The 8th Annual Festival of Lighthouses Contest at
The Maritime Aquarium At Norwalk, CT concluded January 18th 2010. The 2009 exhibition had 23 lighthouse themed entries and was judged by over 8,000 visitors. Our entry, "Flying Santa at Stratford Point" won 5th place. My sincere thanks to all who voted for our entry.
This year with my wifes' assistance, our entry commemorated the tradition of the Flying Santa now celebrating its 80th year. Using some artistic license (OK, maybe a lot of artistic license) our display features Santa launching presents on balloons from a U.S. Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter hovering at the Stratford Point Lighthouse in Connecticut.
Features:
The lighthouse is decorated with a holiday wreath.A United States Lighthouse Service Light Keeper standing on the gallery deck is holding his hat on his head because of the helicopters downdraft.
Five balloons carrying the presents float in a spiral to the ground with the first landing next to the Keeper's sled.
The helicopter is occupied by two United States Coast Guard Flight Crew receiving directions from Senior Reindeer Dasher (actually a back seat driver in this case) with Santa and a Christmas Tree riding in the cargo bay
The contest winners were selected by popular vote by the visitors to the Maritime Aquarium. In the spirit of full disclosure, the seals were probably not allowed to vote as they are technically employees of The Maritime Aquarium. I encourage all to visit The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk to see the marvelous exhibits of sharks, otters, penguins, seals, jellyfish... the list goes on... in any season but especially during their Holiday Display. The 2010 Festival of Lighthouses contest will begin mid November 2010 and we are planning on participating in what will be our 5th consecutive year.
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For hours and directions to The Maritime Aquarium At Norwalk please visit their website at: http://www.maritimeaquarium.org/
For the History of the Flying Santa and the "Friends of Flying Santa" who continue the tradition now in its' 80th year, please visit their website at:
http://www.flyingsanta.com/
For the back story of how we built our display, please continue reading:
The Stratford Point Lighthouse of course is one of my replicas equipped with the Flashing Beacon Option.
The USLHS Lighthouse Keeper was originally a "G" Scale model rail road train conductor repainted with US Lighthouse Service insignia and uniform
The "balloons" are actually glass ornaments suspended with fishing line
Senior Reindeer Dasher is actually a White Tail Deer with an impressive rack of antlers
The US Coast Guard Flight Crew, Santa and the Jayhawk Helicopter where all converted from a US ARMY Blackhawk helicopter toy set.
While repainting the crew and helicopter from Army to Coast Guard took some work, the transformation of a blonde haired, bare chested, gun toting, hulking military soldier to Santa Clause was another story. His legs were melted at the knees and bent into a sitting position while they cooled. To fatten him up we padded him with First Aid Gauze Pads and Adhesive Tape. His hat, pants and coat were cut from red flannel and hot glued in place as was the white trim. His large black belt is actually a black "Wire Tie" which anchors him to an "L" bracket screwed into the floor of the cargo area so Santa stays in the helicopter.
The helicopter lighting is my first foray into working with LED lighting. The helicopter was disassembled and lights were installed with two 3 mm white bulbs lighting the front seats and cargo bay, two 5 mm white lights for the landing/work lights, two 3 mm blue lights for the marker lights (above the front wheels), two 5 mm flashing blue lights for the navigation lights on the tail and rear rotor assemblies and a 5 mm flashing white navigation light on the top below the main rotor.
The LED wiring runs through the plexiglas disk that simulates the rotating rotor blades (and also supports the balloons on fishing line), over and down the support frame to an electrical junction box in the display base where the LED transformer and the Replica Lighthouse are plugged in.