Tuesday, September 11, 2012

What An Awesome Turnout!

Photo by Del Angelo
It was beautiful Saturday and a I think a huge success for this year's Wings 'N' Wheels show at my home airport of Craig Field (KCRG) in Jacksonville, Florida.  I got to the airport before sunrise to put my plane out on the ramp so I could also attend the morning Men's Ministry at my church.  At that time my plane was the third one on the ramp and only a few cars were just starting to arrive.  When I returned at 9:00 am, the row of planes was full and the multitude of cars went on forever!  It was awesome!

I opened the doors to my plane, set up my chairs, and waited for the public to arrive while I chatted with some of my fellow aviators.  I met a lot of great people and had some enjoyable conversations with a lot of folks throughout the day.  I put out a little display with information about the Bahamas Habitat which garnered a lot of interest.  I even met and chatted with one gentleman who was there with his wife that recognized my plane and me from this blog!  Pretty cool!


Participating in this event was rewarding, but I did have a few people that tested my trust.  Towards  the beginning of the show I had one family come by who's son promptly tried to jump up on one of my wingtips and try to hang from the nav light/strobe assembly.  I of course politely, but forcibly intervened as the parents did nothing.  Needless to say that made me realize  I would not be closing up the plane at different times and wandering around to see for myself what was at the show.  So therefore I do not have a lot of cool plane and car pictures to share.  There was only a small handful of people that obviously had no respect for the displays, but that did not diminish my enjoyment in the day.  I had a great time and hope to do it again!


At the end of the day I did get to walk down the ramp to see David Marco's beautiful Lockheed 12A Electra that is based at my airport.  Just a gorgeous plane.



5 comments:

  1. As an airplane owner and former museum docent, seeing that sort of behavior (grabby kids with parents who fail to correct that behavior) makes me grit my teeth.

    We were at a fly-in breakfast Sunday morning with friends and wandered over to look at a Cirrus SR-22. Immediately after I reminded my daughter not to touch the airplane, another family wandered over. The father plunked one of his kids down on the wingtip and growled at his wife to hurry up and take a picture before the owner came back. If looks could kill... But my stink-eye was either ignored or passed unnoticed.

    Beautiful Lockheed, though!

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  2. Perhaps stationing your German Shepherd with her handler, Mary, in front of the plane during your breaks to look around would be an effective deterrent to ill-mannered children. :)

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  3. Ahhhh.....I remember the corvette car show days well. Some parents don't bother to teach their kids anything, for that matter the parents didn't show much hope either.

    After a few shows and having to guard both the 81 and 90 I decided to not attend with cars, instead, walk around and enjoy the show.

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