I like the corrent avatar with the northern lights.
Havn't seen any that were that vividly red, although the ones last night were moving very fast and getting pretty pink. The one advantage to having a 4 hour layover in Anchorage becuase the basketball team chartered out the whole return leg of our scheduled run and wanted to take their time... getting in after midnight meant a really good view of the lights!
Anyway, as far as the helicopters go... they have some remote control helicopters with counter rotating blades that look somewhat controllable. Saw someone flying one in GA, had a kit with 4 ping pong balls on flexible sticks on the bottom... basically training wheels for the helicopter. It gives you a landing surface bigger than the rotor diameter until you get confortable with it enough to remove them and just use the skids. The sticks keep the skids a few inches off the ground and also act as a suspension. He was literally bouncing the helicopter into the air sometimes trying to land it, and didn't break anything.