Also check out: www.WorldScenicFlights.com
Attention! Latest infos
are in our fb or G+ channels – updated every ~2 days!
+++ Is it possible – or will it blend?! +++
R/C
helicopter parasailing had been on the wish list for a long time. After 3 years
we finally gave it a try.
Parasailing with an
R/C helicopters. It sounds so simple. So is it possible?
"Sure, why not!" That's what most people
would say at first thought. But when confronted with enormous logistics,
weather and sun dependence, how do you start, where and how do you land, etc.
etc. the voices get more quiet. And what is it like to dangle from a
paragliding chute, can you move enough to see and control the heli? What about
emergency plans? Clear, you won't hurt anyone when flying over water. But
losing a good heli with some cool gear on board certainly isn't an option.
The R/C helicopter paragliding stunt had been on the
agenda (or should we say idea wishlist) for nearly 3 years. It was one of those
ideas where you feel it should be possible, but which are hard to turn into a
reality for a number of reasons, especially when looking into the details.
Internally we refer to this as a "class 2" stunt. This categorization
has nothing to do with quality or how cool something is - it's merely technical
and means that quite likely the stunt will work but that it requires
significant effort. And as everybody knows for
us, too, all of this is a hobby - meaning we have to find the time for it and
somehow handle the cost besides our everyday lives. As for helicopter
paragliding, it finally moved on to the pipeline and we were fortunate to be
able to make it real.
Initializing a helicopter on a smaller boat out on the
sea is not possible. So the idea was to use a similar approach like on the
Philippines where we did the world's first piloting of a heli out of a
full-size airplane. Back then we had done a flying start and landing with the
heli waiting on the runway for the pilot to fly by in the full-size airplane.
This had been an extremely difficult venture, not only because of the still
high minimum speed of the airplane, but also because of the distance in which
the heli had been "parked". It had been nothing but a speck on the
runway. The world looks so entirely
different from above! The situation during parasailing was similar but more
difficult in some aspects. The boat towing the parachute behind it (pilot on
the parachute) had to keep a minimum distance from the beach. And even though
it was off-season there were always a few people around. This means you need safety personnel to make sure
potential passers-by keep a safe distance to the starting heli. The landing
would be even more challenging. Luckily, there was a huge hotel construction
site on the beach we had chosen, and to it belonged a strip of beach that was
closed. It was a few hundred meters long and thus the perfect area for a safe
autorotation landing of a model helicopter. The one thing that struck us again
was how difficult it was to spot the waiting helicopter on the beach. The view
from under the parachute was extremely different and despite walkie talkies,
boat signals and some visual clues we had agreed on during parasailing test
drives it was a big challenge to spot and launch the heli. You'll see in the
video how lonely the beach was down there – only a helicopter standing in the
deserted sand. But from above where your view spans the entire coast with many
similar sections the question is on which part of the beach do you have to
start looking in the first place? Would
you have seen the heli on the beach? Click PLAY to find out for yourself!
Don't forget to LIKE and comment on YouTube, facebook and/or G+! See you there!
+++ R/C Helicopter Basketball Battle +++
Basketball
with players on the field was yesterday. Today! Today we play it with
helicopters … and fast!
We had always thought
that a 1-on-1 helicopter basketball battle might be tough. But we had no idea
how tough this was going to be. With hindsight we'd say it's nearly
impossible. And why is that so?
As so often there are a number of things that make
this stunt difficult. And here we're neither talking about technical issues
like loading the ball into the heli's carrier basket while hovering inverted,
nor about advanced 3D skills which are an absolute MUST for joining this
competition. Instead, the main problems are (a) the approach flight strategy
and (b) the depth perception; or rather a lack thereof.
Depth
perception: It's hard to judge for the pilots how far the heli is
away from the basket. It's not a matter of crashing into the board or
something, but the flip to release the ball needs to be very well-timed in
relation to the heli's forward speed. Otherwise you'll miss that basket time
and again. The more to the side you stand while piloting the easier it is to
get that all-important timing right. BUT! But when on the side of the field you
have little clue whether your heli flies straight towards the basket or not. So
chances are the ball will miss the basket on the one side or on the other.
Actually, this is what happens all the time. Because when standing e.g. on the
left side of the basketball field, then the basket is to your left and the heli
approaches from the right. You don't see both until the very last moment. And
that's a huge problem! Because this way you cannot aim.
We started our first attempts while piloting from
either side of the field but quickly realized that this wasn't the way to
success. So after a short while we changed to the end of the field opposite the
basket. And again realized it wouldn't work this way. In the end, both pilots
tried a variety of positions in between, always in combination with an even
greater variety of approach flight strategies.
Approach
strategy: Would you have gone for a higher speed approach? That is
flip back from inverted to normal flight and then stop the heli abruptly with
pitch? This way the ball will literally shoot towards the basket. That's nice
insofar as it makes aiming at the basket much easier. The only problem: if you
don't hit it right in the middle, the ball will simply shoot away and never go
through the hoop. So maybe the better option is to approach high (i.e. way
above the basket) and at the same time much slower. To almost hover above the
basket and then flip back to upright flight in order to drop the ball into the
hoop. Third option would be to approach low and slowly. Then to home in by
flying a large and slow arc to drop the ball. This allows you to control speed
and direction of the ball until the very end. Certainly not a bad choice
either!
The longer you think about it the more options there are
for approach flight and release of the ball. As you will have guessed they all
have advantages and disadvantages. There is no real right or wrong, and we
tested pretty much all the variations during about 100 ball drops. With
sometimes surprising results as you will see in the video.
The fact this stunt turned out to be so difficult
however made for some A-class entertainment and spectacular maneuvers. It's a
cool mix of some well-controlled 3D flying, a tough 1-on-1 battle between two determined
heli pros as well as of the king of fast ball games. Will there be a winner in
the end? Yes of course! Just hit that PLAY button – and don't forget to leave
the guys a 'thumbs up' … it's well-deserved, they worked hard for it!
Have you already subscribed to our YouTube channel? No?
Then it's high time to do it NOW –
new cool & fun stuff is waiting for you!
+++ R/C Heli vs. Alligator – what happens? +++
Can
you feed some alligators with a remote-controlled helicopter? YES / NO / DON’T
KNOW?
Some of you, the
true long-time fans, may still remember the Alligator Experiment. But did we
ever tell you the story how it came to be?
A long long time ago we had gotten a phone call with a
seemingly simple question. And it wasn't really a question but more of a
suggestion: if you had a bait dangling from an R/C heli, could you attract an
alligator? And if you could, was it possible to touch it with the skids? -
"Errr, pardon … what?!" Well, already at this point opinions parted
(and still do). For some it is an impossible mission that can never work, for
others it is hilarious fun, and again for others it is nothing of interest. But
no matter which way you look at it, the one thing that all views had in common
was: on a purely fact-based level, nobody had a clue. Opinions, sure! But a
real clue as to whether this could be done, certainly no.
Initially
we hadn't been interested in exploring the question because we, too,
thought that the noise of the heli would scare even alligators. Also we didn't
know much about them, only that they were potentially dangerous and that we
didn't want to get near them. But well, time passed and the guy who had
suggested it happened to know a lot about gators and kept telling us it was
doable. And also that - even if you wanted to - you wouldn't be able to do
damage to a gator with wooden blades on the heli. What's more, someone
"donated" an old model for the test. So finally, with nearly
everything in place and us doing some other heli stunt in Florida anyway
(Airboat Ride), what was there to lose?
On the day of the stunt we remember it rained a lot.
But the mood was so exceptionally good that when looking back this eventually
became one of the nicest experiences we ever had. And as the icing on the cake,
after a while the alligators really came and started to bite. We couldn't
believe it! They didn't care about the heli but simply went for the bait! While
all of this may be less impressive in the video (which certainly isn't one of
our best works), it did stun everyone on site. Maybe it is for all of these
reasons that we like this event so much. Why it was so cool. And thanks to our LEGACY series we can save it
from falling into oblivion. It was a truly great day with truly great people. Thanks
everyone for insisting it could be done and for sharing the fun. Miss you all
and hope the video brings back some cool memories. Plus that it is the same fun
for our friends around the globe. Hope you guys like it, too!
+++ Water-proof, swimming helicopters +++
This
video finds us returning to Turkey, flying at one of the most beautiful spots
of the world
Impossible to get
permission to fly at such a world-famous, unique location? Nope, not when you
have a very good track record like HeliGraphix. The UNESCO World
Heritage Site of Pamukkale lies in Turkey. The big white mountains with their
unique terraces are simply breathtaking - nature has formed them in the course
of centuries and millennia. It looks like snow ... but hey, then why do these
crazy heli dudes wear T-shirts?
That white sugar-like stuff isn't snow. Instead it is limestone, deposited by
the thermal water. There are hot springs on top of the mountain, and while the
water runs down the hills it cools and precipitates the limestone. A big big
oversized piece of chalk if you want. The looks are fantastic, like in a fairy
tale. And we were lucky enough to get permission to do some special flying
there.
This short little 2 min. video shows some very beautiful, smooth and graceful
flying. No hardcore stunt action for a change. But at this location in
particular it wouldn't have been appropriate. Instead, the swimming and
cruising action is the perfect match, and "on the fly" we prove that
flying through water jets and rain is not at all a problem (electronics sealed,
as posted earlier). Hope you guys enjoy it as much as we do.
+++ Behind the scenes of Pumpkin Bombing +++
We
got another short episode of HeliGraphix Blitz for you – showing cool 120 fps GoPro
4 footage
The Pumpkin Bombing
ranks among the best actions we've done this year and is a personal favourite. It also
marks the first time we used GoPro's new Hero 4 action cam (the film community
calls this type of cam "crash cam" by the way). It came out just a
few days before we filmed the stunt. So we put it to the test and found quite a
few interesting facts – they're summarized in the video description (just watch
in on YouTube and click on "read more" under the video). Basically it is a step forward from the
Hero 3+, and this is not because it records UHD (the small 4K resolution).
Resolution alone doesn't make a good picture – much more is needed for
this, starting with a quality lens, over quality signal processing all the way
down to a high-quality, high-data rate codec to record the images. But what the
Hero 4 does is to record 120 fps video. It only works when there is enough
light; cranking up the gain doesn't help anything because the picture gets
unbelievably noisy (ISO 400 is the only serious option). However, when
conditions are reasonably good then so is the recorded picture. Example? Watch this short compilation of
120 fps pumpkin impacts. And as a bonus, there is some nice
behind-the-scenes footage of the full Pumpkin Bombing video.
+++ Halloween Special: The Pumpkin Bombing +++
Today
we're on a holy mission to silence the world's most untalented, horrible and
scary Halloween band!
Halloween is a time
of year that has hugely gained popularity around the world. Not sure
if everybody knows about its origins and what it's all about. But as kind of an
additional carnival season with an emphasis on the horror theme it's become a
favourite among both young and old. While the former enjoy running around in
disguise for "trick or treat", the latter come up with all kinds of
stunning decoration, be it indoors or outdoors around house and garden.
Well, and there's a third group. A small one actually.
They all fly R/C helicopters. And when they take on Halloween you can be sure
it's gonna be insanely crazy and funny. And as so often it all starts with a
simple idea …
The idea
…………………… vs. the real thing
"There are
those days when you open your email program and the subject line reads
"fun idea". You click the message with mixed feelings and somehow you
know it's gonna be bad. You open the attached drawing. Your name is in there
and you know that pretty much no matter what, this insanity is going to become
a reality very soon." Well, sometimes this really happens and when someone's got a good idea then he
makes a drawing and mails or faxes it to the other guys. Most of the time
the idea gets modified on the way for a number of reasons, and the
"Pumpkin Bombing" was no exception. As you can already tell from the
pictures we dropped the "dart" like competition. Also we added more
band members and fenced them in with barbed wire :-) The pumpkins were a challenge and lots and
lots of work to make, also because we had to study their breaking behaviour and
to make sure it was reproducible.
The video as such was a challenge, too.
Post-production took an entire 6 days with a good deal of overtime. Below's
editing timeline shows where the main problem lies: The 6 cameras we used had
produced 10.5 hours of recorded footage, and to hack it all down to 3 minutes
and create a story flow generally takes a while. But the time-consuming part
was the audio. Helicopters flying towards and away from the cams, instruments
playing, people talking, pumpkins impacting ... all happens at the same time.
So when intercutting the footage you end up with non-acceptable, disturbing audio mess that makes no
sense at all. The solution is to separate all the sounds as good as possible
(heli, people, instruments, etc.) and then piece it back together. This gives a
natural audio continuity. When watching
the video you'll never even suspect any work has been involved, not to
mention so many hours. But that's the simple truth behind every good
production, no matter who does it.
Talking about how
to transport and release 5kg pumpkins of considerable size? Not an easy
question, especially because we did not want any box-like construction.
Instead, we wanted to see the pumpkins during flight. It is clear that the
lower the overall center of gravity the less stable the whole construction will
fly. Depending on the flybarless system and the gains one has chosen in its
setup, such a construction can go out of control in mid-air. Having developed
and flown the HULCs we have seen dozens (if not hundreds) of situations that
can lead to problems; we have also learned how to deal with them and how to
prevent them in the first place. With the construction in the picture we knew
that when turning down the cyclic flybarless gains a bit and at the same time
choosing a somewhat higher head speed the flight would be pretty stable.
The
"cage" for the pumpkins was a bit more tricky. We
first tried a triangular kind of net but in order to prevent the pumpkin from
falling out sideways we had to form a bit of a basket. Eh? Can a pumpkin of
this size fall out sideways? Answer is yes, even easily. Vibration will cause
the net to move to one side, it then snaps back all of a sudden, out comes the
pumpkin. Therefore the net has to go around that ball slightly. Now, believe it
or not, this can lead to the strange situation that the pumpkin gets trapped in
its basket-like net. Yes, that big bloke won't come out! And even if vibration
makes it jump out a second later, this is not acceptable. Because one second of
flight means the heli will have progressed another 50 meters; that way you'd
never hit a target. So after some cursing we eventually went for the simple
solution you see in the pictures. The net is rectangular - and it is partly
fixed to the skids and skid pipes. This prevents the pumpkin from falling out
sideways. At the same time an inclined plane is formed, making sure that big
orange ball will fall out without delay.
The release mechanism as such is quite simple, too: A
servo pulls back a little metal rod that goes through a piece of metal. Very
reliable and doesn't need much space. That's important because we wanted fast
reloads and the ability to change the landing/release gear between different
helis fast and without a hassle. Well then, how does it all go together in one
video? Here it is! But be carefully not
to pee into your pants … it's really damn funny :-)
Please LIKE and COMMENT on YouTube, facebook and/or G+. Always happy about this!
+++ 80 km/h Speed Runs on the Salzburgring +++
Okay, it's a bit scary: How fast can you go on a tuned
Bobbycar that is pulled by a high-power R/C heli?
How fast can you
possibly go on a tuned Ferrari-Bobbycar when it is being pulled by the world's
most powerful 10 kW helicopter (1.65 rotor diameter, 6 kg)?
Now, some of you guys may remember our 2009 stunt where we pulled a grown-up person on a regular
Bobbycar with a regular (but well-motorized) 700-size helicopter. We
managed to reach a reasonable speed and were quite happy about it. Watch the video here in case you don't remember.
Okay, fast forward 5 years and a world record later.
We want to repeat the previous experiment, just this time we use the same
ultra-powered R/C helicopter (HULC) that we'd employed to lift the first ever
human payload. Can you imagine how much power this is, dragging along a stunt
guy on a Bobbycar? What would possibly happen?
Besides this dramatic heli upgrade (and yes, it's totally unbelievable how fast
R/C helis have developed in only 5 years) we also tuned a little Bobbycar.
After towing the real Ferrari F430 in an earlier
stunt in Spain we figured it makes perfect sense to use a scaled-down
version this time. Equipped with real alloy rims costing 4x the price of the
car and some special industry bearings we finally had a great looking miniature
Ferrari. The big problem that still needed to be solved was the steering. Even
at slow speeds you could reach with your own feet the cart was prone to tip
over. We therefore thought about it for a while and finally came up with the
simplest possible solution to improve control. The below picture shows how this
worked.
Given
the size of the Bobbycar it was clear that there would be a physical limit
regarding speed. The distance of the wheels was pretty narrow and
combined with a high center of gravity caused by the stunt guy sitting on the
cart the overall result was a not overly stable driving experience, especially
at speed exceeding 50 km/h. This brings us to the next question: Where could
you possibly perform such a venture safely? We checked a few options and the by
far best one was the Salzburgring in
Austria, and established and pretty famous race track. We're eternally
grateful they let us spend several hours on the site without anyone else there.
Normally such exclusivity is only possible when you're doing a rock concert or
another event in this order of magnitude.
The final results were absolutely stunning. We had a total of 9 (!) cameras on site and
captured dramatic onboard angles. This produced almost 11 hrs. of raw material
– as always, in countless, countless,
countless hours we cut it down for you to just a few extended seconds.
Video's out now – have fun watching and please do leave us some Likes and
Comments! Have fun!
Hey guys, please don't forget to LIKE and
COMMENT on YouTube, facebook and G+. Thanks guys!
More pictures? Click
here for the Ferrari Bobbycar gallery!
+++ CULT! HeliGraphix stickers: to serve and protect
+++
Last
year was the so far greatest year for the CULT – meaning we again sent out much
more than 1,000 free stickers to you!
Es ist schwer zu sagen, wann wir die ersten kostenfreien
HeliGraphix- und Remote Madness-Sticker verschickt haben – vermutlich liegt es schon ein paar Jahre
zurück. Die Motivation hinter diesem Service war recht einfach und drehte sich
um die Frage, wie man eine Sichtweise unseres Hobbys mit gleich gesinnten
teilen kann. Leute, die Spaß haben, Leute mit viel Enthusiasmus und auch Leute,
die gerne mal nach links und nach rechts schauen anstatt nur immer geradeaus zu
laufen. Wie steht's dann um den Werbe-Gedanken? Es hat und wird immer Leute
geben, die die HeliGraphix-Philosophie missverstehen oder nicht verstehen
wollen. Unsere Absicht besteht nicht darin, für irgendetwas zu werben (was wäre
das eigentlich?) – wir versuchen vielmehr eine Möglichkeit zu schaffen, um
deutlich zu machen, dass wir alle zusammen auf der coolen Seite des Lebens
stehen und aktiver Teil der R/C-Evolution sind. Hinter HeliGraphix stehen nicht
nur ein paar Leute, die Spaß an herausfordernden Stunts haben, sondern dahinter
steht eine viel größere Idee. Es freut uns, dass Ihr und viele andere unser
Hobby auf ähnliche Art und Weise seht und betreibt – und genau das bringen die
Sticker zum Ausdruck.
Letztes Jahr haben wir nochmal mehr
Aufkleber verschickt als im Vorjahr (und das war schwer zu toppen!). Alle Sticker
entstehen in Handarbeit und die Prozedur ist recht zeitaufwändig. Aber keine
Sorge, der Service geht natürlich weiter und wir sind entsprechend gerüstet
:-) Wie auch bisher reicht eine kurze
Mail mit Eurer Adresse, und das war's auch schon! Nachfolgend ein paar coole
Bilder, die wir kürzlich erhalten haben – weitere gibt es immer mal wieder auf
unserer Facebook-Seite, wo
Ihr die jederzeit auch selber posten könnt!
We don’t remember
when first sent out free HeliGraphix and Remote Madness stickers – it must have been several years ago. The motivation
to start this service was a simple one and centered around the question how to
share an attitude with likeminded people. People who enjoy the hobby, people
who are full of great enthusiasm and people who like to look right and left
instead of just always following the herd. How about the advertising thought
then? There always have been and always will be people who don’t or do not want
to understand the HeliGraphix philosophy. It is not our intention to advertise
for something (what would that be anyway?) – it is our intention to provide a
way to show we jointly are part of the R/C evolution and enjoy the cool side of
life. HeliGraphix is not a bunch of guys having fun performing demanding
stunts, but instead it is a much bigger idea. We are glad that you and many
others feel the same way and have the same attitude towards our hobby. And
essentially this is what the stickers are all about.
Last year we again topped the amount of decals we send
out per year (and that was A LOT!). We produce all of them ourselves and lots
of handiwork is necessary, so all in all it's quite a time-consuming procedure.
But no worries, the service does continue as always and we are ready to supply
all of you guys out there :-) As in the
past simply send us and email with your address, that's it! Below are some cool
pictures we recently received. There are more on our facebook page, and you are
welcome to post your own pictures there anytime!
Es
ist längst kein Geheimnis mehr, dass HeliGraphix-Sticker starke Schutzwirkung
vor
potentiellen bösen Mächten aus dem All haben, die unter anderem für diverse
Abstürze unserer
R/C-Modelle auf der Erde verantwortlich gemacht werden. Roman Grydziuk dachte
sich,
was für Helis funktioniert, müsste doch auch für andere Sachen gelten, die ihm
lieb und
teuer sind – so zum Beispiel seine Freundin. Und ja, auch hier funktioniert der Schutz! :-)
It
is a well-known secret by know that HeliGraphix stickers have strong protection
powers.
They free our R/C models from the influence of potentially evil alien
forces that are believed
to be responsible for many crashes of our R/C models on earth. Roman Grydziuk
figured
what works for his models must work also for other "toys" he likes –
e.g. his girl-friend.
And right he is! :-)
>>>>> Get your FREE stickers now! <<<<<
Additional
info: Yes, we do send them out worldwide free of charge!
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Wow!
Wenn das mal nicht cool ist, was dann?! |
Mega-cooler
Ultraleicht-Flitzer von Darin Logue |
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Auch
Günter Börngen hat mittlerweile seiner gesamten |
Und egal was kommt – der KULT und SCHUTZ
fliegen mit :-) |
Mehr Bilder auf / More
pictures on 