Changes Set For 2014 Wood, Tailwheels, & Fabric Fly-In

If you've been to previous fly-ins, this year you're going to notice some changes. Some of them came from the desire to make everything more accessible to everyone in attendance, others came about by trying to trim costs (which many of you recommended), one is temporary and merely for mischievous reasons, and one of them seems to solve a wide range of issues.

Let's talk about the big one first.  In our efforts to trim expenses and manpower required to host the fly-in, the process of registration quickly became a focal point. The number of people, amount of training, and volume of record keeping involved with this part of the event had to be trimmed.  Not only was it work for us, it was also work for you.  Getting everything in place after arriving, making your way to the registration tent, then going through the process of getting your pre-purchased tickets, no matter how simplified, was a chore.  Therefore, we wondered if there was a way to get rid of it all.  Ginger found the answer.

It should be noted the Chinese built a very big wall.  Just say'n.

This year we are moving to an online service for registration and ticketing.  What this means to you is that all tickets must be purchased in advance and printed.  Each ticket is coded individually and emailed to you so please print each of them.  The process is very easy and it solves all the issues mentioned above. When you arrive, you'll get out of your plane, hand your ticket(s) to a "meet and greet" person, and you'll be done. That's it.  The same goes for drive ins.  Present your ticket at the gate and walk in.  It's that simple.  (Read here to see how it works)

Let's reiterate that point.  ALL TICKETS WILL BE PURCHASED IN ADVANCE AND PRINTED before you leave for the event.  With this new system, tickets will also be available for purchase to the end of the event.  We hope you find the process much better.  It will make your fly-in experience much simpler and will help us continue to hold the event by reducing costs and busy work.  Additionally, please be sure to let your friends know this if you are unsure if they get NORDO News.  And again, click here for more information as to how it works.

We understand.  But, it is inevitable.

The next change on the list will be the location of the food tent and Lee Bottom Store. These areas of operation will be moved to the north end of the field near the red brick house.  This accomplishes several things and does so by moving all the services to the center of population.  With people parked on both sides of the runway, and the only runway crosswalk being located at the very north end, everyone will be closer to food and the store.  The food tent will be closer to more electrical power and a better supply of water, handicapped parking will be much closer to all these items, and the focus of people will be positioned at one of the locations least likely to be visited by an out of control aircraft.  It would be difficult to find a better location.

As for people arriving and camping with their planes, the showers will now be located on the west side at the north end near the trees.   This puts the showers much closer to the campers which is an obvious plus.

When it comes to auto camping and RV's, that area has been cut.  We apologize if this was something you routinely did in the past.  Unfortunately, the place where we usually allowed this just wasn't very good for it and it always took a disproportionate amount of effort. Auto parking will be expanded to include the previous auto and RV camping area.

The name of the event is also changing, but only temporarily.  For 2014, the Wood, Fabric, & Tailwheels Fly-In will also be known as the Wood, Tailwheels, and Fabric Fly-In.  This is our own little way of giving mother nature the finger for the past few years and blowing off a little steam while having some fun in the process.   Since hashtags (#) have taken off as a way to build buzz and community within social networking, this means our official hashtag will be #WTF2014.  It also means the possibilities are endless for sharing photos from the event.  For example, the first plane to land might generate a "#WTF just happened".   Mid-day Saturday has to be good for a few photos of the planes on hand tagged with "#WTF is going on".  And of course when everyone has left, "#WTF over" (thanks Chris) would be a perfect post. Yeah, I understand some of our older more refined followers may be uncomfortable with this but the younger generation, those we need to build the ranks, are sure to have fun with it.

OK, so there's the rundown of big changes for this fly-in.  We hope to see all of you here in a few weeks. 

If you have any further questions about the fly-in, click here for details.