Problems with the video team began last year when they failed to provide sample video segments that met our quality standards. Although hours of footage were shot for this production, only a small portion is usable. One of the videographers was apparently unfamiliar with his camera’s functions and could not reliably produce sequences that were properly framed or in focus. This same person, who owns the company and acts as video editor, attempted to string various poor quality footage together in an amateurish montage and pass it off as a sales tool. When we realized that the company’s end product was not going to meet our standards, we put a halt to the project and attempted to get a partial refund of the fee we paid up front. The video company has ignored all attempts to get this money back and has not made any efforts to complete the project.

In other words, we were ripped off by a smooth-talking amateur who passed himself off as a professional video producer.

This has been a very expensive learning experience for Flying M Productions. But what bothers us most is that this company is still out there, selling services it so obviously cannot provide.

We’ve shot some new footage for the video and hope to get a suitable production team together to turn it into the video production we’ve envisioned. Thanks for your patience. We hope to present you with an aerial tour of Lake Powell soon.

Keep checking in; we’ll add new video clips and trailers as they become available.

If you’re in Europe, you might want to try the Robbie-Europe site.

Otherwise, we recommend that you contact the publisher, Eye in the Sky Productions, to purchase copies of the book.

The advance orders will go out today. Our staff worked until 10:30 PM last night to package up the Priority Mail orders and again this morning starting at 7 AM to package most of the ground orders. We’ll be dropping the books off at the post office within an hour. Any remaining ground orders will go out on Friday, after the holiday.

From this point on, we will ship all orders as they are received.

Thanks to everyone for their patience as we waited for the books to come. As those of you who ordered books will soon see, they are definitely worth waiting for!

December 16 Update

According to the shipping agent, the book arrived in the United States on Monday, December 15:

To update you on the delivery, the vessel arrived in Long Beach yesterday, and is due to arrive in Carson on the 17th, I will get in touch with UPS as soon as the CA office is open to find out how fast they can get this delivered to you.

We’re still hoping to get the book by December 22. If so, all books will go out that day. Priority Mail shipments to addresses in the U.S. may arrive by Christmas Eve. Ground shipments and shipments to Canada will not arrive before Christmas.

If you ordered the book and paid by check or by credit card info mailed or faxed to us, your payment will be processed this week. If you decide to cancel your order, please do so as soon as possible to prevent the need to issue refunds.

Thanks to everyone who preordered the book. We appreciate your patience!

I have just had the advance copies of the book delivered, and it looks fantastic!

But! yes I’m afraid there is a huge but! A mistake has slipped through the net…. A correction that had been made has somehow found its way back into the layout, what’s worse is it is on your chapter.

Page 79 of your story has breakout text over the red Sedona rocks of Arizona, but it is the text from the Ayers Rock story. It is a stupid mistake. When Ian changed this page (in fact it was one of the first things I picked up), and saw that it had been changed, I never looked at it again as I was more worried about the text, picture captions etc. So somehow it had been replaced as the high res files were being produced, and not one of us who checked the layout noticed it. See attached jpeg of the spread.

Here’s the image he attached:

[Note: When Jon refers to "your chapter," he's referring to Flying M Air's chapter of the book. Flying M Productions and Flying M Air are sister companies; we took on the distribution of the book in North America to ensure that the book would be seen here, where Flying M Air's customer base is. How's that for irony?]

Reprinting the books is not an option. Only 448 copies of the book have been shipped to the U.S. for sale in North America. If those books sell out quickly, there is a slight chance of reprinting the books with a correction. But the chances of this happening within the next 8 to 12 months is slim.

We’ve agreed on a solution to correct the problem in the books that have already been printed. We have created a sticker with the correct text. The sticker is sized to fit exactly over the bad text. A sticker will go out with every book sold. The buyer can decide whether to affix the sticker or allow the book to remain as is.

Individuals and companies that placed orders will be notified of the problem and given the opportunity to cancel their order.

As you can imagine, we’re very upset that this has happened. In the grand scheme of things, the error is small. We hope it does not discourage potential buyers from getting a copy of this great book.

If you preordered the book and arranged for Priority Mail shipping, there’s a chance you’ll get your copies by Christmas. Priority mail is generally a 2-3 day service in the U.S. We’ll have staff prepared with mailing labels and packaging to get the books out the same day they arrive at our warehouse.

Again, we cannot guarantee Christmas delivery, but we’ll do our best to make it happen if it’s possible.

If you ordered the book using ground shipping, your books will not arrive by Christmas. If you want to upgrade your shipping method, contact us.

Remember, the pre-order discount is available through December 31, 2008.

Our film crew will be flying with Flying M Air on an 8-day movie shoot throughout Arizona. We’ll be visiting Phoenix, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Monument Valley, and Flagstaff to gather aerial and ground footage for a video about Flying M Air’s Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure 6-day excursion.

We’ll be releasing video tidbits and still photos here as they become available. Keep checking in!