What a ride it was!
The Weak Signals show is an event that allows everyone to see what is new in the industry. It also is a great chance to see all the people in the hobby that you talk to on the phone all year long. The show takes place in the Seagate Centre but it also is experienced through lunches with old friends, long talks in the lobby and crazy nights in the bar. There are a lot of nuances to the Toledo show that can be missed if you don't know where to look. This year, as usual, was great.
I spent most of my time with the RCGroups.com crew. This year RCGroups.com took on a new challenge and put together an indoor open-fly for the people attending the Toledo Weak Signals show. When you do something like that you don't really know what to expect. I'm here to tell you it was a great success. We had around 600 participants total and almost 150 pilots. The system that was worked out by the Flying Tigers club kept people in the air and mid-airs to a minimum. I had the trusty John Seaton with me shooting photos and video of all the action. Jim Bourke officiated the event and did his best to keep the RCG foamies in the air (who needs a rudder?). The lovely Annette S. was the hostess of the indoor and awed the crowd with her graceful raffle ticket choosing skill set. Ryan, from Knife Edge Software, was on hand to keep us grounded. He is the RC zen guru that speaks little but says much. The RCGroups.com models were also on hand passing out flyers and flashing quick smiles....Continue Reading

The RCGroups.com Indoor is getting close. I wanted to personally thank Wayne and Rick for the great attitudes and all the help they have given. It was really a pleasant experience. Now we can't wait to get the to the show!


Weak Signals Site

I have known Jim Bourke for many years. We worked a lot together during my Hobby Lobby years and we cover RC events across the country. I have always wanted to visit the offices of RCGroups and RealFlight but Corvallis, Oregon seemed pretty far away. Well I'm here to tell you it is actually twice as far as that! I booked a flight and the total trip out took close to 10 hours (lay over in Denver). I will also say that Oregon is worth the trip. I have never visited that part of the country and really didn't know what to expect. It is beautiful.

Highlights of Corvallis
1. Home of RCGroups.com and RealFlight
2. Full service gas stations (you can't pump your own gas)
3. No traffic...ever!
4. Nice people
5. Hippies everywhere on bikes
6. The trees along the main drag were taller than the signs. This may not sound like much until you see it yourself. I think the point is that the trees are more important than the McDonald's signs.
7. Great views of the mountains everywhere you go
8. Clean air
9. 3 nice guitar stores
10. 1 great RC store

Jim gave me a tour of the office and I met some of the people I usually correspond with in emails. I also got to see the RealFlight team hard at work. Now let me tell you all the secrets I found out while at the RealFlight office.

NEW FOR REALFLIGHT
1. (*&^*(&(**$ Bl9998&(*888
2. %&%&&^&^&&^(II**9987
3.^%^*%&%^%^%*%&775757
Looks like Jim B. has the RealFlight jammer on, so I...Continue Reading

What is better than a thread about that involves crashes? A thread that has crashes and a prize!

This just in from Jason Cole of Hobb Lobby:

And here it is guys. We had several favorites picked out, so the winner was selected by random drawing and E-MO came up on top with post 199. That crash was something else. At least no one was hurt. I hope you guys had as much fun watching these as we did. Thanks for playing.
E-MO - I sent you a PM about your prize.

Jason Cole
Hobby Lobby