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HOVERCRAFT ALASKA Meets DISCOVERY CHANNEL |
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September 18, 2006 Ken Soldin, CEO Hovercraft Alaska with Jeff Corwin, Discovery Channel Since November 1998, HOVERCRAFT ALASKA has been dedicated to the education and principals of hovercraft. We want to give a better insight into the affects of hovercraft on our environment. We relinquished our hovercraft club here in Alaska after 7 years to better serve you through the media, and the Internet. We purchased our first hovercraft in 1994, and purchased another hovercraft a couple years later. Today we are into our fifth hovercraft and still making improvements to fit Alaska’s terrain, and other needs. We started our website February 12, 2004, and are now getting worldwide recognition for helping many people to find, buy, rebuild, and sell hovercraft. We have established some good relationships with people in theses countries; England, Africa, Oman, South America, Netherlands, and others. We have helped get many of the original Alaska Hovercraft machines back up and running across the United States, and Canada. Some times we get unusual requests, but the one that got our attention was August 2006 when we got an email asking if “we knew of a hovercraft in Alaska that could be used in a Discovery documentary?” Of course we replied, and that was the beginning of another adventure with the hovercraft and some wonderful people. The Documentary called “Into Alaska with Jeff Corwin” will be aired in the spring of 2007. WOW! The Jeff Corwin on Animal Planet! The Discovery Channel! This is very cool! The phone rang a few days later; on the other end was Miriam, who is the coordinator for the show. She had set a date and time to meet for the shoot, Oct-5-06. We suggested going up to our cabin in the Lake Louise area of Alaska. Since McKinley Park (Denali), gets so much attention, we felt that exploiting the spectacular fall drive east out of Anchorage to the Copper River basin would prove a much more inspiring trip. The Copper River basin is surrounded by 5 major mountain ranges. With fall in full swing, the beauty of vibrant colors of the tundra, and a layer of fresh white snow on the mountain peaks makes for some beautiful photography. Meanwhile, we got the hovercraft in top shape, and e-mailed Miriam some sources to use for the filming, and places to stay. My wife and I spent time scouting for animals for them to film, as often as we could in those preceding weeks. The problem with being in this part of Alaska is it is truly wild, so it made finding the wild animals harder than expected. Also hunting season was in full swing so the animals were skittish and hiding at any unusual sounds! Within two weeks of the scheduled time, we got another call, we found important over the emails, and that the schedule was to be move to August 17, 18, and 19th, due to Jeff Corwin had been helping with some of Steve Irwin’s affairs who had recently been struck by a stingray, and killed doing another documentary in his country of Australia. Thank goodness we got prepared early on so we could be available when and where they needed us. We were to meet them at 3pm at the Lake Louise Lodge and go over the preliminary shoot. Waiting at the lodge with anticipation, 330pm rolled around and several cars pulled up. We met Miriam inside the Lake Louise Lodge looking for directions, and that is when the adventure began. A short brief introduction took place, and we were asked if we wanted to get started! On the way out the door of the lodge, there was Jeff Corwin sitting in the patio chair and without thinking, I introduced myself, my wife, and said we will return in a few minutes with the hovercraft. We picked up the hovercraft and returned! We were a bit star struck and a bit nervous, but I got over that immediately when I needed to teach Jeff the controls and characteristics of the hovercraft. Jeff and I went out for some crosswind, downwind, low bag, and high-speed maneuvers, and one-point landings on the beach! Then I put Jeff behind the controls, and in this half hour crash course of training, Jeff handled the hovercraft very well. Anyone would have thought he had flown the hovercraft for many years! Jeff and I did three takes with the cameras rolling to get the narration right for the instruction on how to fly the hovercraft. The sky was blue, the fall colors as bright as a rainbow in the sun, when Jeff took off in the hovercraft with cameras rolling on him going out into the lake. The film crew was in the chase boat hot on his trail. The filming took a couple hours. I would say Jeff enjoyed the hovercraft, by the expression on his face! We do not know how much of a scene there will be, but we look forward to seeing what ever comes out of it. After the hovercraft shoot, it was getting late. The director, Simon wanted to catch some shots of Jeff Grayling fishing on the lake before the evening sun was gone. This turned out to be a beautiful night for that scene. On our way out the door of the lodge, Simon the director asked us to be at the morning meeting at 9am. During the meeting we were told about how the film crew was up filming the Northern lights all night! Wow, we thought, these guys are going be tired! The meeting involved looking for wildlife with the floatplane that was chartered, that was waiting to get loaded. After the floatplane trip, that afternoon was full with getting to Gulkana airport to a chartered 206 Cessna on wheels to find the Copper River Bison herd. The Alaska Pipeline was next on the agenda that filled out the rest of the day. Rapping up the end of the day was a stop at the local fireworks stand to load up for a night of fireworks on the lake. We wish to say to: Miriam, Bob, Simon, Glen, Jacob, and Jeff, it was a real pleasure to have met you, and that you’re welcome anytime to our little part of the world… Ken and Mary |
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Credits due to: |
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