Shawn Miller
Heliman
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
| 2nd Annual Southern California R/C Helicopter Classic 2001 event followup
by Shawn Miller Event CD
Success!! We had another outstanding event here at the Apollo XI facility, thanks to all the wonderful sponsors and pilots that joined us from all over the world. Last years event was great and we weren’t sure we could duplicate it, but I have to tell you that was not the case. Most of last years pilots not only made it a point to return this year they brought new pilots along with them. I want to make sure to thank you again for all your support. Many of you know how hard it is to put one of these events on. Those of you who came out and joined us understand we do this first and foremost to help expand our form of the R/C hobby. Secondly, but as important is the help to new pilots just getting started by creating an environment which brings manufacture reps out to teach safety and proper setup to everyone who asks. Our last three helicopter events, brought manufacture reps from almost every major helicopter manufacture and great support from the key hobby suppliers across the country. These events would never happen take place without this level of support. Next time you attend one of these events please take the time to say thank you to a Rep or supplier. Remember what they do is not all fun, they work very hard to help our clubs and pilots.
We have been very fortunate at our events to be able to demo new products before release from the manufacture. It’s always a real treat to see new product before anyone else. Let me say thanks to Bob Wilcox for his endeavors to get the new turbine helicopter over from Germany. Unfortunately, due to time constraints that wasn’t possible. Bob is working diligently though to ensure next year the turbine will make its American debut.
Last years event went to help pay for some long over due maintenance needed within the Apollo XI facility. This year proceeds will be used to help build a new R/C helicopter only area and a new Park flyer area within our facility.
We have already begun contacting major corporate sponsors for next year, to help us make this the first full 3D competition to rival the IAM event overseas. Todd Bennett (one of the top 3D pilots in the world) planted this seed to me for hosting the first 3D competition in the US. He has supported all of our events and Todd thank you. Anyone interested in aiding us in this effort please contact me, at shawn@usinter.net.
ACE Hobbies (Thunder Tiger distributor for the US) is our first corporate sponsor for next year’s event. Another exciting note is Curtis Youngblood will attend next year’s event (schedule permitting). Note: Curtis wanted to join us this year, but due to the World’s he was practicing.
Oh, did I forget to tell you we set an unofficial world record at this event by flying 20 inverted helicopters at the same time for one minute. This should be made an official world record very soon. Dabling Harward did a wonderful job orchestrating this attempt. He pre-qualified every pilot to ensure the safety and success of this world record. This could have been a disaster waiting to happen without all of his preparation efforts. Dab thanks from everyone at the event for making sure safety came first.
Dabling also ran all the competitions. He spent three days standing in the hot sun to make sure everyone had a chance to participate in all the different events. Thank you again Dab for all your hard work and I know that all the pilots that participated in the competitions appreciated your willingness to stand in the hot sun for hours on end.
Once again the Valley Flyers and I want to say a special thank you to Walt Ferar and Eric Pacheco for attending our event and supporting us with the heli challenge. Because of these two men’s efforts I know of four soon to be helicopter pilots which we will all be seeing in the near future at the events.
I don’t even know where to start when it comes to thanking Mark Ryder, a member of the Valley Flyers and the owner of Runryder.com. Mark setup a photo shoot booth at the event and was taking pictures for free of all the pilot helicopters. He also did most of the other photos at the event. Please make sure you check out his site, http://runryder.com and thank him. Runryder is very well done.
Last but not least I need to thank my administrative staff that worked the registration booth and the frequency control area, David Sabbah, Jermaine Clark, Mitchell Kahn, Charlie Wallace and my wife, Carol Miller. Without their three days of hard work and dedication we would not have had a successful event. What seems to be a thankless job to many is one of the keys to making this a safe and enjoyable event. Also I thank the many pilots who made a point to say thank you to each and everyone of them. Note: Carol is now serious about flying R/C helicopters herself due to of the all the wonderful people she met during her first event. So I would personally like to thank all the pilots and their encouragement to Carol to continue to pursue the hobby with me. There are also two unseen key people I want everyone to know about who are also responsible for the success of our events. Harvey Elmes (club President) and Willie Gardner (field manager) of the Valley Flyers. Without these two individuals help and support things would not have gone as smooth as they did. Thanks again guy’s from everyone at the event.
As always I try to visit with all the pilots at some point during the event to get their feedback about the good stuff and the stuff that needs improvements. Last years hot ticket item was event t-shirts. Note: I want to thank you Diana Myers, for your efforts to ensure we had event t-shirts this year and also your efforts to have club t-shirts produced. All in all everyone was very happy with how the event was run. We did have one issue from a small number of pilots, who thought the registration fee’s of $30.00 was too high. Well, I did the math from last year’s event and also looked at the fees being charged for one and two-day events all over the country. At $10.00 a day an event of this caliber is a great deal. I understand that some pilots don’t stay for all three days but during this event we only lost 6% on Sunday so 94% of our pilots participated 2.5 days.
Now I need to address a major issue of mine with the level of support from the helicopter pilots within our own club. Over two thirds of our helicopter membership did not participate in our once a year event. Let me remind you that this event was created for you by your request. I don’t understand why our own members don’t support their event, which has raised and continues to raise money for improvements in our flying site. People come from all over the world to attend what has become the best event on the west coast. Something is wrong I don’t quite understand what but because of the lack of support from my follow R/C helicopter members I am stepping down as the VP of the Valley Flyers board of directors. It is very hard to continue to support and fight for a group that does not seem to care about what happens within their club or the facility they choose to fly at. I will still continue to be a club member.
If you don’t want to lose what you have at the field or your position within the club I encourage you to start supporting and participating in your club and the field you fly at. For those of you that came out to support the event I thank you, the Club thanks you and I hope you had a great time.
I have spent hundreds of hours and over a thousand dollars of my money to try and make this the best event it can be. The pay-off for me is when every pilot takes the time to say “thank you I had a great time please do this again next year.” So yes next year I will do the event again but only because of the pilots that spend hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars just to get here to be part of this event and not for any other reason.
For more detailed event information and pictures please check the clubs website. Valley Flyers On-line |
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