AeroExpo Day One

Sloane Helicopters

Day One at AeroExpo. Sywell Airfield in Northamptonshire.
Glorious sunshine and a lot of pilots have flown in. Rows of aircraft flank the tents and few static displays - mostly aeroplanes of course, but a good few helicopters have also flown in. I brought my less than avian Polo.
Not too many helicopter companies though. So far, I have seen HeliAir, training, charter, sales etc and Sloane Helicopters - Air Ambulance, training, sales etc. There is also that wonderful magazine Helicopter Life! People have come by the booth to chat to me but I cannot persuade anyone to come and work the booth for me.
Hayward's Aviation is here in a red bus - they insure pretty much all the helicopters so I suppose you could almost call them a helicopter company - it is a joke Matthew!

HeliAir Helicopters

There are a couple of helicopters for sale here - Robinsons - but not the deluge there was one year at HeliTech, when every other helicopter had a For Sale sign on it.
Many people, both fixed wing and helicopters, have complained how 'flat' the market is. One optimist said he thought it was improving slowly - at least compared to the last two years.
As far as magazines are concerned there was a piece on the radio this morning about a company with local newspapers which is changing its circulation from daily to weekly, because they feel there is not the advertising, or the news, or the market for daily news other than on line. Not a good time for journalists then.