Participants Will Be Able To Fly Their Planes For The Crowd

After having just spent a week covering the annual Sun 'N Fun Fly-In in Florida's sweltering heat -- and with Oshkosh's equally intense summertime heat (or cold... or rain... ya gotta love Wisconsin in July) on the horizon --  ANN staffers all for the idea of a "cooler" kind of airshow. And the organizers of the 34th Annual Copperstate Fly-In are doing something about it.

Those organizers know something about heat, too, as in the past the show has been held towards the beginning of October in Arizona, when average temperatures STILL can hover near the century mark. After enduring heat that made even Arizona natives cringe, however, the Southwest’s premier aviation event has changed its dates to the cooler end of October -- opening on Thursday, October 26 and running through Sunday, October 29. 

While the whims of the weather gods can’t be anticipated with accuracy, statistically things are looking good: according to the National Weather service, the average high temperature during the event should drop to a balmy 80 degrees -- a full 12 degrees cooler than past events. Combined with the usual blue skies, it should be perfect weather for wandering the rows of antique, classic, and homebuilt aircraft, not to mention the opportunity to peruse the latest offerings from the wide variety of aviation vendors.

It’s not only the date and weather changing for this year’s event, though. For the first time, showgoers will not only have the opportunity to see the stunning airplanes displayed on the ground, but they’ll also have the chance to see (and hear) those same airplanes in the air. Copperstate is issuing an invitation to builders, restorers, and pilots to show off their creations in front of the crowd, during dedicated air time segments specifically set aside for that purpose.

For the first time this year, rather than the traditional daily aerobatic air show that closes the airport for hours at a time (often playing havoc with flight schedules of Fly-In attendees), the airplanes that make up the show on the ground will also make up the show in the air. Rather than simple static displays of all the gorgeous airplanes that attend the event, Copperstate volunteers -- in cooperation with the FAA Flight Standards District Office and FAA Tower official -- have developed a program that will not only keep the airport open, all day, every day, but which will give virtually every Fly-In participant the chance to fly in front of the crowd.

During certain portions of each hour, the airspace over the runway will be reserved to showcase a preplanned and scheduled aerial demonstration -- not by professional air show performers, but by our own attendees, ranging from manufacturer demonstrations, to mass flights of the latest Light Sport Aircraft, to a Parade of Flight from the oldest airplane on the airport to the newest.

The 2006 event will again be held at Casa Grande Municipal Airport (CGZ), located midway between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, just a few miles west of Interstate 10.

FMI: www.copperstate.org (Under Construction)