5th Annual Northeast Sonex Fly-In a SUCCESS!

[mike.smith]

Hi, everyone!

For those of you who could not make it yesterday, it was awful. Weather was terrible; people were mean; food was gross. OK, now that you don't feel so bad you can stop reading any further...


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For those who were there, THANK YOU for your participation! There were 61 people who signed in, and I know there were several more that never made it to the sign in table, so we had about 70 participants!! That's just totally awesome!

Thank you especially to those who flew in their Sonexes and Waiex. We had 8 Sonex and 1 Waiex, and if the weather in Canada had been better we would have had 4 more! We also had several other interesting aircraft fly in including a Lancair, Cub, several RV's of various flavors, a Kitfox, a Zodiak, a couple of Skyhaws, and a Cherokee (I don't think the two private jets were there for our event!).

And several more thank-yous:
- Glenn Hunt for the tremendous help in organizing, and getting the food. He also spent a good deal of time on a taxiway helping to fix a flat tire!
- EAA Chapter 1314, especially those who cooked and helped with things like set-up, sign-in and break-down
- Our presenters: Al Lavender, Max Emmighausen and Keith Macht
- Monadnock Aviation for their support, and use of the facilities
- Our pilots who gave familiarization flights (I hope I got all the names right; let me know if I didn't!): Dave Storey, John Murr, Casey Lyon, Aaron Knight, Dana Thurston.
- WICKS AIRCRAFT SUPPLY for all the catalogs and AWESOME swag, including a brand new HEADSET! Way to go, Wicks!
- Did I forget anyone?

Some observations from this year's event:
- Having it at the FBO building worked a lot better, I think, for many reasons
- We were better organized and had a real sign-in :-) We'll probably do a little better next year
- Having the event the weekend after Labor Day seemed to be a real hit with everyone, and we couldn't have asked for better weather!
- Having the raffle and then the presentations directly after lunch seemed to be the winning formula!
- In 5 years we STILL have not gotten a group photo or a photo of all the aircraft together! We need to work on that! I think next year we will do that DIRECTLY after lunch, and then do the raffle and the presentations. We will get this right eventually!!
- Next year we'll ask if we can leave an area of the ramp for Sonex/Waiex/Onex parking only. Not to be snobs, but just to keep the aircraft tightly together. With small aircraft like the Sonex line, we can park them closer together if we don't have to worry about keeping the ramp clear for other aircraft. Next year we may truly have 15 or 18 Sonex aircraft, so we'll need the room!

From our Pennsylvania contingent (2 Sonex / 1 Waiex), on their way home:

We skirted La Guardia airspace just North of the Tappenzee bridge then turned West. Based on our line coming up, we cut the corner off of VT, so we actually were in 7 different states! I never did that in one day before. PA, NY, MA, VT, NH, CT, NJ

If you have never flown into Keene (EEN), please do so sometime! It is a lovely airport in a beautiful setting, with 2 awesome runways, self serve gas, and a wonderful and attentive FBO (Monadnock Aviation).

See you next year!

Mike Smith

P.S. - Next year there should be at least 3 more Sonexes flying in: Me, Keith Macht and Howard Linker, as well as (hopefully) a Onex from Dudley Foster!

[N111YX]

Pics or it didn't happen...;)

[mike.smith]

Coming! I didn't do a good job of taking enough photos, so I'm having participants send me some of theirs.

Mike Smith

[EricS]

Congrats Mike on pulling off a great event! Thanks for the update too!

[mike.smith]

I'm new to USING the forum. Can we post photos?

Mike

[Sonex1517]

Mike

See here http://www.sonexbuilders.net/viewtopic.php?t=107

Hope that helps


Robbie
Sonex 1517

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