Heli Expo - Good Or Bad

[Heli Ops]

Saw quite a few Canadians there at Heli Expo so thought it would be good to see what everyone thought of it. Good to meet 407Driver there as well as CTD and Steve76.

Mike and Linda were in attendance and doing the rounds and their latest issue was the best one yet. Congrats on a good product.

We gave away over 3000 copies of Heli Ops so was successful for us as well. Think Rotor and Wing are getting a little concerned with the competition that Mike/Linda and I are providing which is great.

See you all next year.

Heli Ops

 

[407 Driver]

As I posted on another thread, I was there to see Bell, and they hardly even showed up.
If I wanted to look at a 407, a 206, or an L3, I can do that in my own hangar. If I wanted to see a 412, I can visit a Griffon when they stop by here for fuel.

Why didn't they have a 427 there? Why not a 609? or even a 230/430 after all, this is one of the biggest shows in the civvie world isn't it? How about a static display of the proposed new light, or is it so far away it isn't even on the drawing board yet?

Hey Bell, I'm here to support you, but you've got to bring something interesting !!

It was great to finally meet Heli-Ops, Biggles, and see a bunch of old friends though.

With some inside info, there was a lot of free beer to be had, many thanks to DART, AON, and MARSH for some excellent eats and drinks !! hic




Re...427i pic.....Nice ROPE to hold the doors open, and maybe next time...CLEAN THE WINDOWS ? The cockpit display was showing 11,900 as the AUW, so ..either the 427i is going to be very powerful ..or they used a 412 display unit ????

 

[widgeon]

never mind the show who had the best party ?.
the ec Bash at the previous Vegas expo I think blew the bank , open bar unlimited food , a real hot band . the one following at Annaheim sucked real badly as there was not enough drink , entertainment was a kids discovery centre and the food was mediochre.

 

[Frequent Flyer]

Couldnt agree with you more 407. A poor showing from bell. Eurocopter outshone everyone. Maybe Heli Ops can confirm this but I heard from a very good source that EC sold 47 helicopters at the show. I would like to know how the bell folks ended up.

 

[407 Driver]

Thanks for the back-up FF. I support Bell, I only fly Bell products, but they did't put any effort into this show. I was sitting in the 427 mock-up cockpit when someone was tying the doors open with that OLD piece of rope. :blink: The windows had not been cleaned on that display either (It wasn't dirty hands that got to the windows, as I got over to the Bell area about 5 minutes after opening on day 1, only after trying to find Biggsie...who was AWOL at the time ).

The EC ships were spotless.

I'd expect that Bell would put more effort into one of the biggest shows in the business, and right in their backyard too ? What's it all mean? Are they going totally military or what?

I also heard that EC sold a lot of Iron er...Plastic at the show.

 

[Steve76]

.....what!? Bell were there........?
kinda thought the S92 was cool...for a barge on rotors

Helilynx had a nice twin astar on display. Just immaculate. They have converted it into B2 panel and removed all the IFR kit. Should be a neat machine.

All round great show. Met a lot of old mates and made a few new ones. I also got offered the Alpha "dealership" for Canada so I hope to get some of their great helmets onto some heads in this forum.

Personally, I thought the only disappointment was the after parties. A little bit lame and too hard to secure some eats and grog.

Great to see you and Dan there Heliops. Keep up the great job and I will be in contact soon.......what deal r u gonna do me on advertising ...hahaha.

Cheers

Steve

 

[as350_b3]

My vote goes to the ACRO/HELIPRO party, hands down. They always put on a low-key bash with free food and free booze. This year, things didn't get really going until after 11:00 p.m. but what are you to expect..... B)