Gloom

On Jun 17, 8:06 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:
Mary and I just returned from a wonderful weekend at the Cherokee
Pilots Association national fly-in, held annually in Osage Beach,
Missouri, at the Tan-Tar-A resort. We had a wonderful time, catching
up with old friends, and making new ones. We bought some cool stuff
from the vendors, gave away some hotel certificates to CPA members,
and I enjoyed a marvelous Father's Day flight home.

Appreciate the report Jay. I had intended to go to last year's
shindig, but by the time I got around to doing anything about it there
wasn't any more room at Tan-Tar-A for the fly-in (I don't remember the
details, but basically what I do remember, was that I was "too late"
and was kicking myself).

This year, I didn't hear about it until I happened by one of your
posts, and then realized that it was father's day weekend. It wasn't
always on father's day weekend was it? I certainly don't remember
that from previous years. For some reason I thought it was later in
June. Combine that with the fact that I have a pre-planned family get
away at the the Lake of the Ozark's the following weekend and it just
didn't "fit" for me this year.

To further your gloom, it was also the WACO fly-in at 1H0 this
weekend. And while there were plenty of airplanes on the ramp, it was
not up to previous years. I haven't gotten the details from the
regulars on the field yet as to if the overall numbers were up/down,
but I suspect they were down.

While fuel costs have certainly curtailed some flying, I find my
biggest issue with planning a long cross country is the local
attractions/transportation. I've gone to Tan-Tar-A for a weekend trip
before with the wife and kid and we had a blast, but we were basically
locked into the resort. A one day car rental was over $80 (before
taxes) from the front desk, and $50-60 at the FBO. That quickly
destroy's the value proposition versus driving 3 hours.

Basically I "need" someone at the remote destination, or it has to be
a major city with decent car rentals (and no exhorbitant FBO
surcharges!) in which case I likely have to pay an exhorbitant price
for fuel.

As to OSH, I'll be there this year, (and hope to make it to the R.A.P
party for the first time), but it looks like I'm driving as my other
partners are getting their chance to fly the trip this year.

Brian