Virginia Festival Of Flight 'Most Successful Ever' | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Thu, Jun 18, 2009

Virginia Festival Of Flight 'Most Successful Ever'

Over 320 Aircraft Fly In For Festivities

They came in from as far as New York, Florida and Ohio and many people remarked on the wide mix of rare and unusual aircraft parked along the two closed runways. Powered parachutes, ultralights, prize-winning homebuilts, careful restorations among them a P-51, two SNJs and a YAK were in the mix. Aircraft judging volunteers had their hands full evaluating the dozens of aircraft in six categories.

But that was just the surface of an event The Virginia Aviation Council called the "most successful ever." This year the more compact field layout worked really well. Paved roads allowed vendors, forums, workshops, the pancake breakfast, RV camping and the youth tents to logically flow together. Underground electric service, as well as fresh water hydrants and a grey water tank were welcome parts of the infrastructure. A record number of RV and plane campers were pleased to be so close to all the activity. On a rise adjacent to the main display area 60 Boy Scouts with 25 supervising adults held a weekend Camporee, many working on their aviation merit badges as well as performing volunteer duty.

Scott Huff, Aircraft Registration Chairman, reports, “For the first time we met the pilots as they tied down. The Aircraft Registration volunteers used a golf cart and a cadre of volunteers to welcome the arrivals. Pilots said they appreciated the 'on the spot' service allowing them to register, get fuel and judging prop cards, a “Goody Bag” and have their questions answered immediately upon arrival.” The plan is to expand this service next year.

Two tractor-drawn shuttles serviced five-stop route from the ultralight headquarters to the terminal and Fighter Factory on the far side of the airport. By riding the shuttle attendees could stop at the terminal for an FAA National Capital Region Air Security briefing or continue to tour of the Fighter Factory maintenance hangar, a rare treat.

The RC modelers were pleased to be able to fly their electric RC models all day. Nearby, kids packed the two Youth Tents. Janie Fowler, the Youth Area Chairman said, “Stomp rocket construction and wing rib building were particularly popular. We had probably 150 kids who participated in our activities this year. Next year we hope to expand and have use of the NASA flight simulator.”. A new addition to the kids area were talks by two NASA engineers explaining basics of flight.

The wide range of forum presentations drew many attendees. The VFR Chart Seminar, with 40 attendees broke the all time attendance record for any forum in the history of the fly-in. Afterward, Richard Neher, of the National Aeronautical Charting Office, announced, “Unfortunately, these two VFR and IFR chart seminars will be the last. The FAA has canceled these long standing educational presentations for pilots .” Dee Whittington, Forum Chairman suggests that anyone who has taken one or both of these seminars and are impressed with their value even in the age of GPS should contact Tom.Accardi, Fred.Anderson and Linda.Modestino all at FAA.gov and express their desire to see them continued.

Next year's event is already planned for May 22-23, the weekend before Memorial day at Virginia's Suffolk Executive Airport.

FMI: http://www.doav.virginia.gov/

Advertisement

More News

TikToker Arrested After Landing His C182 in Antarctica

19-Year-Old Pilot Was Attempting to Fly Solo to All Seven Continents On his journey to become the first pilot to land solo on all seven continents, 19-year-old Ethan Guo has hit a >[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Versatile AND Practical - The All-Seeing Aeroprakt A-22 LSA

From 2017 (YouTube Edition): A Quality LSA For Well Under $100k… Aeroprakt unveiled its new LSA at the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase in November. Dennis Long, U.S. Importer>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (06.27.25): Hazardous Weather Information

Hazardous Weather Information Summary of significant meteorological information (SIGMET/WS), convective significant meteorological information (convective SIGMET/WST), urgent pilot>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.27.25)

Aero Linx: Historic Aircraft Association (HAA) The Historic Aircraft Association (HAA) was founded in 1979 with the aim of furthering the safe flying of historic aircraft in the UK>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.27.25)

"We would like to remember Liam not just for the way he left this world, but for how he lived in it... Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn't afraid but because he re>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC