RC HELICOPTERS
ROTOR LIVE 2025
By James Wang | heloeditor@gmail.com
ROTOR LIVE is the largest RC helicopter show in Europe. It is held every March near Baden-Baden, Germany. This year marked the 13th anniversary, with 3,000 enthusiasts attending to see the many new helicopters that were unveiled and two days of flying demonstrations from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is put on annually by Rotor, the longest-running German helicopter magazine; it is also now the world’s only remaining monthly RC magazine dedicated to helicopters.
ROTOR live is not a fun-fly event. The flying demonstrations and 3D competition are only for professional factory pilots. I highly recommend the event because all helicopter-related manufacturers around the world now use ROTOR live as the venue to debut new products, and the best-of-the-best sponsored pilots put on incredible flying performances. The trade show is spread throughout two floors, and there are 50 companies. A third floor serves excellent German bratwurst.
Numerous, impressive giant-scale helicopters were flown. Popular in Europe, these models have a rotor diameter of 2 meters and can weigh more than 20 kilograms (approximately 44 pounds). They used to be powered by turbine engines, but they are now electric powered.
Mikado has focused on its radio system for the last few years, but this year, the company is back in the helicopter scene with a new Logo 580 for 6S batteries. Mikado also reintroduced its Logo 200 with a new EVO micro receiver and flybarless gyro running on new V8 software. It also updated the Logo 700 by shortening the main rotor shaft, stiffening the main frame, and getting rid of the tailboom support.
Goosky introduced two new medium-size helis, an RS5 running 550mm main blades and an RS6 running 600mm blades. The mechanics are identical, but the difference is the tailboom length. I like the company’s Bell UH-1 microscale helicopter that uses the RS2 mechanics but incorporates a new gyro stabilization system and GPS. The UH-1 can hover hands-off and has an automatic return-to-home feature similar to a DJI drone.
The medium-size helicopter seems to be the most popular sector this year, and almost every helicopter company introduced one or two 500- to 600-size helicopters.
OMPHOBBY introduced its new 550-size M5 helicopter and a 600-size M6 helicopter. Tron unveiled its 550-size Tron 5.5 helicopter that sports a cool-looking canopy with distinctive straight lines and edges and updated its Tron 7.0 with a similarly shaped canopy.
SAB displayed the fuselaged 420-size Mini Genesis Goblin and announced a new IL Goblin 520 that is slightly bigger than the iconic Goblin and Raw 500 helicopters. It utilizes 520mm main blades, 82mm tail blades, an 800 Kv motor, and the battery
YGE, from Germany, unveiled its 185-amp 12S ESC that has a built-in 12-volt-output battery eliminator circuit (BEC). Servo companies will soon introduce 12-volt servos. YGE’s new electric fan has a temperature sensor to turn the fan on automatically.
slides in from the rear. All of the new 520- to 600-size helicopters can use 6S 5,000 mAh LiPo batteries. Heli-Professional, a Swiss company, displayed its new SoXos Strike7.1 Limited Edition and a 700-size Strike7.1 light version powered by a 6S battery.
A common trend among all of the new helicopters that were introduced is that tailboom support struts were not used.
Start planning your visit to the 2026 ROTOR live!
SOURCES:
International Radio Controlled Helicopter Association (IRCHA)
www.ircha.org
ROTOR live
www.facebook.com/ROTORlive
www.rotor-live.de
Mikado
info@mikado-heli.de
https://shop.mikado-heli.de
Goosky
sales@goo-sky.com
www.goo-sky.com
OMPHOBBY
biz@omphobby.com
www.omphobby.com
Tron Helicopters
support@tronhelicopters.com
www.tronhelicopters.com
Goblin/SAB Group
sales@goblin-helicopter.com
www.goblin-helicopter.com
Heli-Professional/SoXos
info@heli-professional.com
www.heli-professional.com
Young Generation Electronics (YGE)
www.yge.de/en/
ROTOR live features two floors of an indoor trade show, where companies debut their latest technologies and offer products at special show prices. In front is the Vario Helicopter booth.
Goosky’s expert 3D pilot, Biao Dong, test-flies every RS2 helicopter that is made. The new scale Bell UH-1 helicopter (R) with gyros and a gPS allows hands-off hovering and return-to-home.
This 20-kilo Hughes 500 helicopter uses W-brand aluminum rotor blades that are made in Germany.
The owner of this giant-scale Hughes 500 modified a trailer just to carry it and a Bell Huey Cobra helicopter.
