military planes this year?

[FlyingRon]

He's Bob HooBear. He's a great copilot. If you didn't catch it he wears a "Bears Fly" shirt (patterned after the Women Fly shirts). A while back someone gave him some "Smokey Bear" pilot wings as well. The 777 was a big hit this year to the detriment of us small guys I think. Usually, I give out about 250 or so of the postcards with a picture of my plane and frequently asked questions (How did the plane get here, where do you fly, how far can it go, ....). This year I only gave out about 150 I think. As soon as people saw that big plane they headed straight for it.

There are people who come to see Bob every year (or his predecessor Piper who was only about half his size).

They measured the clear area weeks ago but this one tree was now leaning over at about a 30 degree angle from vertical. Fortunately MWAA had a chain saw handy and was able to get rid of it, but it delayed us about 45 minutes.


Yeah the taxi is rough. We really wish they could give us 1R/19L-intersection departures which they managed one year, but it really puts a kink into Dulles's system.
Since I have to go back and cook dinner (well this year just ordered pizza) for the ramp workers who come in from out of town after the event, I just taxi up to Landmark.

Fortunately this year my wife got one of her workers to yank people out of line if they got to the gate without their clearance in order which meant there wasn't a backlog just getting out of the Hazy ramp.

[Mayhemxpc]

They tried to yank me out, too even though I had a clearance. (I actually read and complied with the pilot instructions.) To be fair, they probably had no way of telling who had a clearance and who didn't.

But to get this thread back on track… What does it say when United Airlines is willing to absorb the not inconsiderable costs of taking a 777 out of the line, run the GPU and let thousands of people trudge through the plane while out government decides it is not within budget to send an Osprey up from Quantico? Heaven forbid they send an OA-10. Why people might think that they are useful, and find out that they are not "single mission" aircraft. I am glad that the Thunderbirds will be at AirVenture. Do we know if there will be any other military aircraft?

In my mind it is not an issue of cost-benefit for recruiting. It is relations with the public (not "public relations.") These aircraft belong to "We the People" and we should be able to see what OUR military has and talk to the airmen/soldiers/marines/sailors. I am not saying that there is no cost to this or that they should go wherever, whenever asked…but hi-payoff events like AirVenture (with, for the ground-pounders, the Oshkosh truck factory on the other side of the airport) should definitely be high on the priority list.