Northwest Model Hobby Expo
Posted on February 10, 2009 by aaronredbaron
Monroe Washington- February, 6-8, 2009- For Decades the Northwest Model Hobby Expo was located in Puyallup Washington. Now in its third year at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, the show is making a comeback. Although the health of the economy was evident, the swap meet aspect of the show was bigger than ever. Some vendors mentioned that Saturday seemed to be the busiest day, with Friday being decent and Sunday being relatively slow. Contrary to years past at Puyallup and other model trade shows, this event event encompassed the new vendor area, flight demo area, and swap meet into one giant building. In addition, radio control cars were in hot pursuit of each other around a small track, an enclosed cage contained the carnage of the robot wars, a variety of very nice flyable models were on display, and a small pond with RC boats proved interesting for all but provided countless hours of entertainment for toddlers. Follwing are some of the highlights of the show.
When it comes to museum quality World War 1 RC kits, Proctor Enterprises is hard to beat. They offer a variety of finely detailed replica airplanes, none of which are for the faint of heart when it comes to building. Proctor kits reproduce the internal construction as much as possible, and implement rigging cables, pulleys, and more custom miniature hardware built to function just like the originals.
Originally just offering landing gear for beginners flying 450 sized helis, Flex Pro has expanded their offerings to include a version for advanced fliers and 500 size landing gear, as well as some innovative light systems. (see our review of their N-Vison light system here) Flex Pro also had some prototype lights for helicopter canopies, as well as their bicycle wheel lights intended to maximize visibility for people riding bikes at night.
Showing off their lineup of Hyperion models and accessories, Quite RC Flying also had the new Emeter V2 with a matching data logger. The meter comes with a small unit you mount on the model, and the meter then is able to display the information it logged after the flight.
Now added to their lineup of built up ARF models is a sweet Hughes H-1 racer. The H-1 set several records in its day and introduced some revolutionary ideas such as flush rivets. Always great looking but difficult to duplicate, the Maxford rendition looks the part.
Although fairly new to the market, RC Aerodyne has an impressive lineup of great looking pre painted fiberglass scale bodies for 450, 500, and 600 sized models. The bodies are designed to fit the popular Align T-Rex lineup, and a full line of 3, 4 and 5 blades heads are available in each size to complete the look.
According to their pamphlet, 3 Sea Bees “offers a limited production of High Quality, Custom Built , Replica RC and Display Aircraft” Their N2-C Biplane is very impressive, as one would expect for the $5400 price on the high end museum quality platinum edition. The airplane is also available in much less expensive almost ready to cover and conventional ARF version.
Always great when you want to build something simple that flies well, JKAerotech offers a selection of simple pink foam airplanes powered by small nitro or electric power systems.
Are you looking to make some decals for your new model or need a banner for your club’s next fun fly? Backwoods Graphics is familiar with the needs of hobbyists, and offers a variety of printing services.
Mega Motors were among the first brushless motors offered, and they have always been a market leader in quality. This author still has Mega motors that have survived nearly a decade of use in multiple airframes! Mega was showing the new RC 53/30/11 outrunner. It is a beast meant to run on high voltage power systems to fly 12 pound aerobatics models or up to 20 pound scale planes.
Offering a line of data logging equipment, Eagle Tree Systems is offering new ex panders for their products all the time. this year they were showing perhaps the coolest gizmo yet, the on screen display (OSD) expander that allows you to display your data on a video signal. The possibilities are exciting for first person video flying. Also offered was a new V3 airspeed and altitude sensor, and a 5 Hz GPS module.
With some help on the West Coast provided by Gus Phillips, KMP’s new sales technician, customers now have more access to the products and getting questions answered. KMP is expanding with a new line of Aerovate gasoline engines being offered from 20cc to 150cc which feature a slim cross section by using a reed valve for the rear mounted induction carb. Also being shown was a prototype pair of electric retracts to retrofit KMP air systems.
This Portland based Internet company is making waves with their low pricing on a variety of motors, speed controllers, and batteries. They were showing off their video goggle setup with an integrated head tracking gyro. The system is pretty cool, but is only meant for cars due to a lack of adequate range for aircraft.
In the swap area I found John Ellingson selling some blinking indicators for your model, synthesized 72mhz receivers, and 2-6 cell LiPo checkers. click here to contact John
I included a video of my demo flying to wrap up this coverage, thanks for reading. Take care and until next time, happy landings!
Regrettfully, I missed it. Thanks for the coverage.
Richard
http://www.iheartheli.com