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.

FMI: www.ramonaairshow.com