That's not a bad idea, but even if the schedule is reduced, it should be published somewhere and then actually followed. I certainly could use the exercise but my kids are pretty little and there are also many elderly folks at the show - it can be a challenge for either the young or the old to walk from, say, the ultralight area (where we usually tried to eat dinner and watch the ultralights & powered parachutes) back to near the Hilton where we were camped. Again, if the schedules are published somewhere, we could at least choose not to do that when we know the kids will be too tired to walk that far, and if we know there will be no bus or tram, for example.Originally Posted by Kamic
As the original poster, I don't recall saying that I thought the N40 bus was the property of the GAP/GAC folks. I know lots of non GAP/GAC people who use the bus all week to go to the Hilton or up to the Weeks hangar or whatever, and that's great - as you said, we (GAC) certainly use the S40 bus from time to time. As I tried - perhaps unsuccessfully - to illustrate in my original post, there were two specific issues I had:
1) People walking in the gates from outside and wandering around, looking at tents, etc. (Looking at planes is great - looking in tents is less great.) Also, people setting up tents without airplanes or even camping registrations - not that I think everyone has to fly in to the show, of course, but it is a little weird to see some guy just walk up and pitch a tent in an open area without a plane in the airplane camping area, ya know?
2) People using the N40 bus as a shuttle to free car parking. As I mentioned, after the Sat night airshow, there were literally hundreds of people waiting for the N40 bus - each bus holds almost 100 people when you count people standing in the aisle, and there were 3 or 4 buses before we got to the head of the line, with at least another couple of buses worth of people behind us. And again, on the bus we got on, of the 100 or so people on board, exactly 5 of us did not get off at the pedestrian gates leading out.
Again, I am not saying that we (GAC) somehow "own" this bus. I'm just saying that it's inappropriate for hundreds of people to be using it to bypass where they are supposed to be parking, and that I was concerned (this year, for the first time) about some of the people walking into the campsite from off the grounds.
On the flip side, when I went back to read my original post, I see that I complained a lot more than I complimented when in reality the things I complained about were very minor annoyances in an otherwise wonderful few days, so here are some more of the "good" things this year, aside from what I mentioned originally:
- Night time airshow and fireworks were really really great. I know for my kids, it was the highlight of the week, and I thought it was pretty cool too!
- Facilities are getting better each year (or maybe I am just discovering new flush toilets around the grounds, etc.) The sealed roads and additional flush toilets were great.
- Fly-In Theater: This was the first year we went to a show (George Lucas/"Red Tails" and Apollo 13) and it was much better than I had anticipated. Even free popcorn!
- Weather was great, for the most part. I know some were complaining about the heat but mid-80s felt pretty nice after the triple-digit temps much of the country has been suffering this summer.
- Bugs were better than in years past, too.
- I thought there was a good mix of programs, from the Rutan & Hoover tributes to seeing the 787, etc.
- Spending time walking around admiring the homebuilts and vintage planes is always a great way to spend a morning or evening.
Steve Lin
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