November 8 – 10 was the legendary South West Heli Rodeo event in Queens Creek, AZ. This event has been going on for many many years, and has quite the reputation for having good weather towards the end of the season, and CRAZY flying from top pilots!

When I arrived at the event I was shocked at how many RV’s and campers were already on site! Nearly the entire length of the flight line was packed with them, and overall the counted 55 registered pilots!

This year the event was heavily sponsored from companies such as, Scorpion, Mikado USA, Xpert Servos, BK Hobbies, HRB Battery, Only Fine Helis, Amain hobbies, Futaba, and Hobby Wing. Some of the grand prizes included a Vbar Neo from Mikado USA, along with a Full set of KD1 Servos from Xpert Servos!

Also this event drew some pretty great professional pilots such as Scorpion Pilots, Mitch Marozas, Donnie Petche, and Myself. In addition there was Ben Storick who were there to put on a show for attendees and spectators alike!

One of the best moments from this event was the “Sunset Smack” session which we had on Saturday Afternoon just before dark. All of us Pro pilots took our equipment and headed to the flight line and threw down back to back flights trying to entertain the crowd, but more importantly one up each other. Check out some videos here!

Kyle Dahl – Logo 700 – Crazy Overspeeds

Mitch Marozas – Whiplash 730E – Full Pitch!!! 

As the sun set, then the flood lights came on, and the night flying began! One great idea from this event is how they encourage not only pros, but attendees alike to do night flying. The rule was for every flight that you did under the lights, you got a raffle ticket which entered you into a drawing for an additional prize! So needless to say, the night flying pilot
station was constantly packed as the night went on!

Kyle Dahl Night Flight – Glogo 690

Donnie Petche Night Flight – Synergy E7

All In all this event was a huge success in my books. The weather was absolutely stunning, day and night, the flying was off the hook, and also I enjoyed just hanging with my friends, and also helping out some fellow modelers with build and setup questions, which is what this hobby is really about!

I hope to see you all there at the 2020 SWHR event again next year!

Kyle Dahl

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This last weekend was the 2019 AMA EXPO West show. This is one of, if not the largest trade show for the RC Hobby Industry in the USA. There is manufactures representing RC Airplanes, Helicopters, Drones, Cars, Gliders, and even Free Flight. Not only was there manufactures of models, but also all the individual components needed to complete models, such as tools, engines, radios, servos, hardware, ground equipment etc. In addition to the trade show there is also, indoor and outdoor flying/ exhibition areas for manufactures to demo/ promote their product.

Our North American Distributor, Mikado USA, was in attendance of this event and also was one of the main sponsors of the event. Scorpion was the “Golf Cart” sponsor. Golf carts were used to help shuttle people around from the expo hall, to the outdoor flying areas.

Mikado USA also had a large booth displaying some of our most popular motor options for Airplane, Helicopter, Car, ESC’s, tools and accessories.

There was 2 indoor flying arenas, one for drones, and one for RC Flight, as well as a indoor RC Car track. The indoor flying arena was of course designed for indoor foamy models, and small helicopters, but that didn’t stop Scorpion pilot Santiago Perez from flying his Electric 35% Giant Scale Extra 300 104” inside! Check out the video of this stunt!

This was a huge hit and entertained many spectators who couldn’t believe their eyes or ears as a 28″ prop noise filled the entire expo hall!

Outside there was also 2 flying areas, one for Airplanes and Helicopters, and one which was for FPV racing. Of course there was a outdoor car racing area which had a dirt track, and a carpet track.

The event featured very good noon demos from many of the worlds top professional pilots. With the fairly large outdoor flying arena pilots could fly even giant scale airplanes, and helicopters. One of the most popular demos was the Helicopter/ Airplane Tandem Demo from Team Scorpions Kyle Dahl and Santiago Perez.

Check out the video on Scorpion Power System USA Facebook page here! 

Also Kyle Dahl was demoing his Electric powered H9 Viking 89” Biplane. A huge hit as well as most people had not seen a electric biplane of this size flying before.

Also this event served as a great way to introduce attendees to our hobby. Spectators can watch professional flying, and also learn about our hobby by attending seminars and talking to manufactures and pilots alike. One great activity which happen was a demo sponsored by NASA and Scaled Composites. They organized an event sort of like “musical chairs” where several pilots took off with a Horizon trainer airplane, and then when the music stopped all pilots had to race to the ground. Then who ever was last to the ground was “out”. Then they had previously asked about 10 young children to volunteer and help collect the airplanes which were “out”. At the end it was down to 2 pilots and one winner which was very interesting to watch, BUT, the nice part was that the children which volunteered all got to take home the Airplane AND Radio which they had collected during the event! A great way to introduce new people to our hobby for sure!

All and all our Scorpion Representative Kyle Dahl reported that

“The event was a large success and very good representation for our hobby! Also, our booth was constantly packed with people asking about Scorpion Power Systems! Mikado USA was proud to sponsor such an event and we look forward to sponsoring more events of this kind and supporting and growing our hobby!”

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