Show Scales Back Performances, But Fun Still Prevails
The air show season has barely started, but already it's been a
tough year for shows around the nation. Many have simply cancelled
their shows faced with rising fuel costs and lower projected
attendance due to Americans cutting back on entertainment spending
as they pay heavily at the fuel pump themselves. Other shows have
opted to shrink their shows and spending as their budgets shrink as
well to keep events in place.
Such is the case in Ramona, CA -- a small community in the
mountains northeast of San Diego. The Ramona Air Show is well-known
in the region for its friendly, small town feel and diversity of
display aircraft ranging from small high performance aerobatic
planes to large fire bombers. The event is held at the rural Ramona
Airport -- a small, picturesque airfield surrounded by country
roads and rock-strewn mountains.
Feeling the air show was too important to the small community
due to the tourism dollars the event brings in, organizers opted to
scale back on aerobatic displays and flying acts and add more
ground displays rather than cancel the event.
"We were juggling everything with the fuel prices," said Carol
Fowler, chairwoman of the show to the San Diego Union Tribune. "We
ended up doing more to attract kids."
The Ramona event is one of the few air shows in the San Diego
area this year. Another popular show, El Cajon's Wings Over
Gillespie air show was canceled this year because of the high price
of fuel. Aviation fuel in the area is about $5.50 per gallon,
Fowler said, up from about $4.30 per gallon last year.
Always a crowd favorite, the weekend event featured eight planes
performing some level of aerobatics this year, down from ten last
year.
Despite the scale back, a record 50 aircraft, from World War
II-era warbirds to ultralights were on display. To compensate for a
smaller aerobatic display, organizers included a display and
demonstration of remote-controlled aircraft in the flying show and
also added a display of classic and modified cars to the ground
display.
To give visitors a take-home reminder of the show, organizers
gave away free airplane trading cards that give history and
trivia.
Cheers were the loudest after the water-drop demonstration by
Cal Fire crews in their air attack aircraft. Many local residents
were affected by the Witch Creek fire in 2007, part of a
devastating outbreak of wildfires in the region. The fire, which
ignited outside Ramona in October, went on to kill two people,
destroyed 1,125 homes and charred nearly 200,000 acres.
Proceeds from the show go to families of firefighter pilots who
died in the line of duty.