Your Chance to Design a Fly-In

"With this donation, the joy and wonder of flight will be passed on to
our youth, ensuring a place for them in the sky!"

That's funny, I thought kids or some people are naturally disposed to
the 'joy and wonder of flight...' You can't really 'pass it on' with a
museum in my opinion. Unless there are a lot of hands on things that
are somewhat dangerous most kids don't give a hoot.

I think a flight simulator that looks like an airplane, with a stick and
throttle and moving control surfaces, ought to capture the imagination of
the kids, don't you?

I would bet an endowment for a bunch of 'first flight' fuel purchases
and Young eagle volunteers would be a better way to keep a steady stream
of kids interested in flight.

Ah, now you're jumping ahead a couple of years. This will be the second
annual show, and we hope it will (1) raise public awareness of the airport,
and (2) raise money for an great aviation-related charity.

In future years, we would like to fund a flight training scholarship(s) for
worthy youth, among other things! THEN we will really be helping GA, IMHO.

It seems to me that today the airports and planes are just not as
accessible as they once were - due to cost, perception of danger,
security concerns, etc. Anything we can do to make it easier for kids
to hang around an airport and watch planes would be a great thing. I am
not necessarily against static displays in museums, but kids usually
want to 'do' stuff.

The Childrens Museum is located at our local (quite large) shopping mall,
and it is literally mobbed with kids from age 2 - 12 every day. THIS is the
place to capture their imagination, IMHO.

If we catch 'em there, we'll clean 'em and fry 'em later on out at the
airfield!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay -

Some thoughts, in no particular order....

The DNR water bombers are usually popular with both the kids and the
adults. Besides a static display, a demo during the "air show" portion
could be arranged. Be prepared for a quick exit by these folks, if they
get called out. May is already fire season (depending on weather of
course) up here in Minnesota, don't know about Iowa.

For cool fly bys of military arcft - When I was Technical Director our
local Independance Day Celebration (the largest in the state, and
continues to this day, by the way) about a hundred years ago, it took a
few phone calls to get the right general on the phone, but I started
with the National Guard at Camp Ripley, which is our local base. Within
a couple of days, I had a call back and it was all arranged. Arrived
within 20 seconds of scheduled time, too! Those guys are good. (The
first (or second, don't recall now,) they sent a ground crew up with a
radio (Mil UHF, had to use theirs) that we patched into the PA system.
Crowd thought it was very cool to listen to the pilots as they made
their passes - even got a few words directed to the crowd from the lead
plane.

The Duluth MN airshow a few years ago (its scheduled again for 2006, I
understand) had a large turn out of the Military recruiters (Duluth
being a NG air base) who had all kinds of very cool activities for the
kids. My son spent much time in the Marines (inflatable) obsticale
course. This thing was hugh, complete with ropes to climb and things to
crawl under/thru. It even included genuine Marine Drill Sargents with
the "smokey-bear" hat and LOUD voices.

Local flight school/ FBO offering 15-20 minute plane rides, helicopter
rides...

Don't forget to involve at least one local radio station as a sponsor.

Send posters to airports and such in a large radius - what better
reason to get in the plane and fly somewhere?

Randy

And be very careful of what you call the "contests" (i.e. "flour bombing
contest"). Most aircraft insurance policies have clauses regarding
"contests" and I don't think you want to run afoul of this little glitch.

Jim

The Duluth MN airshow a few years ago (its scheduled again for 2006, I
understand) had a large turn out of the Military recruiters (Duluth
being a NG air base) who had all kinds of very cool activities for the
kids. My son spent much time in the Marines (inflatable) obsticale
course. This thing was hugh, complete with ropes to climb and things to
crawl under/thru. It even included genuine Marine Drill Sargents with
the "smokey-bear" hat and LOUD voices.

You mean this thing: http://alexisparkinn.com/november_'05_open_house.htm
??

We had it at our CAP squadron's open house last week. A really remarkable
piece of equipment!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

That would be it!

Let me rain on your parade a minute to be sure you have considered
insurance. We have tried to do things and run into insurance problems.
The city wants to be named on all policies. Everybody want to me named
on each others policy. It just seems to go on and on. There never seems
to be a blanket solution.

Just be sure you consider this. It may be a full time position for someone.


-------------
Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI


Jay Honeck wrote:
Okay, so I've been "volunteered" to be on the board of directors of the
biggest fly-in event in Iowa City's history, the Eastern Iowa Big Kids Toy
Show, scheduled for May 20 - 21, 2006.

See us at www.BigKidToyShow.com (Yes, they made me wear a -- *sob* -- TIE
for the photos... It was awful! ;-)

This will be the second annual show, so we've got a basic template of events
that looks like this:

Saturday, 7 A-2P
- Fly-In/Drive-In Pancake Breakfast
- Static displays of aircraft (and all sorts of other "Big Kid Toys" like
exotic sports cars, motorcycles, off-road vehicles, motorhomes, boats, etc.
Many car dealers participated last year, naturally)
- Fly-overs by yet-to-be-named aircraft...
- Lunch served by (of course) the Johnson County Pork Producers
- Custom car show
- Lots of stuff for kids (inflatable thingies, etc.)
- Hangar Dance, 8P- ??

Sunday, 7 A-2P
- Fly-In/Drive-In Pancake Breakfast
- Static displays of aircraft (and all sorts of other "Big Kid Toys" like
exotic sports cars, motorcycles, off-road vehicles, motorhomes, boats, etc.)
- Fly-overs by yet-to-be-named aircraft...
- Lunch served by (of course) Johnson County Pork Producers

Show sponsorships are sold to anyone who wants to display their "big kid
toy." So, for example, if a Ferrari dealer wants to put one of his cars on
display, he will have to cough up a few bucks. All proceeds from the show
will go to the Iowa Children's Museum for the construction of an aviation
display! (Isn't that awesome? :-)

We were thinking our local EAA chapter could help construct a nice flight
simulator for the kids, but the museum has given us a HUGE area to fill, so
we could even display a full-sized aircraft along with it!

I'm looking for ideas! I've been to a zillion fly-ins, some terrific,
others lame, and I would sure like to hear from those who have done this
before, so I don't have to learn from my mistakes. What makes a great
fly-in? (Besides good weather, of course) I'm hoping we can get a bunch
of World War II aircraft on display, and maybe some military fly-overs
during the show -- who should one contact for stuff like that?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

("Ross Richardson" wrote)
[snip]
Let me rain on your parade a minute to be sure you have considered
insurance.


Don't forget to ask yourself - "What will happed if we get two straight days
of 45 degrees and drizzle?"

That happened two years ago for our (May 20th) Discover Aviation Days at
(ANE) Anoka County-Blaine, MN

It was a financial disaster! Car parking had supported about 50% of the
event costs over the years ($2 per car). No cars to park in 2004 - I know
this because I was out in the field for those two days, getting wet and not
parking any cars.

On top of that, a few key supporters pulled out so D.A.D suspended
operations. Last year we had a loosely organized open house instead of
Discover Aviation Days. 2005 was a dud.


Montblack

Don't forget to ask yourself - "What will happed if we get two straight
days of 45 degrees and drizzle?"

There is NO admission charge to our show. It is 100% sponsor-funded, with
NO charge to the general public.

Except, of course, for the food. The pancake breakfasts could be a real
disaster with two days of cold rain... But we'd still make money for the
Children's Museum.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:jOcef.544744$_o.315625@attbi_s71...
There is NO admission charge to our show. It is 100% sponsor-funded,
with NO charge to the general public.

Except, of course, for the food. The pancake breakfasts could be a real
disaster with two days of cold rain... But we'd still make money for the
Children's Museum.

Make sure that PIC's get free breakfasts! Around here during the fly-in
season, the local pilots look through the listings of fly-ins and pick the
ones that are free to the PIC. A few fly-ins also offer free breakfast for
the co-pilot. ;-) They usually have a sign in sheet for the pilot for their
aircraft type, N-number and where they flew in from. It's a great way to
tell how many planes have flown in and from where. Helps for advertising for
the next year.

I see you're already listed on http://www.iawings.com/calender/yearly.htm.
You may want to get listed on
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/aero/avof...s/fly-ins.html. Illinois,
Wisconsin, Missouri, etc., should also have similar sites.

One poster suggested setting up temporary air/ground traffic control. Unless
you expect to be the size of Air-Adventure, I don't see that it's needed.
I've been to local fly-ins with 120+ planes flying in and out of smaller
airports (MKT, 0K7, SPW, etc.) within a few hours without need for temporary
traffic control.

I've got your fly-in penciled in! I hope to fly into IOW sometime before
that also.

-Greg B.

I see you're already listed on http://www.iawings.com/calender/yearly.htm.
You may want to get listed on
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/aero/avof...s/fly-ins.html. Illinois,
Wisconsin, Missouri, etc., should also have similar sites.

Thanks, Greg.

Yeah, I had started to announce the event on the internet about a month ago.
Then, the organizing committee darned near fell apart, so I backed off.
(Lots of political crap, as always with these kinds of things. Funny how
that is!)

We're now back on track, with a reconstituted and committed team. I'll be
getting back to sending out announcements soon.

I've got your fly-in penciled in! I hope to fly into IOW sometime before
that also.

Sounds great!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"