150's and 172's about the only planes flying!!

I think Margy is talking about appearing IN the event, not just
attending as a visitor.

Ok, that makes much more sense.

In fact, it took us longer to taxi to the museum (when we appeared at
the first "Be a Pilot" day) than it did to FLY to Dulles from
Fredericksburg!

Dulles is no joke. I spent an hour taxiing there once. They were
changing runways, and I was unlucky.

Jose
--
Get high on gasoline: fly an airplane.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
I know some aircraft are parking at the FBO and then getting ground
transport down.


How is this different? You fly into the airport, you park, you go to
the event. Do you have special parking, which is full?

Jose
Yeah, I sucker, I mean I get about 50 pilots to volunteer to work the
day. They stand next to their airplane all day while visitor come up
and ask questions and stare at their planes. We put all the visitors
through a ramp briefing before they go out onto the ramp. Depending on
the pilot (and plane) it's a great opportunity for kids to sit in a REAL
airplane. For the visiting pilot it really is a full day's work. The
museum ramp is about 4 miles away from the FBOs and only open a few days
a year to aircraft. There are two VERY LARGE gates between the museum
and the airport and opening them requires quite a bit of coordination
between a number of lettered agencies.

Margy

Jose wrote:
I think Margy is talking about appearing IN the event, not just
attending as a visitor.


Ok, that makes much more sense.

In fact, it took us longer to taxi to the museum (when we appeared at
the first "Be a Pilot" day) than it did to FLY to Dulles from
Fredericksburg!


Dulles is no joke. I spent an hour taxiing there once. They were
changing runways, and I was unlucky.

Jose
Well, Landmark provides overnight parking for participants who want to
come in early and the taxi from there is at least 5 miles. They are on
the NW corner of the airport and we are about a mile and half south of
the runways and halfway between, but our gate access is on the SE corner
of the airport. So it's a long way, but a very nice taxi for at least a
mile through the woods after you exit the first gate from the main
airport.

Margy

On 5/4/2007 9:20:00 AM, Margy Natalie wrote:

Yeah, I sucker, I mean I get about 50 pilots to volunteer to work the
day. They stand next to their airplane all day while visitor come up
and ask questions and stare at their planes.

Ahh, I am sorry. I mistook your "fly-in spots" to mean any fly-in visitor to
the event, not those who volunteer their time and aircraft. Very neat idea,
there.

Do you only solicit volunteers at Oshkosh?

--
Peter

Peter R. wrote:
On 5/4/2007 9:20:00 AM, Margy Natalie wrote:


Yeah, I sucker, I mean I get about 50 pilots to volunteer to work the
day. They stand next to their airplane all day while visitor come up
and ask questions and stare at their planes.


Ahh, I am sorry. I mistook your "fly-in spots" to mean any fly-in visitor to
the event, not those who volunteer their time and aircraft. Very neat idea,
there.

Do you only solicit volunteers at Oshkosh?

No, the Oshkosh thing wasn't my idea :-). This is only the 3rd year for
the event.

The first year I invited only people I knew really well who I was
absolutly sure wouldn't screw up in the ADIZ and class B. My agreement
with the airport was for 30 aircraft and it worked out fairly well,
although there was some overheating on departures (long taxi, delays in
getting off). We had 2 Harriers from the Marines (Pax River). 1 glider
trucked in.

Year two - I invited everyone from year one back and added a number of
aircraft that were suggested by the GA curator including some antiques
(read no transponders). The FAA was GREAT in working out flights of two
to get the non-transponder equiped aircraft in. The event went to 50
aircraft (workload for me more than doubled and this event is something
I put together in addition to my real job!). We had an F 18 from the
Navy (Pax River). We also added a hot air balloon, more gliders and
hang gliders (if it's trucked in it "doesn't count" in my 50 aircraft
agreement with the airport. Tower said "if your pilots ask for
intersection departures it might get things moving a bit better". So
pilots asked for intersections and if it would help move things along
them got them. Still we had some overheating issues (it's still a LONG
taxi no matter what).

Year three - I've lost my mind and gone to 50 AIRPLANES and up to 10
helicopters. My dance card is full with a waiting list. This is the
first year I've had more aircraft apply than I've had spots as I always
controlled the invite list more closely. I HATE telling people they
can't come. Of course the first two years I had last minute drop outs
and I'd have to hustle, this year it will be a quick email to the next
on the list. I have some really cool hot air balloons coming from NJ

http://www.skychariot.com/

I'm still looking for more gliders, hang gliders, anything than can come
in by truck.

I've got some really cool things that are still not rock solid. I'll
tell you about them when the ink is dry on the paperwork.

AND THAT'S JUST THE OUTSIDE STUFF!!

I always focus on the fly-in part of the day because I organize it. On
the inside of the museum is a full fledged family day organized by one
of the best - Gloria. She manages to get all sorts of individuals and
groups in for the day to provide educational activities and all sorts of
other cool stuff. Kids (of all ages) will have fun all day.

Jen- Our discovery station person manages to hustle up a ton of teenage
volunteers for the day to work lots of discovery stations (we make it
hard on her by timing this perfectly with our high school graduation
weekend!).

So even if the fly-in part gets rained out (I didn't say that did I?)
there will still be lots to do.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

On Sunday there is a huge car show accross the road at Sully Plantation,
hence the new marketing plan "Wings and Wheels Weekend".

So, if you happen to be in Northern Virginia that weekend (June 16) it's
a fun thing to do!

Margy

On 5/4/2007 10:07:23 AM, Margy Natalie wrote:

So, if you happen to be in Northern Virginia that weekend (June 16) it's
a fun thing to do!

An incredible event, it certainly seems. Congratulations on what appears to
be a lot of hard work paying off year after year.

I know my young boys would certainly enjoy attending and I need to give this
one some thought as to how to work it in.

--
Peter

Peter R. wrote:
On 5/4/2007 10:07:23 AM, Margy Natalie wrote:


So, if you happen to be in Northern Virginia that weekend (June 16) it's
a fun thing to do!


An incredible event, it certainly seems. Congratulations on what appears to
be a lot of hard work paying off year after year.

I know my young boys would certainly enjoy attending and I need to give this
one some thought as to how to work it in.

Thanks, It's growing every year and it is really fun and you're right, a
lot of really hard work, but worth it.

Also debuting this year for "Become a Pilot" (if we can get it done in
time) a C-150 inside the museum that, when staffed, kids will be able to
sit in and learn how to use the control surfaces. Of course right now
it's sitting in the barn, filthy and with no wings on. Guess what I'm
doing on Wednesday!

Margy

"Margy Natalie" wrote

Also debuting this year for "Become a Pilot" (if we can get it done in
time) a C-150 inside the museum that, when staffed, kids will be able to
sit in and learn how to use the control surfaces. Of course right now
it's sitting in the barn, filthy and with no wings on. Guess what I'm
doing on Wednesday!

Your old 150?
--
Jim in NC

Margy Natalie wrote:

Well, Landmark provides overnight parking for participants who want to
come in early and the taxi from there is at least 5 miles. They are on
the NW corner of the airport and we are about a mile and half south of
the runways and halfway between, but our gate access is on the SE corner
of the airport. So it's a long way, but a very nice taxi for at least a
mile through the woods after you exit the first gate from the main airport.

For the big airport squeamish (since the taxi route takes you through
just about everything on the airport) and to make the ATC issues easier
we did a taxi for many of us as a "flight" (either me or Michelle in
the lead). This works pretty well except for last year where I kept
telling them (Navion in the lead, five airplanes back to the biplane),
every controller kept asking "is that four planes", no it's five,
everything back to the biplane...(the reason I put the biplane in
the rear, I figured it was pretty distinctive for Dulles).

I used to be based at Dulles (and Margy actually learned to fly
there), but it's much busier now both for the airlines and all the
bizjet traffic that was effectively kicked out of National.

Margy Natalie wrote:


Also debuting this year for "Become a Pilot" (if we can get it done in
time) a C-150 inside the museum that, when staffed, kids will be able to
sit in and learn how to use the control surfaces. Of course right now
it's sitting in the barn, filthy and with no wings on. Guess what I'm
doing on Wednesday!

Hey Margy, I bet Meridian could get that thing shiny in no time all :-)

By the way, Margy didn't mention it, but one of the stipulations of
being "on exhibit" is that you gotta stand around and talk about
your aircraft (which is not a problem for most aircraft owners).
Many of us have let kids sit in, work the controls, and get their
pictures taken in our aircraft.

One thing I observed and Jay and others who were there can also say,
unlike some disaster public fly-ins (the Dulles Special Olympics
Plane Pull event for instance), the public is REALY REALY well
behaved at these. First, I think that they are already in a
"museum" mind set, but the real key is that before they go out
on the ramp, they have to sit through a safety lecture about
not touching airplanes, dangers of propellers and the like.

Of course, a big hit (and oddly with the museum director as
much as with the kids) is our mascot, a four foot teddy
bear named Piper who rides in with me. The first year
he wore my Navion shooting down the Bonanza t-shirt (the
overall director of the Air and Space museum is a Bonanza
owner who declined the offer to bring his airplane to the
event). Last year he wore a shirt that says "Bears Fly"
shirt (mimicking the Woman Fly shirt I wear).