The 2023 Heli Extravaganza Sliding Auto Contest - We're Doing It Again! This is always amusing! It's Free!Ready for a break from piro flips, hurricanes, and inverted auto overspeeds? Something relaxing and amusing? Random RC is sponsoring the fourth Sliding Autorotation Contest at the Heli Extravaganza 2023 at Triple Tree Aerodrome. There's no cost to enter and you get a cool T-shirt for participating. (If you haven't registered for HeliEx 2023 on the HeliEx site, do it now!) ![]() Online Sign Ups Are ClosedYou can still sign up on-site if you want to participate in the Contest. Visit the Registration desk in the Pilot Lounge at Triple Tree Aerodrome. (To get a free t-shirt you had to sign up online before August 10, 2023.) The Program
The Contest Rules
The Winners
All three winners will receive:
Expert Instruction and Practice - You can DO this!OK, so maybe you can do autos but you're not completely comfortable about it. Or you're pretty comfortable with autos but you've never slid one. Well, we have a couple guys who can help you. On Friday during the event we'll have an expert instructors, Steve O'Connor and Cliff Lewis who will demonstrate their skill at sliding autos and will provide one-on-one instruction on the techniques you'll want to learn to do massive sliding autos. They'll get you not just comfortable, but ready for the Saturday contest. (And if they're feeling really frisky, maybe we can get one of them to ski the pond 😎 (or at least strap on some floats and shoot autos to the pond) ![]() Steve O'Connor — Instructor Pilot![]() Cliff Lewis — Instructor PilotSkis? Why Skis?Because you can slide like a monster, farther than you've ever slid before. OK, this silliness started several years ago and was made famous by one of our Instructor Pilots, Steve O'Connor, who successfully skied the POND at Triple Tree. Then, Raja Bortcosh asked for some wider skis that would allow him to ski on snow with his gassers. One thing led to another and here we are. The skis are 1/16" thick aluminum, 2-3/4" wide. They'll add about 320 grams to your heli. There's a spreader between the skis that keeps them flat to the bottom of the heli—preventing them from rotating in flight (ask me how we learned this was important). We've got set ups for pretty much anything you bring to the contest, including 8mm, 9mm, 10mm, and 12mm skid pipes as well as Goblin-style CF skids. We've even got a special set up for Diabolo and TDR CF skids. We'll have enough sets of skis to keep guys flying their practice runs and the contest runs without waiting. And of course the winners get to take theirs home. ![]() See you at the Heli Extravaganza! |