Ron Wanttaja wrote:

Well, I'd like to hear Sun-N-Fun explain that, myself. Places like movie
theaters and sports arenas ban the items, but a two- or four- hour event in
an air-conditioned auditorium with seating is quite a bit different from a
multi-day outdoor event in 90 degree weather. I've brought backpacks to
Oshkosh and would have been moderately upset if I had been denied entry
because of them. If viewing areas are overcrowded, an ice-chest ban makes
sense, but I suspect that isn't the case at SnF.

As far as banning them for security reasons, it's a damned-if-you-do,
damned-if-you-don't sort of situation. In the post-9/11 world, public
events are taking the most secure route...but, too often, the major driver
is money rather than a desire for a safer venue. It's like the
banner-towing issue; the TSA could implement any level of security approval
necessary, but the open-air-stadium folks don't want them approved at all
because they don't get a cut of the money paid for banner advertisements.

I don't know the SnF staffers, so I can't take a guess at whether they're
driven by security or avarice. But I tend to believe the old saying,
"Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity." :-)

Ron Wanttaja

On the SNF website, the statement "Coolers, backpacks, bicycles,
scooters, in-line skates and skateboards are not permitted on
convention site" is repeated in several places including the sections
dealing with camping and aircraft camping. To me, a policy banning
coolers for fly-in campers is unacceptable.

I have never flown in and camped by my plane at SNF but I have at
Oshkosh. For me, one of the pleasures and benefits of flying in and
camping by my plane at Oshkosh is being able to bring all the food and
beverage I need for the four or five days I stay there. That would be
impossible (for me at least) without a cooler and daily access to ice.
Oshkosh allows campers to have coolers, and ice is available from
private and site vendors (1).

If SNF is going to ban coolers for campers and/or not have daily ice
for sale at a reasonable price then I will not fly to SNF to camp.
Such restrictions would put too much a cramp on my camping style. I
expect many of my fellow campers would agree, including these folks,

http://www.airplanezone.com/Oshkosh/...02/page12.html

I agree with Charlie England, the SNF blanket cooler ban is revenue
motivated and the events of 9-11 just make it easier to sell as
"necessary". I can accept such a cooler ban for daily gate attendees
(of which I might be one this year). SNF will find, however, that
such a policy applied to fly-in campers is self-defeating. I predict
the policy will not last.

David O -- http://www.AirplaneZone.com

1: Oshkosh implemented a "cooler permit" policy (something I've never
quite understood) in 2001. This was before the insanity of 9-11 and
five years after the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. The "cooler
permit" is a sticker (no fee as I recall) that is to be placed on your
cooler. What is the purpose of the cooler permit? Has anyone ever
obtained a cogent official explanation for the Oshkosh "cooler permit"
policy? I keep my cooler in my tent anyway, out of site of potential
Oshkosh Cooler Permit Police.