Heli Extravaganza
Chris Mulcahy
cspaced@gmail.com
This time of year, I get to sit back and reminisce about one of my favorite helicopter events, the Heli Extravaganza, held September 22-25, 2016.
Triple Tree Aerodrome, in Woodruff, South Carolina, kicks off the event season for me each year with Joe Nall Week in the spring, and brings it to a nice close at the end of the summer with Heli Extravaganza. Any excuse is a good excuse to visit Triple Tree, but when it’s combined with laid-back heli flying, good friends, and grilled food, it just can’t be beat. There also might or might not have been a mini floatplane invasion at the 3-D pond—at least that’s what I heard.
Triple Tree continues to improve its grounds, and this year was no exception. Behind the iconic airplane hangar, which houses all of Triple Tree’s full-scale aircraft, is a new learning center. This building has a large hall for gatherings, with a number of photo albums that show the beginning of Triple Tree and all of the changes that have taken place throughout the years.
Around the walls and hanging from the ceiling is a beautiful collection of model airplanes (no helis, though!). In addition, there is a room that features approximately 12 RC flight simulators. The televisions are mounted at various heights to accommodate children (and adults), and the simulators are available to anyone who wants to use them during events.
The weather was perfect this year, and long overdue for this particular event (it was flooded out last year). I drove down on Wednesday evening, parked the camper, and didn’t leave until the following Sunday afternoon.
This event truly is a pilot’s gathering. It is not driven by sponsors, so there are no demos running all day long. Pilots of all skill levels feel comfortable enough to fly with everyone else. Laid-back and easygoing seem to describe it best. People fly, then hang out and chat while waiting for batteries to recharge.
Burgers were cooked at lunchtime, and the pilot lunch on Saturday featured fried chicken and sides from a local restaurant called A Taste of Home. Judging from the lack of flying going on during lunch, I’d say the food was a hit.
The FPV course was popular. It seemed like many heli pilots were trying their hands at FPV racing. The course was fun and challenging to fly, and had pilots hanging out there all day. I’m challenging Tim King Jr. to step it up next year so that we can continue to FPV race into the night! Night propellers and gates?
Okay, I admit it. There was a lot of float flying going on. It seems to have become a tradition. Heli pilots bring along their floatplanes, and in between heli flights, they hit the pond and see who can perform the greasiest of landings.
Occasionally, someone clipped a float or caught the wind at the wrong time and ended up with an upside-down airplane floating on the pond. This
resulted in the “wade of shame.” The pilot had to shuffle deep in pond scum to retrieve his or her stricken aircraft. Some of us did this more often than others.
Night flying was a big hit, and I must admit that it is one of my favorite times to fly. The cloudless nights at Triple Tree Aerodrome revealed the stars in all their glory, with the Milky Way easy to trace across the sky.
I used Rail Blades night main blades and night tail blades and two glow sticks from a local Dollar General that I zip-tied to the skids. The Rail Blades work so well for me that I can easily fly with the blades alone. Some of the other night setups that I saw were cool. I’ll discuss night-flying setups in my column next month.
When helicopter batteries were depleted, the foamie airplanes came out. Of course, there was a little tail dunking at the pond, too. There might have also been some skids dipped in the water—I’m not mentioning any names, Robert Montee. There were some epic night-sliding autorotations, duration autorotations, and of course, plenty of down-on-the-deck 3-D.
The crowd cheered, a bull horn appeared, and shouts of “I remember my first flight, too!” urged the pilots to push themselves more.
We also discovered that playing Survivor’s Eye of The Tiger while watching batteries charge in no way helps speed things up.
Everyone had a great time. It’s a beautiful place to spend a week or a weekend, and I look forward to flying
helis there May 13-20, 2017, during Joe Nall Week. A big thank-you goes to contest directors Darrell Sprayberry and Steve Rogers and the rest of their crew for making this one of the best events of the year.
SOURCES:
Triple Tree Aerodrome
www.tripletreeaerodrome.com
International Radio Controlled Helicopter Association (IRCHA)
www.ircha.org
Heli Extravaganza
www.tripletreeaerodrome.com/heli-extravaganza.php
