Demo Flying on the Fourth of July!
Posted on July 8, 2008 by aaronredbaron
On Friday July 4, 2008, I went up to Olympia Washington to participate in a Fourth of July Demo taking place at the Tumwater Artisan festival. My Friend Brandon Price operates Skyview AP which began doing radio control aerial photography, but has been doing demos at fairs for the last few years. Brandon built a 22 foot long radio control aircraft carrier, which is the centerpiece of his demo routine. He drives RC cars around with trailers full of prizes for kids, and drops candy from a GWS Slow Stick. I did several helicopter demo flights off the end of the property over the blackberry bushes with my MSH Protos 500. When the Sun went down, I did a night flight with my Align Trex 600E, and got incredible response from the crowd of 5,000 to 6,000 people. During the daytime flights a few people watched and clapped. But at night we had a captive audience right before the fireworks, and it was visible enough the entire crowd could see it. People swarmed me after the flight taking pictures and asking questions, and several kids even wanted my autograph. Brandon has big plans for these exhibitions at fairs, and is booked solid through the summer. Brandon’s Aircraft carrier is a work in progress. His goal is to get it fully outfitted with catapult launchers and arresting cables to be able to take off and land entirely by remote. He has a standing challenge issued to anyone who wants to try to build a Scale(ish) Navy model that would have flown from an aircraft carrier, and fly it from and land it on the carrier. I wish him the best of luck, and if he continues to get more response like he seems to be getting, it looks like he will be successful.
