I’m at Heli Expo in Las Vegas this week. I arrived on Saturday evening after a week on a frost control contract in the Sacramento area. My RV and truck (and boat) were waiting for me, stored at the Sam’s Town KOA (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it) and I moved right back in.

A friend of mine who works for HAI was responsible for guiding in the helicopters that would be on display at the show. They fly in over the course of three days on a tightly controlled schedule and flight path. They land in the back parking lot of the convention center, shut down, and get wheeled into the building. It’s a time-consuming process where safety is high priority. My friend invited me in to watch the show on Sunday, when the last six helicopters were due in. I jumped at the chance.

I used the opportunity to broadcast some of the landings with Periscope. One of these was featured on the Periscope home page and soon had thousands of live viewers. You can find it here. I’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t riveting videography, mostly because of the delay between landings. But enough folks seemed to like it.

When my phone’s battery got low, I cut the broadcast and switched to still photos. Here are two of them.

I’ll be posting additional photos of helicopters on the show floor here and on Twitter. And if all goes well, I’ll broadcast the first departing flights on Thursday afternoon — with a full battery and backup. Follow me on Periscope and turn notifications on to tune in. I’m mlanger there.