On 2007-07-16 11:37:17 -0700, "Ken Finney" said:


As normal, Arlington is a wonderful experience. For 50 weeks a year,
Disneyland may be the happiest place on Earth, but for two weeks of the
year, Arlington and Oshkosh have that distinction. The weather was pretty
much perfect this year, there was some rain and wind on Friday (but not as
much as past years), and there was record/near record heat all week long. I
was only there on Saturday, but attendance seemed to me to be down. I'm
going to be curious to see the official data. There appears to be a gradual
decline in both exhibitors and forum speakers. I have a real problem with
this. Exhibitors and speakers should be using Arlington as a trial
rehearsal for Oshkosh. And for Heaven's sake exhibitors, have someone there
who doesn't look like they were Baptized in lemon juice and has some
enthusiasm for the product!!! Some effort needs to be put into beefing up
these parts of the show. I used to have to go back to the car at least two
times with bags of literature and catalogs; this year, I only got half a
bag. The airshow itself was down from past years, due to the continued
fallout over the lawsuit over the accident a few years ago. Hopefully this
will be reversed on appeal.

This was pretty much what I heard -- smaller than last year. I did not
go last year because I was in the Philippines, and this year I was
preoccupied with other stuff. My brother says it is still a great
fly-in, though. Since he bases his plane at the field he was there for
the whole week. Now, if he ever finishes building it -- well, let us
just say it will be beautiful.


--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor