Let's make this even more basic: When I was a kid (back in the
Jurassic age) one of our local GA landing strips offered a day for the
general public to go up in the air. This meant that Mom, Pop and the
little darlin's had an opportunity to (a) fly in an airplane - just
once over the airstrip - and land, (b) get their picture taken with
the plane and pilot, and if my memory serves me, (c) get a
commemorative T-shirt (kids only). The purpose was, of course, to
help the curious understand what's so great about getting off the
ground, and to plant seeds in the fertile brains of the children.

Over the years, many airstrips have become old men's clubs, completely
unwelcoming to the outsider. The support that the older pilots tried
to build up evaporated, and those that are trying to build or rebuild
community ties with fly-ins seem to lack the knack for publicity and
for being good hosts.

We had a local fly-in recently. The host EEA group stated that they
wanted the public to come up and observe. Why, we never found out.
However, the local public never saw an article explaining what a fly-
in is, or what to expect, or that they were welcome. If someone
ventured up there, they saw groups of pilots and their families and
friends gathered in tight knots around their planes. More than one
curious attendee was hesitant to approach the clique. There was no
central place to get information or to talk to a greeter. The main
tent was parked in an out-of-the-way corner of the strip as to make it
a private club. I doubt the event did anything to garner more
interest in GA, although I'm sure the participants came away in the
warm glow of their own superiority.

This isn't the way to build the ranks. A close read of Ken Finney's
post at the top of this thread gives several excellent pointers on how
to make friends and influence people. The trick now is to get off our
collective butts and do it. With GA numbers dwindling and the general
public not seeing what's so bad about losing a local airport to a
strip mall, crunch time is at hand.

AJ