Arlington lays some eggs

This will be a negative post, but hopefully, constructive criticism. I've
been to Oshkosh once, lots of small fly-ins, and every year for the past
eight years to the Arlington Fly-In (www.nweaa.org). Oshkosh is SO big, it
is difficult to take away a lot of lessons that are applicable to smaller
fly-ins, but I regard Arlington as the way things should be done. Not this
year. This year I spent a lot of time building up Arlington to the
non-aviation people I work with, and hopefully, several of them attended. I
hope they weren't disappointed. Below I've listed some of my observations.

1. Where were the signs? Maybe the person that puts up the signs on the
freeway and all the intersections on the way over-slept. But on my way in,
the normal signs weren't there. I even missed a turn and had to backtrack a
mile or so.

2. I got there about 30 minutes after the gates opened on Saturday, and
there were less cars than when I normally get there 15 minutes before the
gates opened.

3, Walked through the gates, and "Where are the Warbirds???" Last year,
the Warbirds and Arlington had a public falling out, but supposedly had made
up. I guess someone forgot to tell the Warbirds. I hadn't realized it, but
the WWII "stagedoor canteen" display was put on by the warbirds folks, and a
lot of people noticed it wasn't there. (I guess it wasn't there last year
either, and I didn't notice?)

4. Noticed a lot of empty airplane spaces. Was told that they had been
occupied on Friday, but that those airplanes had already left. I don't know
if in previous years the closer spots were allocated to planes that were
going to be there for a longer period of time or what. Maybe they
back-filled those spots when the previous airplanes left. Maybe it was
just luck. But it makes a bad impression when the spaces closest to the
public are largely empty.

5. Where was the Civil Air Patrol??? Normally, there are about 180-200
Cadets in attendance, doing outstanding duty. One of the Senior members
told me that he showed up and was shocked to not find any Cadets. Someone
else told me that it was a known thing that Cadets wouldn't be there. About
17 Cadets were there, but it was a disaster. The Arlington organizers went
nuts trying to find any warm bodies to backfill, but it was a losing
proposition. Those volunteers in attendance did a yeoman's duty, but were
over-whelmed.

6. Information was hard to obtain. Were the winds too high for a balloon
glow or not?

7. I don't know the attendance figures (it did pick up quite a bit on
Saturday afternoon), but several exhibitors said their foot traffic was down
by 50% from last year.

8. The exhibition tent was HOT, and the tables weren't being manned with
any regularity. This isn't the organizers fault; exhibitors, if you are
going to spend the money for space, make sure someone is there the whole
time! If you can't tag team and have to take a break, leave a sign that
says when you'll be back, not "Back in 15 minutes", because the shoppers
won't know when the 15 minutes started. This applies to the exhibitors
outside the tent, too.

9. Not everything was negative. The food was great as always (but a little
more expensive, I think). The shuttles were running all the time. The
antique tractor people were there with a good display, as always. Good
airshow. Good runway movies, which leads to #10 below.

10. The runway movie on Saturday night was "One Six Right". Good movie,
also a good movie for boring the kids to sleep! One thing that was stressed
over and over again in the movie was the need for aviation people to involve
non-aviation people. Aviation people talk to each other about how great
aviation is, but their outreach to others is very poor. This is biggest
problem I saw this year. There were radio commercials, but the url they
gave to get more information was long, I couldn't remember it. The
newspaper "things to do this weekend" didn't list the Fly-In. (I have a pet
peeve against the term "fly-in" itself; why would a non-aviation person be
interested in a fly-in? I much prefer the terms "aviation fair", "aviation
celebration", "air fair", "air show", etc.) If I was going for the first
time, I don't know how long it would have taken me to find it; the first
time I went (1998?), there were lots of signs, it would have been impossible
NOT to find it.

Arlington is planning on building a convention center, which will cause the
destruction of many hangers (they will be replaced), and I think this
contributed to "taking their eyes off the ball" and letting the fly-in
proceed on momentum. In the past years, Arlington has gotten better with
each year; not this year. A fly-in (sic) is an organic thing, and it needs
constant care and nurturing or it will decline. I hope this was just a one
year thing, and that next year will be the biggest and best yet. AND FOR
HEAVEN'S SAKE, GET THE CIVIL AIR PATROL BACK!!!

We too, attended Arlington this year - flying in from CYBW (Springbank near
Calgary, Alberta). We have been at the show several times over the past few
years, and were also somewhat disappointed with this year's offering.

I've been to Oshkosh and Sun & Fun, and I've always seen the Arlington show
as a more accessible and friendlier evernt, with more of a concentration on
the affordable and homebuilt/experimental side of aviation. We arrived on
Friday morning and had the usual competent assistance from the ground
controllers at Green Valley in touching down safely.

After landing and parking we took a tour of the grounds.The layout was a
little different from our last visit a couple years ago, but we did see most
of the regular vendors - Van's, Cirrus, New Glasair/Glastar, Murphy, etc.
Eggenfellner was there with a couple examples of the 4 and 6 cylinder Subaru
conversions in flying airframes, which was new from our last visit. Some
great Republic Seabees there, especially an award winning example with a
Corvette powerplant. Among the few warbirds were a couple of Alphajets and
a couple of Thunder Mustang scale replicas.

The first thing that struck me was the RV section of fly-in aircraft was
substantially down on plane count from previous years - normally a huge
turonout of RV's at Arlington. We heard that the weather had been poor
earlier in the week, which may explain part of that (along with the lesser
number of other fly-in traffic parked on the field) - but Friday was perfect
flying weather, and we didn't arrive until almost mid day. There were a few
examples of LSA aircraft manufacturers in a new lineup across from the
Ultralight area, probably less than 10. You could have fired a cannon
through the middle of the Ultralight section and not hit a plane - where in
the past there has been a lot of aircraft and exhibits, this year it was
pretty sparse.

We were considering staying on Saturday as well, but other than new planes
flying in Saturday there just wasn't any more that we needed to see. We
were able to flag down the fuel truck on Friday night, so we headed out on
Saturday morning. Based on this year's showing, we most likely won't be
back next year - I hope that this event was an abberation and not an
indication of a downward trend for the NWEAA show.

"Ken Finney" wrote in message
...
This will be a negative post, but hopefully, constructive criticism. I've
been to Oshkosh once, lots of small fly-ins, and every year for the past
eight years to the Arlington Fly-In (www.nweaa.org). Oshkosh is SO big,
it is difficult to take away a lot of lessons that are applicable to
smaller fly-ins, but I regard Arlington as the way things should be done.
Not this year. This year I spent a lot of time building up Arlington to
the non-aviation people I work with, and hopefully, several of them
attended. I hope they weren't disappointed. Below I've listed some of my
observations.

1. Where were the signs? Maybe the person that puts up the signs on the
freeway and all the intersections on the way over-slept. But on my way
in, the normal signs weren't there. I even missed a turn and had to
backtrack a mile or so.

2. I got there about 30 minutes after the gates opened on Saturday, and
there were less cars than when I normally get there 15 minutes before the
gates opened.

3, Walked through the gates, and "Where are the Warbirds???" Last year,
the Warbirds and Arlington had a public falling out, but supposedly had
made up. I guess someone forgot to tell the Warbirds. I hadn't realized
it, but the WWII "stagedoor canteen" display was put on by the warbirds
folks, and a lot of people noticed it wasn't there. (I guess it wasn't
there last year either, and I didn't notice?)

4. Noticed a lot of empty airplane spaces. Was told that they had been
occupied on Friday, but that those airplanes had already left. I don't
know if in previous years the closer spots were allocated to planes that
were going to be there for a longer period of time or what. Maybe they
back-filled those spots when the previous airplanes left. Maybe it was
just luck. But it makes a bad impression when the spaces closest to the
public are largely empty.

5. Where was the Civil Air Patrol??? Normally, there are about 180-200
Cadets in attendance, doing outstanding duty. One of the Senior members
told me that he showed up and was shocked to not find any Cadets. Someone
else told me that it was a known thing that Cadets wouldn't be there.
About 17 Cadets were there, but it was a disaster. The Arlington
organizers went nuts trying to find any warm bodies to backfill, but it
was a losing proposition. Those volunteers in attendance did a yeoman's
duty, but were over-whelmed.

6. Information was hard to obtain. Were the winds too high for a balloon
glow or not?

7. I don't know the attendance figures (it did pick up quite a bit on
Saturday afternoon), but several exhibitors said their foot traffic was
down by 50% from last year.

8. The exhibition tent was HOT, and the tables weren't being manned with
any regularity. This isn't the organizers fault; exhibitors, if you are
going to spend the money for space, make sure someone is there the whole
time! If you can't tag team and have to take a break, leave a sign that
says when you'll be back, not "Back in 15 minutes", because the shoppers
won't know when the 15 minutes started. This applies to the exhibitors
outside the tent, too.

9. Not everything was negative. The food was great as always (but a
little more expensive, I think). The shuttles were running all the time.
The antique tractor people were there with a good display, as always.
Good airshow. Good runway movies, which leads to #10 below.

10. The runway movie on Saturday night was "One Six Right". Good movie,
also a good movie for boring the kids to sleep! One thing that was
stressed over and over again in the movie was the need for aviation people
to involve non-aviation people. Aviation people talk to each other about
how great aviation is, but their outreach to others is very poor. This is
biggest problem I saw this year. There were radio commercials, but the
url they gave to get more information was long, I couldn't remember it.
The newspaper "things to do this weekend" didn't list the Fly-In. (I have
a pet peeve against the term "fly-in" itself; why would a non-aviation
person be interested in a fly-in? I much prefer the terms "aviation
fair", "aviation celebration", "air fair", "air show", etc.) If I was
going for the first time, I don't know how long it would have taken me to
find it; the first time I went (1998?), there were lots of signs, it would
have been impossible NOT to find it.

Arlington is planning on building a convention center, which will cause
the destruction of many hangers (they will be replaced), and I think this
contributed to "taking their eyes off the ball" and letting the fly-in
proceed on momentum. In the past years, Arlington has gotten better with
each year; not this year. A fly-in (sic) is an organic thing, and it
needs constant care and nurturing or it will decline. I hope this was
just a one year thing, and that next year will be the biggest and best
yet. AND FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, GET THE CIVIL AIR PATROL BACK!!!

You are more than welcome to come volunteer and help out in the setup,
running and teardown of the Fly-In. The only way this even happens is
buy the good graces of 300 volunteers. People who give up free time to
hopefully make your weekend fun and pleasurable.

1. Your comments on the signs will be sure to be forwarded to the
appropriate organizers. They should have been by the freeway. That
being said, in the 12 months between events, holes have a tendancy to
get filled or destroyed by road work. Property owners change and
suddenly we can't use a spot we've used for years. I've done sign
setup, it's not an easy task to get every single one put up.

2. No comment, I never made it to the parking lot this year.

3. I'd suggest directing your comments to the Warbirds. No other EAA
division gets money to attend a Fly-In, why should they? If they want
to buy a million dollar airplane, they should be able to afford the
gas. Otherwise you, the attendee, will end up footing that fuel bill.
The organizers are trying their best to fill in that particular gap.

4. People come and go all the time during the Fly-In, constantly
changing what the overall parking aisles look like. When a group comes
and goes together, that will often leave gaps in the parking areas. We
try to fill those as quickly as possible. Or perhaps they were in the
flyby pattern? I know when all the amphibians went up it made that one
row look very empty. And they were gone for a while over to Lake
Goodwin for the Splash In.

5. Ah... the CAP kids. I suggest talking to the Canadian Air Cadets
legal department. They made a determination that the cadets should not
be around spinning propellers. Brilliant, eh? Well we did have some
Boy Scouts this year to help fill the gap, but yes, there were not
enough kids to help out. The CAP needs to grow their membership in
order to fill that gap left by the Air Cadets. We are also open to
suggestions to other youth groups that show a level of responsibility
and can help out.

6. Who did you ask for information? (As in which department, not
which person) Where did we have a break in communication?

7. I thought, foot traffic was up. But last year I was in a totally
different area. So until I see gate numbers, I really can't say.

8. That's the trouble with those tents and the reason for the new
building you mention later.

9. Thanks.

10. Good comments, and they will be forwarded.

The information you got on the building is way wrong. Nobody is going
to be displaced by its construction. Of the five hangers that will be
torn down, two are used for storage and there are 5 empty hangers
currently to house the 3 planes that will be displaced. So no one is
losing their home. As a result of the new building, we will have a
large, cooled, area for the vendors and possibly the forums too. This
will open up more space to allow even more room for aircraft parking,
and moving those currently placed in the "back 40" closer. All in all
it's a win-win situation. And it's being funded by donations. The
flying community is telling us if they want that building or not. The
eye is definately on the ball.

Again, if you have time, volunteer. That is the ONLY why this Fly-In
happens. Offer up your ideas to the organizers, not just in forums
like this.

wrote)
5. Ah... the CAP kids. I suggest talking to the Canadian Air Cadets
legal department. They made a determination that the cadets should not
be around spinning propellers. Brilliant, eh? Well we did have some
Boy Scouts this year to help fill the gap, but yes, there were not
enough kids to help out. The CAP needs to grow their membership in
order to fill that gap left by the Air Cadets. We are also open to
suggestions to other youth groups that show a level of responsibility
and can help out.


Church groups and Girl Scouts. Ask them now - for next season! For the
Church groups: Men's clubs, Ladies clubs, Youth groups, Neighborhood
Outreach programs, etc.

Senior condos and/or Senior apartments are another great source of willing
people. Bus them over and back, give them a pancake breakfast (and/or
lunch), give them a t-shirt, and they'll give you many hours of enthusiastic
service. Take care of the Seniors and they'll take care of you! :-)

Don't forget the bathroom breaks and "refreshment wagon" for your
volunteers. Bottled Water is the drink of choice for many on a hot day.
ALWAYS have lots of COLD bottled water in the cooler.

Also, some Aviation programs "require" this type of civic
service/volunteering - credits toward graduation. A few years ago we had a
group of 20(?) students from a college aviation program get credit for
working our Airport Open House.


Montblack

On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 wrote:

Again, if you have time, volunteer. That is the ONLY why this Fly-In
happens. Offer up your ideas to the organizers, not just in forums like
this.

A friend of mine went with the intention of volunteering all week, but
came home few days early. He was a little put out at having to pay $10 a
day to camp, when he was there to work for free. It does seem reasonable
that, if someone is helping out, he should be able to pitch a tent for
free.

-Dan

We flew in a big aluminum tube and found time during a week of visiting
old and new friends to see Arlington for MY first time. Aside from a
frightful sunburn (note to self: it's an airshow, I'll need my hat!) I
found it entertaining and fairly busy. Even got to meet the charming
and talented Ron Wanttaja, who can look relaxed and at ease lounging in
the shade of a LOW wing homebuilt...pretty good for a guy who's not short!

This year makes, my 5th or 6th continuous year attending
Arlington. It is my first that I've been there without my kids
(they're off visting Grandma in Michigan), but the only with my
older, non-pilot brother.

As usual, we arrived as early Friday as we could and left early
Sunday morning. I always camp at Arlington as it wouldn't feel right
otherwise.

I didn't see anything new this year that I would say that I objected
to. One constant gripe I always have have (but never have gotten
around to voicing) is that the posted forum schedules are unreadable
from 2 feet away. Why can't they be printed just a bit bigger so you
can see them without elbowing everybody away.

I also have never quite understand their plane parking scheme. Due
to when we came in we ended up being parked a fair way out. I
understand that and its ok. However, there were people who showed up
late Saturday and they still got parked way out, despite there being
ample spots available closer in.

For the first time since going it looks like the fuel provider got
their act togather. You could schedule ahead your fuel purchase and
they actually showed up when they were supposed to. In the past,
they would get you when they could, but you never knew how long that
was going to be.

Another nice thing that hasn't always happened is that the ballon
guys got to fly every morning. In years past weather (I assume) kept
them away. Nothing quite like rolling out from under the wing of the
plane and saying good morning to a couple of guys 30 feet over your
head.


As a contrast, I had attended the Golden West Fly-in in Marysville,
CA a few weeks back. I much prefer Arlington. Much friendlier.
Better organized (IMHO).

Oh wait, there is something that ticked me off about Arlington this
year. We arrived on Friday just as the clouds were breaking up.
Lots of planes over Green Valley. WAS I THE ONLY ONE WHO READ THE
@#$^& NOTAM!?! I was simply amazed at the bozos ahead and behind me
that kept yammering on the radio. I had a (I think) BD-4 come by
(close) against the traffic between Green Valley and the city of
Arlington. Talk to one guy on the ground while he was packing up on
Saturday at about 1:30 PM. Reminded him that the field was closing
at 2:00 for the airshow. "What? Why don't they tell us that!"
When I told him that it was in the NOTAM, he admitted that he had
never seen it. "Couldn't find it on the computer".

--
Frank Stutzman
Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl"
Hood River, OR

("Frank Stutzman" wrote)
When I told him that it was in the NOTAM, he admitted that he had never
seen it. "Couldn't find it on the computer".


#1 Hit) Google: Arlington 2006 + NOTAM
http://www.nweaa.org/flying.cfm
In pdf.

#4 Hit) Google: Arlington 2006 + NOTAM
http://www.faa.gov/ntap/NTAP06JUN08/as06006.htm
HTML

Geez!


Montblack

Ken Finney wrote:
This will be a negative post, but hopefully, constructive criticism. I've
been to Oshkosh once, lots of small fly-ins, and every year for the past
eight years to the Arlington Fly-In (www.nweaa.org).


I have been going since 1972 and found this to be one of the best ever.
I guess some people will always find something to complain about.

Jerry

On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 06:40:08 +0000 (UTC), Frank Stutzman
wrote:

sinp

Oh wait, there is something that ticked me off about Arlington this
year. We arrived on Friday just as the clouds were breaking up.
Lots of planes over Green Valley. WAS I THE ONLY ONE WHO READ THE
@#$^& NOTAM!?! I was simply amazed at the bozos ahead and behind me
that kept yammering on the radio. I had a (I think) BD-4 come by
(close) against the traffic between Green Valley and the city of
Arlington. Talk to one guy on the ground while he was packing up on
Saturday at about 1:30 PM. Reminded him that the field was closing
at 2:00 for the airshow. "What? Why don't they tell us that!"
When I told him that it was in the NOTAM, he admitted that he had
never seen it. "Couldn't find it on the computer".

We were thinking the same thing. The NOTAM clearly states (I'm
paraphrasing here) to KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT AND LISTEN.
Drive your airplane to where the NOTAM tells you to drive it (Green
Valley), watch for other aircraft and LISTEN for instructions. I flew
up twice (Friday and then Saturday) and didn't have to say a word to
anyone either day....

I swear 9 out of ten gomers out there were calling "Arlington
Approach" with their aircraft type & full N numbers blabbing on about
where they were and asking for instructions on how to get to the show.
A couple of years ago, we heard a gal call "Arlington Approach" 25
miles south asking for instructions....

As far as the fly-in goes, the organizers and the warbird guys need
to figure things out and quit fighting over money. On the one hand,
if you can afford to own and fly a million dollar Mustang or Corsair
or whatever, you can afford to fill the tanks with your own money. I
understand some warbird guys will often decline free fuel in an
attempt to "help out" the organizers of fun-to-attend events. The
other side of that coin is if you want rare, crowd-pleasing and/or
desirable warbirds to show up to your event, you just might have to
dig into your pockets a bit to make it happen.

Also, I think a lot of the vendors might be struggling with shlepping
their schtuff all the way to the west coast only to have to pack it
all up and head for Oshkosh shortly after Arlington is over.

My personal observation is that I'm not having as much "fun" there as
I have had in years past, but it still made for an enjoyable weekend.
Nice weather always helps! Last year we got there OK but had
to put down in Renton on the way home and sit there for several
hours waiting for a break in the weather...

Bela P. Havasreti

PS: The field closed @ 3:00pm on Saturday for the airshow