Aaron Named 2009 Scholl Recipient
2009-12-14
Aerobatic helicopter pilot Chuck Aaron was named 2009 recipient of the prestigious Art Scholl Showmanship Award. Presented each year to an air show performer who personifies the showmanship for which Art Scholl was known during his air show career, the Art Scholl Award had not previously been presented to a helicopter pilot.
Aaron was cited for his technically demanding, uniquely entertaining brand of air show flying, as well as his status as the only helicopter pilot in the world to hold an FAA-issued Statement of Aerobatic Competency. The 24th recipient of the award, Aaron joins air show legends Bob Hoover, Leo Loudenslager, Jim Franklin, Sean Tucker, Gene Soucy, and Michael Goulian on the list of past recipients.
NAS Oceana Takes Home 2009 Schram Award
2009-12-13
For its groundbreaking community relations effort using its air show as a breast cancer awareness initiative, NAS Oceana was named recipient of the 2009 Dick Schram Community Relations Award during the Chairman’s Banquet held in conjunction with the 2009 ICAS Convention last week in Las Vegas.
When a scheduling conflict forced the NAS Oceana Air Show to move from their traditional mid-September show dates to new dates in mid-October, the show’s leadership saw the change not as a problem or inconvenience, but as an opportunity to strengthen and extend the community relations aspects of this highly regarded air show and open house.
The October dates allowed show management to supplement all that they normally do with an additional program to support October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month with the tag line, “A Celebration of Flight, a Celebration of Life.” And with that decision, the outreach opportunities and community interest in the air show increased suddenly and dramatically.
Kulp, Poberezny, Younkin Inducted into Air Show Hall of Fame
2009-12-13
During ceremonies held in conjunction with the 2009 ICAS Convention, air show legends Charlie Kulp, Tom Poberezny and Bobby Younkin were inducted into the ICAS Foundation Air Show Hall of Fame on Wednesday, December 9 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel.
Charlie Kulp was recognized as the quintessential flying farmer performer during an air show career that spanned nearly 40 years. Flying low-level, slow speed, cross-controlled aerobatics, Kulp would dupe spectators into believing that he was not a pilot and had accidently taken off in his 65 horsepower J-3 Cub. Kulp retired as an air show performer in 2008 at the age of 83.
Tom Poberezny was recognized for a career that could have easily qualified him for Air Show Hall of Fame status as either a performer or an event organizer. A member of the legendary Eagles Aerobatic Team for a quarter century, Poberezny was one-third of a formation aerobatic team that helped to define air show entertainment during the seventies, eighties and nineties. But, more recently, Poberezny is best known for his tenure as EAA president. For more than 30 years, he has overseen astounding growth in the attendance and the sophistication of EAA AirVenture. From sponsorship and programming to marketing and business management, Poberezny has been both a pioneer and industry leader in the air show business.
Bobby Younkin described himself as a “working class” air show pilot. The air show industry recognized him as the consummate showman, eager and able to entertain a crowd in anything that could fly. This Arkansas native combined natural showmanship with his well-developed skills as a pilot to entertain tens of millions of spectators throughout the United States and Canada.
Poe Featured on CNN
2009-11-11
Earlier this year, ICAS member and air show performer Greg Poe established a program that rewards strong students with aerobatic incentive rides in select locations around the country. Last weekend, as part of his appearance at the Randolph Air Force Base Air Show near San Antonio, Texas, Poe gave two San Antonio-area teenagers the aerobatic thrill of their lives and CNN documented the experience in this news segment.
Golden Knights Increase Fee for 2010
2009-11-10
In response to the increased costs of operating the team and budgetary challenges in the coming year, the U.S. Army Golden Knights recently announced that they have increased their show fee from $3,000 per day to $4,000 per day. The increase will be used to offset transportation, fuel and per diem costs. The team emphasized that all other details related to hosting the team will remain as specified in the team’s support manual.
For more information, contact SFC Paul Sachs, the team’s new show scheduler at 910-907-3205 or by e-mail at paul.sachs@usaac.army.mil.
MCAS Yuma Wall of Fire Certified by Guinness
2009-11-10
Guinness World Records recently certified the 10,178.3 foot long wall of fire at the MCAS Yuma Air Show on March 14, 2009 as the longest wall of fire, ever. Nearly two miles long, this pyro spectacular was created by the Bomb Squad of Tora Tora Tora.
Air Show Returns to Muskegon, Michigan
2009-10-19
The Muskegon (Michigan) Summer Celebration, a popular regional music festival, will add an air show component to its 2010 event. Scheduled for June 26 and 27, the show will be held on Muskegon’s waterfront and is expected to complement and boost interest in the long-running music festival, now entering its 18th year. The air show will be held on the first weekend of the eleven-day Summer Celebration.
From 1983 until 2006, Muskegon hosted one of the most successful and well-organized air shows in all of North America.
Private Pilots Welcome to Apply for Statement of Aerobatic Competency
2009-09-22
Prospective air show pilots wishing to apply and be evaluated for an FAA- or Transport Canada-issued Statement of Aerobatic Competency (SAC) are once again encouraged to do so. For a brief time earlier this year, ICAS had required a commercial pilot certificate, but – for a number of reasons – that requirement is no longer being made.
“As always, ICAS expects that any pilot will be not just proficient, but accomplished and deeply experienced in aerobatics before applying for a SAC card,” said ICAS Director of Operations Dan Hollowell. “But we are no longer prohibiting private pilots from applying if they are otherwise qualified.”
CBS Evening News Highlights Increased Air Show Attendance
2009-08-25
This two minute and thirteen second news segment about increased attendance at North American air shows was broadcast on the CBS Evening News on Sunday, August 23. Produced under the headline of “Alternative Vacations,” the segment was subsequently posted on the CBS News website and has been shown in syndication in many markets.
“There’s nothing quite like the third-party endorsement of the national news media,” said ICAS President John Cudahy. “As an industry and as individual air show organizations, we can promote the affordability and entertainment quality of air shows all we want, but the public listens to that message in a fundamentally different way when it is delivered by a news organization with the stature of CBS News.”
Cudahy also emphasized that the summer long public relations program on increased air show attendance that has been conducted by ICAS is one of the best examples in recent memory of how ICAS can help deliver substantive benefits to the air show community that individual members cannot produce on their own. “ICAS delivers a large number and wide variety of tangible benefits to ICAS members throughout the year, but this is a great example of the impact that we can have as a national trade association working on behalf of its members,” said Cudahy.
CAF Red Tail Flies Again
2009-08-17
Restoration is complete on the rare P-51C Mustang that was nearly destroyed in a 2004 fatal accident involving ICAS member Don Hinz. Painted in the colors of the Tuskegee Airmen squadron, the aircraft’s $1 million restoration was completed just in time for the red-tailed Mustang to make a late July trip to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for EAA AirVenture, where it appeared on static display in AeroShell Square for a full week.
Attendance at EAA AirVenture Increases 12 Percent
2009-08-06
Officials with the Experimental Aircraft Association recently reported that attendance at their 2009 air show and convention increased 12 percent as compared to 2008. The unexpectedly high attendance comes on the heels of similar reports from air shows throughout North America. With attendance in excess of 575,000 and more than 10,000 visiting aircraft, anecdotal reports from the AirVenture grounds confirmed the statistical reports from EAA, with many longtime visitors commenting that the ramp in Oshkosh seemed unusually crowded.
Air Show Attendance Continues to Defy Economic Conditions
2009-07-02
Two months into the heart of the 2009 air show season, the industry continues to witness a trend first recognized last summer when air shows collectively saw a 10-15 percent increase in spectator attendance compared with 2007. Across the board, air shows are reporting strong attendance, with many seeing all-time record attendance.
“Every week, we hear from more shows who have been challenged to deal with overflowing crowds and also from performers who have never seen such large crowds at specific venues,” said John Cudahy, president of the International Council of Air Shows. “I’ve worked at ICAS for 12 years and this is a phenomenon I’ve never seen. At this point, we’re thinking we’ll have an overall increase approaching 20 percent compared to last year. When you look at all the empty seats at baseball games or at NASCAR races, it’s quite a contrast.”
Jim Breen is president of the California-based Umbrella Entertainment Group, which works with 20 air shows each year and says he has never seen such consistent attendance increases across the board. “There are some outlier shows where the attendance is really off the charts,” he said, “but when you pull those out, it still looks like everything else is up about 13 percent on average.” Breen singled out shows at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, NAS New Orleans, and Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, DC as examples of shows that have hosted record or near-record crowds during the last several weeks.
Talk to more air show professionals and you’ll hear similar stories…
“We had the largest show we’ve had since I’ve been involved, which is since 1999,” said Rebecca March, Manager of the NAS Patuxent River Air Show, held May 23-24 in Maryland. “We had more than a 10 percent increase over 2008. We expected a good turnout, but this many people was a very pleasant surprise.”
“With total attendance in excess of 70,000, this was our largest show in the 18-year history of the event,” said Colonel Larry Gallogly with the Rhode Island National Guard Air Show in North Kingstown, Rhode Island on June 27 and 28. “We used every parking spot available to us and put more spectators on the ramp than we ever have before.”
“We were expecting lower attendance than last year because of a bad weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday,” said George Gorman, Manager of the New York Air Show at Jones Beach, held May 23-24. “Instead, we had a total of 407,000 spectators, and that even was with fog that delayed the Sunday show for 2-1/2 hours and a major traffic snarl on the east part of Long Island. We were barely off our all-time record, which is amazing considering everything that was working against us.”
“We expected between 32,000 and 34,000 spectators for the entire weekend,” said Major Doug Bodine, director of the Ellsworth Air Force Base Air Show near Rapid City, South Dakota, held May 30-31. “We had more than that by the end of Saturday and finished the show on Sunday with total attendance of 51,200…our largest air show ever.”
Cudahy and others cite the relative value of an air show compared with the cost of other entertainment options such as a trip to an amusement park or a professional sporting event. “What’s great about an air show,” he said, “is that a family of four would be hard-pressed to spend anything more than 50 or 60 dollars, whereas they’re easily dropping three or four times that amount at an amusement park or a professional baseball game. And they’re getting a product that the kids will remember forever. It only makes sense that air shows would see an attendance surge in a bad economy, but this defies even our most optimistic projections.”
