Heli Expo 2001 Views

[Pac Rotors]

Well I just packed up the booth and Heli Expo is now complete for another year. I thought it was a good event this year, aparently attendance was down slightly but exhibitors were up a little.

Layout was good, support great except for the union involvement here. I know of another magazine that wanted to move some boxes only about 400 metres from their booth to the main entrance and was told it was going to cost them over a $100 USD. Talk about running a scam.

Good variety of aircraft and products and overall I think it was a good success. Would welcome comments from anyone else that went.

[Bounty Hunter]

I attended all three days and felt the helicopter pilots were over looked by HAI. I know that the convention is for the operators but very little information was aimed at the folks that keep them flying. I also feel there is a big opportunity to identify and educate the people who are not in the industry but are potential supporters and/or users of helicopters. I did get one man, who didn't have a badge, but claimed to live next door to the convention center, visiting my helicopter that I had landed in the convention parking lot. I sat him down in the pilots seat of the helicopter an explained the Bell 430 to him. We had a great conversation on noise reduction efforts by the industry.

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[Pac Rotors]

I would tend to agree that there is not much for the maint dept and the line pilots, more slanted towards the upper management types who buy the aircraft and all the other toys.

I had a lot of people come by the booth giving us some good feedback on my magazine, with many saying its good that someone looks at the industry from an operators standpoint as we are trying to do with Pacific Rotors.

Hopefully next year HAI might start catering it a little more towards the line pilot, since they make up the bulk of the attendees.