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
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