Archive for February, 2012
You are currently browsing the Draw Jerel Draw blog archives for February, 2012.
29
Feb
2012
Weekly Whirly
This week: The Swan
This copter variety is very popular among in the touring circles around the world. It can comfortably house 4 people for weeks on end without need to pit-stops and resupplies. It is often outfitted with sleeping quarters and a mess hall. While it’s top speed and load capacity isn’t particularly impressive, it remains one of the most graceful copters in the world. It’s tri-rotors are each equipped with universal angle joints, which work in tandem, automatically providing one of the smoothest rides one can get in a civilian copter. In fact the Swan is so maneuverable that it’s become popular among flight clubs and a regular feature at flight shows, performing synchronized flying events to delight spectators. These events are often put to music and have been known to incorporate up to 20 Swans at once.
22
Feb
2012
Weekly Whirly
This week: The Rhinocopter
This workhorse of a copter is popular among industrialists or anyone with a lot of work to do who can’t be bothered with landing. It’s equipped with a sizable cargo space, and it’s grasping arms allows that space to be loaded mid flight. It also comes with a pair of pod bays from which smaller copters can launch and be docked. Which assists in survey operations. It doesn’t boast a high top speed or a large carrying capacity but it’s still a very popular whirlybird.
15
Feb
2012
Weekly Whirly
So many whirlies so little time. This week is a double header, triple if you count yesterdays special. Both of these copters are smaller than most of what you see in the trade winds so I thought I’d double them up.
First up: The Wasp
This little beauty’s only sting is one of fun. Very popular among younger pilots this copter is great for short trips and just getting around on your day to day jaunts. It’s small, it’s quick, it’s light, and it’s a great copter to let you hair out and enjoy a day on. Conversely it’s very UN-popular for anyone with concerns about safety. Each year the Wasp is responsable for several deaths of eager and foolish young men and women who either plummet from a great height, crash trying to land it too quickly, or just mangle themselves against another copter. It’s reliable in the hands of experience pilots but it’s always been popular among and promoted to youth. Youth without the skills or the wherewithal to be safe about it.
Second up in our deadly duo: The Copter-Pack
The name of this copter gives it all away, however, it’s not so much a name as it is an incredibly foolish idea. No-one has ever officially produced a copter-pack for the market because it doesn’t take a genius to see how amazingly dangerous this device is. However, the allure is undeniable and yahoo engineers and weekend mechanics just can’t resist constructing these maddeningly stupid copters on the down low. Often taking out their crazed contraptions only to be decapitated on the maden voyage. The above is just one example of a copter pack, they are as varied as the designers who make them. Admittedly decapitation is not actually the most common form of death from copter-pack, just the most spectacular. More common injuries involve severe burns, strangulation (from getting loose scarves tangled in the rotors), the flaying of skin (similarly from those pesky loose hairs and all those whirling bits) , broken legs, broken arms, and of course severed appendages (usually of those on the ground trying to assist the dare-devil ding-dong in getting airborne).
14
Feb
2012
Drabblecast: Valentines Day with the Gods
Yes. Two posts in one day! Amazing!
So as you can probably already tell, I’ve done another cover for the Drabblecast! Woohoo! This one is a real treasure. Valentines Day with the Gods is whimsy and philosophy and a swoon-worthy tale of love. Take a listen over here. If you haven’t listened to the Drabblecast before you are in for a real treat! It’s one of the finest and weirdest audiofiction publications on the interwebs. It won a Parsec award in 2010 AND 2011 and continues to amaze me month after month. Enjoy!
14
Feb
2012
Bonus Whirly!
Hey All, in honor of Valentines Day you get an extra weekly whirly this week! Woohoo
The Lovecopter
This copter is perfect for you and your loved one. What could be more romantic than soaring through the clouds with you arms around your lover, in your very own copter. It’s not fast, it’s not versatile, but it will always impress that one you’re wooing, or remind you why you fell in love in the first place.
10
Feb
2012
Fruit and Tentacles
The final painting of my Fruit and Tentacles series. Banana. Watercolor and Ink 6.5″ x 8.75″ . I’m getting cards printed for all the Fruit and Tentacles paintings so keep your eyes out for them!
8
Feb
2012
Weekly Whirly
So after a day without the internet I am able to juuuust squeek this one in today. Enjoy!
This weeks copter: The Behemoth
Only six of these copters were ever constructed. Soon after these monstrosities rose into the air, and much to their developers chagrin, the Behemoth was quickly dubbed the Giant Turkey. Nicknamed so due to it’s large size, ungainly form and similar flight characteristics. However, it did accomplish what it’s engineers had intended, it flew and it carried a lot of freight. So if you had a lot of stuff that you needed to get somewhere in no particular hurry, the Giant Turkey was the machine for you.
2
Feb
2012
Rope-Pull: Poetry Broadside
And here we have a new poetry broadside. Rope-pull by the ever prolific Roger Hooper. I loved the darkness and desperation in this poem, there are also some wonderful things that happen with the word sounds when you read it aloud. Something I admittedly did not pick up on until dialoging about it with Roger. Enjoy!
1
Feb
2012
Weekly Whirly
This weeks copter: The Helipillar
This copter is a small sized passenger vessel capable of carrying up to 22 passengers plus a pilot. It’s not particularly fast, or maneuverable but it’s very well equipped for long journeys. It is unusual in that it’s design is modular in nature. Passenger units can be added to or subtracted from the main body extending is passenger load or increasing it’s speed an maneuverability respectively. The record for passenger units installed into the Helipillar was set quite a few years ago at 10 units, which then carried 90 passengers on it’s journey. The trip was cut short due to dangerous weather. There were other attempts and longer Helipillars in subsequent years but after a several failed take-offs and 2 crashes that ended in fatalities further attempts at this record became illegal.
