idea – and WHUMP! – power outage in our part of Jaipur. That's normal, we were told, and it would take at least 3 - 4 hours until electricity was back …
A couple of minutes later we were rushing through busy traffic; our driver nearly killed a couple of people and animals. Half an hour later we stopped in another part of town where electricity was still available and went straight into an internet cafe. We chose exactly this one because they had the fastest connection in town. Hmm, blurred screen with 640 x 480 pixels resolution and "lightning fast" network – we think the statement is true in its literal sense if lightning had struck the server and it was now running in a failsafe mode … It took 20 eternal minutes to open a simple text message, and to forward it to Nicolas Kaiser and Jan Henseleit. Really, you have to take a few more of the headache pills to survive this one …
Later on we continued to a small backyard for testing the repaired helicopter. It worked, so we notified Nicolas that no further parts were needed and jumped into the car to drive back to the "Lake Palace". The sun was still high, so it was the best time for a panoramic shot at the designated flying site. Of course, people around recognized us as the heli pilots, and it took less than a minute until we were surrounded by the first 15 guys. Now how on earth could you do a 360° panoramic shot with so many people here?!
Ah, the cat's out of the bag now – we do panoramic shots for Aerofly Deluxe by Ikarus! AFD may be the most advanced flight simulator, at least the graphics is phantastic and in HD resolution so you will be able to use it with large screen display devices and video beamers without compromising quality. The really, really cool news is: YOU will be able to follow our trip and fly where we have flown – maybe with better weather conditions and more than one try :-) but the same obstacles around. OK, you also won't have to duck away under the camera and to worry about dozens of people squeezing you, or about police forces arresting or shooting at you. Still, the "HeliGraphix Worldwide Add-On Package" will take computer simulators to the next level – forget about the odd flying field, it's now having fun at the most beautiful and well-known spots all over the planet! We have no idea about pricing and availability but expect the upgrade package to be available in early 2008. This is a MUST HAVE, and we don't just say this because it was our idea!
Anyway, we convinced the people to move with us around the tripod and keep their shadows out of the pictures – looks funny if a crowd of grown-up people moves around a camera in a circle again and again. :-)
We hadn't really finished the AFD shots (you also have to measure distances to all obstacles and paint them into a sketch) when the first press guys and loads of more people showed up – it was so many you couldn't even count them. "Helicopter, helicopter, helicopter!" Had we refused to fly, I think they would have killed us. So we explained a few basics, patiently answered questions of the press and have an hour later did the first flight.
It is quite hard to please photographers, filmers and the crowd at the same time. But right after take-off – even though we urgently warned them not to approach the landing and pilot's area – there was a big round of applause ending in people jumping over the fence, coming to us, cheering and talking and asking questions. I had to kick one of the press guys off the stairs since he blocked my vision – I could not see the heli anymore! The next post will feature a little video to give you an impression what flying in public is all about.
Okay, is it always this bad? No, not always – but in those cases where it isn't, there is usually a strong presence of police or army. So the choice is yours what you prefer!
Then two more things:
1) Marc Endres from Germany sent us an email and volunteered to translate the blog into good German. Now what a cool offer! That's simply great, and you will find it here: www.helimaniax.de
We'll add a permanent link in the menu later when we have better internet access; also, Marc wants to build a menu structure soon so navigation is as comfortable as here.
2) We receive a lot of emails; since many of the question are of general interest, it would be better to leave them as a comment so we can answer them in the blog. Please always add your comments to the most current blog, not to older ones; it doen't matter if the topic fits or not – it's just that this way we won't miss it.
For those of you reading the German blog, please also leave your comments here in the original version, no matter which language!
We'll be back with more news shortly.
Labels: AFD, Jaipur, Lake Palace, press, repair
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