Last Saturday (11/7/2015) we attended this inaugural event. We enjoyed it. Parking and entry were…read morefree, though it will not be surprising if this changes in the future.
The concept includes flyovers, air demonstrations (individual and group), and display aircraft. In addition, there were merchandise and service vendors which, I was pleased to see, concentrated on air related items, rather that the usual preponderance of timeshares, knives, financial services, etc. And, of course, there were various food vendors - they could actually have used more: the lines were very, very long.
This was also billed as a beer and wine function. There were two areas set up for this - one of them requiring "VIP" access. The VIP one looked well attended, but, as we walked by the other one at around 1PM, there were people walking out complaining that they had run out of some important things: like beer! Did not verify.
So here's the bottom line: if you want to see some exciting flying and flying machines, this is great! The show goes from 10-3 (I think, could be 9-3) and we got there around one. Even when we were five miles away, we could see the flying demonstrations and they were great fun to watch. Many of the aircraft are vintage and that only adds to the excitement. This part of the event is definitely worthy of five stars.
The food and vendors need more participants and more organization. As I said earlier, the food lines were VERY long. So anyone wanting food will spend a minimum of a half hour, in some cases an hour, waiting. That's a long time. The air show is continuous, so that helps time pass.
The pavilion with the beer/wine tasting was not inviting. We would normally get a couple of glasses of wine, but you had to buy a wristband for $32 for a number of tastes - no interest on our part. And for beer drinkers, to run out of beer a couple of hours before the party ends? Not good. I don't know how the VIP tent functioned, but, if they have it again and we were to go again next year, would definitely look into that.The added benefit of it was that it was covered with a canopy, which would have been nice to be under on a very hot, sunny day.
My single big complaint was the parking situation and the way that was handled. The parking is free and there is plenty of it, but: it is in a plowed dirt field, and the staff was very inflexible, especially for those handicapped and with small children. The way it was set up is that it started in the morning in the area closest to the event, and then went further and further away. There was no set aside for people with wheelchairs or strollers, or for those whose physical issues made it very difficult to walk over very uneven dirt. The sad part was that by the time we got there at one PM, there were plenty of vacant places closer to the front, but the staff was not allowing anyone in that area - they kept insisting that the furthest away portion had to be filled. Not very accommodating. They really need to re-think how this works. If we were to go again, we would disregard the staff instructions and simply do what makes better sense.
Overall though, it was fun and we would strongly consider going again, especially if it's free! We like watching air shows and walking around looking at planes and aviation oriented products. (Confession: ex-Air Force type here....) At the current level of participation, you could see all the stuff on the ground in one to two hours. What would entice us would be the ability to sit in a shaded area with a glass of wine and enjoy the demonstrations..... as with all things: time will tell! I do wish this group luck in making this an annual event.
