This Year's Fly-In Improved In Some Ways, But Attendance Was Mostly Miserable

By ANN Associate Editor Juan Jimenez

The EAA Warbirds Association makes arrangements every year to have all their members who are coming to SNF to stay at the same hotel in Winter Haven, home of Cypress Gardens. At one time Cypress Gardens was -the- attraction to see in Florida. On the day SNF 2004 closed, a developer who had bought the property with local and state government assistance was presenting his plans to try to revive the park with a $35 million investment over the next 18 months. Winter Haven is but a few miles and a buck-fifty in ever-present Florida tolls from Lakeland.

Nevertheless, on a visit to Winter Haven's Applebee's restaurant by a gaggle of tired and hungry ANN'rs, the waitress had no idea what the bright orange bands on our wrists were for. In fact, she didn't even know there was a fly-in in Lakeland -- but at least she knew where Lakeland was located (it was a test). The cashier at Eckerd's was not aware of SNF either. Neither were the nice ladies at the interesting Amish cooking style diner just a few blocks from ANN's offices.

I will grant you that perhaps I am stretching things a bit. Maybe. There is, however, a foolproof way to find out if such is the case. Try to find anyone within a 50 mile radius of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at any time of the year, who does not know about the AirVenture fly-in. Seems to me that if people are going to come to the airshow, and if locals represent the lion's share of potential attendance, the locals need to know the airshow exists, no?

This might be one of the reasons why attendance numbers this year continue to behave like the proverbial pig that tried to fly. We will undoubtedly have to wait for the numbers to be published, and for the obligatory comparisons between the Polk County Tourism Board filing and the IRS documentation. I predict that the numbers will be at least 25% lower than last year -- on all but Saturday there were virtually no lines to buy lunch between noon and 1:00 PM. I remember when it took 15 to 20 minutes just to navigate the lines. Those were the days.

Before anyone accuses me of looking only at the negatives and ignoring the positives, let's cover the good news.

The selection of food from the various concession owners was much better this year. I talked about that in the piece I wrote last week about attendance and food. This year, patrons could choose from cuisine ranging from "turn your veins into barbed wire" carnival-style fare, to Greek salads complete with an excess of very good Calamata olives and Feta cheese. The menus features Chinese, Italian, Mexican, American and German food, among others. There was no shortage of veggies to choose from, and Margaritaville outdid itself during the breakfast hours. If you looked closely, you could even find great coffee and wake-up-the-dead espresso!

The next improvement that was very much welcome was the clearing of the parking lot at the approach end of the ultralight runway. Cars were not allowed to park in an area the width of the runway plus one row at either side. The space was more than adequate and I am sure that more than one pilot was grateful for this, particularly during periods of gusty winds.

A clear, well-defined procedure was put in place to manage information resulting from any accident or crash, of which we saw an unfortunate few during the show. However, I am not sure I understand why Randy Henderson had to navigate his airplane in the middle of a gaggle of cars just to get from the airshow performer's staging area to the hangars. That "conga line" passed me as I was leaving Choppertown, just before Randy's prop strike incident, and I thought that there was an excess of cars in that operation. Anything other than one in front and one in the rear is one too many, and those people who cannot get through the day without getting in the "conga line" ought to walk, not drive.

The aircraft handlers in the various parking and camping areas seemed to be doing a good job, but as usual some of those folks let their egos, and not their brains, dominate their actions. A good example of this was the decision to move Cozy IV serial number 0001 from one parking spot to another in the homebuilt area. The person directing the movement obviously didn't give an iota of thought to the condition of the grass field, and guided the aircraft straight into a pothole without giving a second thought to the clearly communicated misgivings of the pilot. The impact pushed the nose strut motor straight through the gears.

The aircraft was fixed in time for the end of the show, but that's a subject about which I will soon write. Those folks in the Composites Workshop are miracle workers that deserve a medal for their dedication.

Every year I perform my usual non-scientific sampling of vendors to get a feel for how the show is going in terms of their return on investment. After all, it costs a god chunk of money to sign up for a booth, not to mention getting there, lugging all the inventory, paying for the hired help if you need it, and so on. This year SNF vendors gave the show mixed reviews, but the majority said business was a bit better than last, even though attendance was clearly lower. Saturday seems to have been the day to make up for the rest of the week of the show.

All in all, I must say that I get the impression that the show is still in decline, but may perhaps be scraping the bottom of the curve. What happens now is going to be entirely up to the governing body of the show, and they had better get to work on improving things not only externally, but also within their own internal ranks. Word has it that the movement to start a competing EAA-type fly-in and airshow in a nearby location has picked up steam and some major sponsors as well.

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