Helicopter Shadow Takeoff Video, Take 2

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Another video from my helicopter.

A while back, I published a short video of a takeoff in my helicopter with the sun behind us. The shadow on the ground looked pretty cool. You can find it here.

Yesterday, while experimenting with a borrowed wide-angle POV.1 video camera, I shot the following video. I didn’t realize that the shadow would be a main character. My goal was to fly low over the runway to simulate an airplane takeoff. Because I’m not an airplane pilot, it wasn’t very realistic. But it is kind of cool, and the shadow puts in quite an appearance all the way through.

The sound is collected through the POV.1’s built-in speaker, so it’s mostly helicopter noise. I start on the taxiway intersection, hover out to the runway at midfield, and do my thing.

The video is only a minute and a half long. Enjoy.

Dawn at the Grand Canyon

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A few photos.

I was at the Grand Canyon on Monday for part of the video shoot we’re doing to help promote my Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure. We spent the night and, early in the morning, I was up at dawn to watch the light come up over the canyon. Here are a few of the photos I took from the Rim at Grand Canyon Village. I’ll be putting larger versions of all of these in my Photo Gallery.

Lookout Studio at DawnLookout Studio at Dawn

The Grand Canyon’s South Rim village is packed with historic buildings. Lookout Studio, shown here, is one of the more striking, with its stone walls and bright blue window trim. Perched on the side of a sheer cliff, it looks out over the canyon, offering striking views (and the usual collection of tourist shop items) to all visitors. I think this shot is made a bit more interesting by the slight distortion of the very wide focal length (16mm).

Photo Details:
Camera: Nikon D80
Focal Length: 16mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure: 1/200

Tree-Framed Dawn at the Grand CanyonTree-Framed Dawn at the Grand Canyon

The view into the Grand Canyon from the south rim is unobstructed in many, many places. But sometimes a view can be more interesting with foreground items framing it. That’s what this photo is all about.

Photo Details:
Camera: Nikon D80
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure: 1/125

Grand Canyon DawnGrand Canyon Dawn

I can’t tell you how many photos I have of the Grand Canyon. I’ve been going there for years. In fact, I have so many photos of the place that I often don’t even bother bringing a camera when I go. But I have very few vertical shots of the canyon. In general, its wide view does not suggest turning the camera on its side to shoot. Although I think this photo can be improved, I also think it’s a reasonably good example of what how a portrait shot of the Canyon could work.

Photo Details:
Camera: Nikon D80
Focal Length: 38mm
Aperture: f/4.8
Exposure: 1/30

On the Road Again

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Traveling again.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from me here in a while, it’s because I’ve been traveling. I’m doing one of my Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventures in northern Arizona, accompanied by a video crew and staff writer for a respected travel magazine.

The goal of this trip is to gather about 90% of the video needed to create three individual broadcast-length videos, each of which will be made available on DVD. It’s a huge project and, so far, we have at least 20 hours of raw video footage to wade through.

I’m flying with a door off and a video guy on board taking glare-free video images of what we fly over. He also has at least two POV.1 cameras mounted inside the helicopter at all times. The other video on the ground is “chasing” us — actually, he’s getting a big head start each day to drive to the airport where we’ll land before we arrive — and taking video of us landing. Then there are cameras whirring all over the place on the ground.

Wild HorsesThe writer is sitting up front beside me, taking notes and using my Nikon D80 to shoot images of what she sees. Although a good portion of the shots have some unfortunate glare — not much you can do about that when shooting through Plexiglas — many of them are really good. Like this shot she took of a herd of wild horses we overflew on the Navajo Reservation two days ago.

It’s been a busy week so far. Although I’m trying to demonstrate to the writer what my Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure is all about, I’m also working with the video crew to make sure we capture all of the footage we need for our three videos. I’m hoping she understands that my usual clients won’t be rushing around like nuts all day.

Antelpe CanyonI’m treating myself to a few of the activities my excursion guests get to enjoy. For example, on Tuesday, I joined the crew for a boat ride on Lake Powell that visited the “business side” of the Glen Canyon Dam before squeezing about a mile up Antelope Canyon (see photo) and gliding up Navajo Canyon for a look at the “tapestry” of desert varnish on some cliff walls. I skipped the Sedona Jeep tour and Monument Valley tour to work with one of the video guys or just rest up. Normally, while my guest are touring, I’m scrambling to get the luggage into their hotel room and confirming reservations for the next day. You might imagine how tired I am after 6 days of playing pilot and baggage handler.

At this moment, however, I’m sitting at the dining table of a double-wide mobile home near Goulding’s Lodge in Monument Valley. (Long story; believe it or not, the only lodging we cold get here in MV was in a pair of mobile homes that are part of the lodge.) I have the front drapes drawn aside so I can watch the eastern sky brighten for what promises to be a classic silhouetted butte sunrise. I always enjoy my dawns here at MV. Seeing the famous buttes outside my window is always surreal.

Today, we were scheduled to fly down to Winslow for lunch, then tour Meteor Crater and the Grand Falls of the Little Colorado River. Normally, the Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure takes this route on the way to its last overnight stop at Flagstaff. But today we’ll probably go straight back to Page. I have four aerial photo shoots at Page starting on Friday morning; the money I make doing them will pay for this video excursion. We’ll do more video between those flights. Then we’ll hit the Crater, Falls, and Flagstaff on our way back to the Phoenix area on Sunday.

It’s a big trip and a bunch of huge projects. Just the kind of thing to keep me busy between flights for the winter season. But if all works well and as planned, I might be flying this route weekly in the coming spring and fall — with real paying passengers to take care of along the way.

For the last time: NO, Obama is NOT a Muslim

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Evidently, even a few folks with functioning brains believe this.

Yesterday, I was shocked and awed when someone I do business with admitted that she thinks Obama might be a Muslim.

I can’t make this stuff up.

This person, who occasionally reads this blog, might be offended by my “How Stupid Are We?” post, where I pretty much said that anyone who believes lies like this is stupid. I hate to offend people I like, so I’m writing this post. I don’t think she’s stupid. I think she’s just fallen into the Web of lies and innuendo woven by the conservatives who want to keep Republicans — even if it means John McCain — in power.

So I’ll say something here that I never thought I’d have to say. (Frankly, I thought my readers were smart and well-informed enough for me to skip a statement of the obvious.)

Obama is not a Muslim.

The whole “Obama is a Muslim” rumor can be traced back to Andy Martin. You can read all about it in — dare I suggest it? — the New York Times: “The Man Behind the Whispers About Obama.” Here’s an excerpt:

An examination of legal documents and election filings, along with interviews with his acquaintances, revealed Mr. Martin, 62, to be a man with a history of scintillating if not always factual claims. He has left a trail of animosity — some of it provoked by anti-Jewish comments — among political leaders, lawyers and judges in three states over more than 30 years.

Is this the kind of guy you want to believe?

Of course, he appeared on FoxNews, which “…allowed Mr. Martin to assert falsely and without challenge that Mr. Obama had once trained to overthrow the government. ” I guess if it’s on FoxNews, it must be gospel (pun intended).

Anyway, all this upsets me to the extreme. I don’t mind people voting for the candidate I don’t support. But I do mind them making their decision based on vicious lies and innuendo — especially those made by a man with a history of lying and accepted by a news organization with a track record of bias.

I want people to know the truth and make decisions based on that.

Kids Ask a Lot of Questions

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A quick note from a recent flight.

I recently flew a dad and his two kids on a 50-minute flight in the Wickenburg area. The kids were aged maybe 8 (the boy) and 10 (the girl). These are estimates. I didn’t ask and since I’m not a parent myself, I could be way off.

My helicopter has a voice-activated intercom system. That means that anything anyone says into their headset microphone can be heard by anyone else in the aircraft wearing a headset. (And yes, I do have an isolation switch I can use to “turn off” my passengers, but I rarely use it.) I narrated the flight, as I usually do, and pointed out interesting things.

Now I’ve flown kids before, but these kids were different. They asked a lot of questions. A lot. In fact, they pretty much never stopped asking questions.

I have no problem with this. It’s great to see kids who are interested in what’s going on around them. And it sure beats the kid who almost fell asleep on one of my Grand Canyon flights years ago.

Since I don’t have kids, however, it was a bit startling to me. It made me realize the limits of a young kid’s knowledge. For example, they repeatedly asked me to define words I’d used — irrigation and skeleton crew come to mind. They asked a lot of “why” and “how” questions. It was a real eye-opening experience for me. It was also a pleasure to be in the position where I could share some of my knowledge with them.

But the part I liked most was defining those terms I’d used without a second thought, bringing my vocabulary down to a level they’d understand and perhaps teaching them a few new words and concepts.