Copperstate flyin

[eaglen92ce]

I flew in both days. I live at the very nearby Stellar Airpark. I thought the show was pretty decent. I have not missed many Copperstates in the last ten years. The NOTAM procedures did scare some off. There are many beautiful classic aircraft in the local area that are regular attendees that did not show this year. Concerns over complex airspace, mode C, and contacting TRACON were likely factors in their decisions not to attend. I suspect that it did not discourage many folks from out of town, as they are in cross country mode anyway. The uncontrolled fields on the outskirts of town draw more display aircraft and encourage more flying. Having it at KFFZ resulted in folks arriving and not flying again until departure. The tower and ground folks were very accommodating and helpful. KFFZ is a normally a very busy flight training environment, so normal tower operations result in a little briefer (harsher, less helpful) service at times (it is a tough job, no judgment!).

It was still a good show, but a little different, my preference is more fly in traffic and more demo flying during the event. We have lots of good fields just South of Phoenix that work good for that type of event. Thanks to all that volunteer their time to make the show a success!

[pazmanyflyer]

I volunteered and worked both days. Being moved to Mesa I feel brought in more public foot traffic but I was disappointed in the low count of fly-in aircrafts. I dont have any official count but I could tell those were down from last year.

[awmuhs]

Increasing the number of flyins will require an easier approach procedure.

I flew in Early Friday. It was relatively easy but talking to Class B ATC does scare some people off.

Instead of trying to accomodate arrivals from all over the compass why not do like Oshkosh. Everyone comes in from the Southwest, forms a line, and follow the tracks.

Florence Junction is a prominent landmark Southeast of Falcon and would be an easy place to start the arrival while staying easily under the Class B. it would not require talking to Phoenix approach.

[acroflyrgirl]

I flew in Friday, parked on the W side. I didn't care for the split side parking/shuttle arrangement.

The shuttle was inconvenient (to me) and it looked like the E side had plenty of room for the planes parked on the W side to come over.

I would have much rather had my plane parked E so the general crowd had more planes to view.

I arrived from the South. Flying in Friday was no problem, going out late Sat was much busier for me. Tower instruction after TO was to fly rwy heading. Can't do that very long without a class B clearance. Made for some assertive radio comms to get a needed turn in time.

I enjoyed the forums and vendors. The heat was not quite what I would like to see in late Oct, but this is AZ after all.

[MacPara]

I flew in on Friday and had to circle West of Coolidge for a few minutes to get a word in with ATC. It just happened that a bunch of planes had arrived at the San Tan checkpoint before me. Really not that much traffic behind me.
I parked in the North and that was probably a mistake. The shuttle connection was slow and had long waits between runs. It took me 30 minutes to get back to my plane at the end of the day which was annoying.
Once I arrived at the show area, I saw that there were hardly any planes parked. Certainly less than you would expect even at a local Fly-In but it was embarrassing for something like Copperstate. I'm a homebuilder and I go to the show for the homebuilding part of it. I was done walking the flight line in about 30 minutes. If hadn't spent hours talking with a good friend I met at the show this would not have been worth anything to me.
I will certainly not go back next year unless they move this to a place that doesn't scare people off and allows Ultralights to attend the show again. What's wrong with Buckeye (KBXK) just West of the Mode C veil, for instance?