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SnF 2022 PIREPS / Photos / etc...

Vans had a 10 and 14A in their booth. I understand that the company is focused on getting kits out the door, but the booth was quite underwhelming for them being the leader in EAB aircraft. They had a few hats and shirts for sale but otherwise not much.
 
Vans had a 10 and 14A in their booth. I understand that the company is focused on getting kits out the door, but the booth was quite underwhelming for them being the leader in EAB aircraft. They had a few hats and shirts for sale but otherwise not much.

They have been de-emphasizing SnF for several years now. SnF ain't what it used to be from an Experimental standpoint.
 
Yeah, the problem is a lot of vendors have a limited budget for these kind of events. They long since figured out that the return for the SnF investment was marginal at best. For some the decision has been to skip SnF altogether and focus only on Osh. For others with deeper pockets, like Vans, they show up but with a significantly scaled back presence. It is what it is.

As for the show, I was only there briefly today, but the vendor areas seemed robust, especially compared to last year and the crowd pretty large for a Tuesday. I work in the volunteer kitchen where we make sandwiches for all of the volunteers and orders for today were up at least 30% from last year. All that means is there’s an up tick in the number of volunteers but it’s a indicator that this might be a really good SnF this year. Weather is looking good for tomorrow and crappy Thursday (front coming through) but the weekend looks fantastic (highs in the 70s which is mild for us this time of year) so with the Thunderbirds here over the weekend I predict an awesome finish.
 
Vendors

The vendor pay anywhere from $1500+ to $2500+ depending on where they are located in buildings. Or more so they have to sell a lot of merchandise. Vendors like Vans have to get people to buy kits. Caps and t-shirts won’t pay for a space.
 
Vans had a 10 and 14A in their booth. I understand that the company is focused on getting kits out the door, but the booth was quite underwhelming for them being the leader in EAB aircraft. They had a few hats and shirts for sale but otherwise not much.

They're saving it all up for the 50th Anniversary bash on Monday night at Airventure!
 
The vendor pay anywhere from $1500+ to $2500+ depending on where they are located in buildings. Or more so they have to sell a lot of merchandise. Vendors like Vans have to get people to buy kits. Caps and t-shirts won’t pay for a space.

Plus the travel, food, and lodging costs which is more than the booth cost. Aurora’s a heck of a long way from Lakeland.
 
No Amish Donuts!

In a tragic turn, Peachy's Bakery the giant donut vendor, was not there today and rumored not to be coming at all...Made the hangar walk very tough without my morning sugar rush!
 
I'm heading east in the morning, should be about 6 hours nonstop for me at 17,000', burning about 45 gallons. See you soon!
 
RVs Get sold on performance, not talk. I’d guess a majority of us built/bought em without visiting any Vans booth. No need for them to spend excessive dollars.
 
I was going to drive down last nite---but we had tornados in our area, so I decided to stay here. May go this weekend.
For Steve and I we have a fairly large investment---for us anyway---for OSH + me being gone 15 days. No---you dont directly make any $$ by having an exhibit, unless of course you are selling hats, shirts etc. But they cost $$ too. The hope is to display a product that clients and potential clients are looking for and earn their business. Spending time and talking to EVERY person that comes by is a daunting task. But for us its worth it.

Tom
 
Tom, you and Steve could run an outdoor booth with headsets on giving real-time hose assembly demos and immediately be infinitely more interesting than the chef booth demoing pots and pans. :D Hope to see you this weekend.

Agreed separately, Homebuilt Parking and Camping are relatively deserted. My first time to SnF, first time camping with my bird, and it's surprising how few planes are here. A few of us are guessing it's because FL has been cut off by storms in GA. And we're supposed to have "fun" Thurs. But hopefully Fri and onward will really pick up steam.
 
RVs Get sold on performance, not talk. I’d guess a majority of us built/bought em without visiting any Vans booth. No need for them to spend excessive dollars.

Yep. I saw my first Van’s booth a year after first flight.
 
Vans had a 10 and 14A in their booth. I understand that the company is focused on getting kits out the door, but the booth was quite underwhelming for them being the leader in EAB aircraft. They had a few hats and shirts for sale but otherwise not much.

Actually they didn't have any shirts for sale, only your choice of grey, blue, or orange $10 hats and some free stickers. Don't fret though, I feel good knowing they are doing their part to keep overhead down so the kits stay reasonable. I chuckle every time I see a $250k booth at a show like this. Who do you think pays for it? Hahaha
 
I chuckle every time I see a $250k booth at a show like this. Who do you think pays for it? Hahaha

I had to chuckle a bit at the two popup shade-tent Icon booth after the heady years of burning money on the giant "production" pavilions.

Today was...HOT! Drove up and did not even wander to HB parking.

Did find the Scale Wings 70% P-51 at the very end of the ultralight area in Paradise City. Really poor spot, but I'm sure last minute. Pretty slick, but the price is high and I will be interested in reviews of the flying characteristics since it is very true to scale, and air doesn't scale. The attention to detail is both impressive and perplexing at the same time.

Did not see anything new and exciting in the avionics areas. Gave best wishes to the guy trying to resurrect the Meyers 200.

$40 a head plus $10 parking was painful. And the $6 fudge bar.
 
. Gave best wishes to the guy trying to resurrect the Meyers 200.

r.

Again!? It seems like about every 5-10 years someone tries to resurrect the Meyers 200. Every time, it's still a bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, the 200 is a phenomenal airplane. My Dad owned one for 20 years, flew it all over North America, IFR, out of our grass strip, etc... It would do things other planes just wouldn't do. And they are FAST. Many a Bonanza tried to catch us. None ever did. But...

They were essentially hand built airplanes, hammered out of metal by old school craftsman who don't exist anymore. It's an extremely complex airplane, with an aluminum over steel structure, hydraulically operated flaps and gear. and compound curves everywhere. The 200 would be an expensive nightmare to manufacture. (Which is why Meyers only built a few dozen and Aero Commander a couple hundred. )

And after all that it will still be slower, less roomy, and less usefiil load than a Cirrus or a Diamond....or an RV10.
 
Congratulations!

I'm heading east in the morning, should be about 6 hours nonstop for me at 17,000', burning about 45 gallons. See you soon!

Great job, Greg! I followed you on FlightAware! Saw you made it nonstop into Lakeland. That’s pretty awesome! Hoping you’ve got some photos and some narrative to share…
 
I have wanted to make this happen for a long time. YES!!

Sun 'n Fun Fly-in said:
If you're coming for the night airshow tonight, you get a bonus: The highest, fastest, and quietest flyby in airshow history! The International Space Station will transit our eastern sky just after 8:30 at 254 miles up (Flight Level 13,411) at a speed of 17,500 mph! pic.twitter.com/0hM5GGfn6K
— SUN 'n FUN Fly-In (@SunnFunFlyIn) April 6, 2022

https://twitter.com/SunnFunFlyIn/status/1511779025634709504?cxt=HHwWgMC-nfPA9fopAAAA
Photo credit: @erikkuna, used with permission
 

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https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20220406/1525Z/73XS/KLAL

6.8 hours including taxi time - 42 gallons - nonstop, landed with 25 gallons still in the tank so I don't have to buy the oh-so-expensive fuel here on the field. Had an awesome tailwind at 17,000 all the way.

Field is a bit damp from recent rains and another round is coming today, but the rest of the week looks awesome. Come play!

Impressive, Greg! Looks like you were fishing around the panhandle for your tailwind, and you found it!
 
Greg’s mileage

For what it’s worth, FlightAware indicates the Actual Mileage for Greg’s nonstop flight from Texas to Lakeland was 1293 miles.
 
Field is pretty muddy this morning, should improve as the day goes on. We are landing on 28 today and with P1 no longer available if you land on 28R (taxiway A the other 51 weeks of the year) we will be either asking you to turn off at A2, or if you land long we will be back taxing on 28L to P2/Papa.

Please be patient with us today as the the field dries out.

Thanks
 
experimental parking and camping had a very low number of aircraft

This was much of the same on Saturday. I flew into LAL in the morning and left before the night show, traffic was not as bad as people have said in the past. This may be attendance related. It was a great flight in and out, not as complicated as people imply.

My friend who drove in had to wait over 1 hour in a car line before she could park! So if you can fly in, it's way faster.
 
I didn't go

Retired and fresh annual done but I didn't go... not that I didn't want to. Fuel prices, cost to camp, weather early in the week and things I needed to get done at home. From this thread looks like there were fewer in HBC too. I've watched several videos around the show and it appeared there was less crowding in the isles and booths. Glad the second half of the show had better weather. Will be interesting to see the official numbers compared to previous years.
 
A little reluctant to write this but...

I'm local-ish and have been going for over 30 years. I always have a good time. I personally spend little time on the flight lines. I get my geek on looking at the new gear (and related daydreaming), listening to the technical experts, etc. Such a collection and wealth of knowledge/experience to learn things from.

The vendor composition has changed over the years; a bit of a downer but completely understandable. The Expo has to make money. Now I'll let some of my pettiness, pet peeves show.

There should be a vendor code of conduct. The aisles in the hangars can get crowded. No vendor should be standing in them trying to direct people into their booth; which, BTW was completely non-aviation related. Likewise, if I don't want to see a demo of your product (again, non-aviation related), a simple "No thank you, Ma'am" should be plenty. I don't want to be rude and wasn't. Likewise, I shouldn't have to defend my position.

Told you it was petty. Make no mistake, it's a great day whenever I go. Maybe I'm the only one bothered by the aforementioned. If not, maybe the responsible SnF people are now cognizant.
 
That's the case with any large group of vendors - whether be at a car show, boat show, airplane show, or rodeo/carnival. There are a certain small percentage of them (just like pilots, I suppose) that you just need to ignore and walk away from. Don't let that detract from the larger good, though.
 
Spent Sunday night at Zepherillis? KZPH. Went in Monday morning early, before 8, landed on big runway 28, not a plane in sight before or after. Approach actually gave me the wrong tower frequency, 133.22 instead of 135.22. Finally figured out something was wrong when I didn't hear anything. On downwind I finally changed over to published freq and heard the tower yelling "turn base". Left Sunday morning before 8 on 10R and only saw one plane on climb out, slow highwing that I passed before turning north.

Not nearly as many planes as last year. Camped in home built camping. The folks there are very pleasant and I ate there most evenings for a donation. Had coffee in the morning and a place to charge ipad and phone. I rode my bike over to Florida Southern College on Thursday to see the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, around 30 miles round trip. The largest collection of ugly Frank Lloyd Wright building on the planet with the exception of the Usonian House.

Folks at the Vans tent said the "RV-15" would be high wing, all metal, tail dragger to start, two place bush type plane. May or may not be true. I asked if it would premere at Oshkosh but got no answer.
 
Folks at the Vans tent said the "RV-15" would be high wing, all metal, tail dragger to start, two place bush type plane. May or may not be true. I asked if it would premere at Oshkosh but got no answer.

They told me "the plan" was to bring a flying prototype to Oshkosh, assuming all the construction progress and flight testing went according to Plan A. I couldn't get any other real info out of them.
 
Did they really say 2 place?
Spent Sunday night at Zepherillis? KZPH. Went in Monday morning early, before 8, landed on big runway 28, not a plane in sight before or after. Approach actually gave me the wrong tower frequency, 133.22 instead of 135.22. Finally figured out something was wrong when I didn't hear anything. On downwind I finally changed over to published freq and heard the tower yelling "turn base". Left Sunday morning before 8 on 10R and only saw one plane on climb out, slow highwing that I passed before turning north.

Not nearly as many planes as last year. Camped in home built camping. The folks there are very pleasant and I ate there most evenings for a donation. Had coffee in the morning and a place to charge ipad and phone. I rode my bike over to Florida Southern College on Thursday to see the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, around 30 miles round trip. The largest collection of ugly Frank Lloyd Wright building on the planet with the exception of the Usonian House.

Folks at the Vans tent said the "RV-15" would be high wing, all metal, tail dragger to start, two place bush type plane. May or may not be true. I asked if it would premere at Oshkosh but got no answer.
 
Very Disappointed this year

I wasn't able to fly the radial RV to the show this year. I live across the state and didn't want to commute back and forth so I decided to camp for one night. In the past you were able to purchase a one night pass and camp in the main camping area. this year if you wanted to camp for one night you were banished to a gravel pit at the entrance to the camping registration area, one mile from the show entrance. This is a future extension area for Amazon (yellow box in the picture). It was very loud due to the sorting facility and very uncomfortable. the only way that they would let you camp in the main camping area is if you bought a camping pass for the entire week. If this is the way that we will be treated in the future then I can't see going back to the show.
 

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I'm hoping for something like a Vashon Ranger with some nuts. And if so, I'll be ordering one.
 
Sure sounds like an io390.

70 or so years ago Cessna managed to do it with 145 hp, so surely Vans can manage something that will perform with O-320 to O-390, depending on what the builder is trying to achieve? O-390 "only" might limit the audience!
 
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Thanks SnF staff

Thanks to Crewdog and the entire staff at SnF. We left Sunday 4/3 with a planned stop in Louisiana. The plan was to fly to the Columbia SC are on Monday so we could attend The Masters on Wednesday, then fly to SnF on Thursday morning. We got up Monday morning and reviewed the weather. We quickly determined that the likelihood of getting the plane there on Thursday was unlikely. The decision was made to saddle up and fly to Sun N Fun to secure the plane and then do a long drive back and forth to the Masters. Glad we did this.

The ground crew was great getting us to our parking location at the Skybolt Fasteners tent.

We got back to the show for Fri/Sat/Sun. Always great to visit with the many RV builders and flyers. Great group of people.

Came away with a Reserve Grand Champion award. We are now down in the Keys enjoying a few days of relaxation.
 
Congratulations on the award Darwin! Well deserved!! Did see your plane at Sky Bolts tent. It looked great (as it always does). I’m jealous of your attendance of the Masters. It’s an unchecked bucket list item for me.
 
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