AOPA Expo 2008

Clinderman

Clinderman

Around The Moon
I am set for the AOPA Expo in San Jose. Are any other BAC members planning to attend? I am only going to be there Friday afternoon and Saturday. If anyone is planning to fly there, I'll be happy to set it up as a BAC event so you'll get PT points!!!

Anyway, speak up if you are planning to go so we can arrange a meeting.

Chris L.
Sierra N5106M
KSLC
 
I'm planning to attend as my work situation should allow me (or may require me) to be in the Bay Area that week on the company nickel.

We should probably set it up as an offical fly-in - we did the last two years I think. I made Palm Springs with Jeanne G two years ago (bought my UBG-16/FP-5L combo on a show special) with her husband via auto and met Dan and others there. Hartford last year was too off the beaten path for us.

One trick will be picking a target airport. Reid-Hillview (RHV) is the obvious answer but they are tight on guest parking on a normal day so I would expect them to be completely overrun that week. Livermore (KLVK) or South County (O99?) might be better choices (PAO and SQL have the same barely any parking room issue). South County is a hair closer but light on services and has no IAPs which can be an issue that time of year. Livermore has an on-field Enterprise franchise and is usually VFR, and even on bad stratus days is still usually VFR by noon, and has an easy to fly ILS if not.
-=-
Mark
 
I have set it up on the calendar as a BAC fly-in at Reid-Hillview Airport for now. We have time to choose another airport if we look like there is going to be some turnout.

Chris
 
Chris and Mark,

I am scheduled to be out there around the same time for a work event and have already told the boss I am skipping any weekend planned events to attend the Expo and maybe skip out on Friday to attend. He said as long as I bring him and my French co-worker who are both aviation fans then I can go as much as I want. :) See ya'll there.

Doug
 
Chris,

I'm planning on attending. If I taxi around my parking spot, can I get 100ft for the President’s trophy?

For those that don't know, Chris, Mark, and Doug know, RHV is my home airport. South Country is E16 Mark (used to be Q99), that is a good choice too. I would not doubt if the demand is high enough that we can arrange parking on the grass areas at RHV, it would increase available parking tremendously. I can check with AOPA, and with the airport management. I’ll call AOPA tomorrow.

I am going to try to help people out with arrangements if they would like. I live in the area and know the hotels, and best parts of town. I can highly recommend down town San Jose. There is a Fairmont, and other very fine hotels, and the convention center is walking distance from all of them. There is okay nightlife in San Jose, but it is not world class. However, you can get a nice meal down there, and have a nice evening.

I look forward to meeting many of you that I have not had the privilege to meet yet. Hopefully down in Santa Maria too, so perhaps we'll all be old friends by November.

The weather can be very nice in November (70's and 80 easy), but that is also the start of the rainy season so it can be wet and chilly as well. We need the rain badly, but I'll hope it holds off for both of these wonderful California events (BAC Feast and AOPA Expo).

I'm up for a BAC event in San Jose, and if there is interest, my house is appropriate for up to perhaps 30 or so guests if anybody would like me to host an event. I have a nice pool and large spa, if the weather is nice that could be fun one evening.

Best Regards,
Conway (aka Mike Samac)
[email protected]
Cell: (408) 234-5699
 
Mike,

There IS good night life in Santa Clara. I have experienced it way too many times. When looking for hotels, you can look around San Jose. Santa Clara is a stones throw away, but don't get too far north or you will fight traffic.

30 people in your spa? Now that is cozy! :) See ya then Mike.

Doug
 
Doug,

It will be a pleasure to have you over again. Regarding the spa, we may only get 29 in there; we have to have one person to take the blackmail photos! :D

Mike
 
This is a follow-up on calling AOPA as I promised. They have been planning on people flying in for about six months. I volunteered to help however I can.

They are going to provide extra parking on the grass at Reid Hillview (RHV) as I suspected. They will also use the other two Santa Clara county airports, which are South County (E16), and Palo Alto (PAO).

Fly on in folks, there will be plenty of room to park your airplane. The AOPA person said transportation has been arranged as well.

Conway
 
Mike, have they given a price on tie downs yet? Also, do we need our own anchors and straps for the grass?

PS After reading about your large hot tub, can I arrive a month ahead ? ha ha
 
Mike,

No wonder you are flying around and looking for cheap av-gas. If I had to pay to heat a hot-tub that big, I would have to park the Duchess.

Or, is the hot tub small and you put in 29 people and a gallon of water and it is hot and full?

I hope I can make part of the festivities. I'm not sure about getting in a hot tub with you, Bob, Mark and Doug. Maybe I'll take the pictures.

Dan Jonas
 
Guys,

It is an old tub, and I do not want to over sell it. However, it is not one of those portable things. It has a 450,000 btu heater, just got a new 3/4 horse pump today (one of two), so it is one of the finest hot tubes in the Western US. I don't mean to brag, but they don't build these big old things anymore. It is wonderful, I have spent good 100LL money to keep this thing running like it was 1980.

We could comfortable fit Dan, Mark, Doug, me, and about five of our other best friends comfortably. We could tuck Jeanne in there somewhere without any effort at all (except for fighting Jeff off)! :D

Bob, come on down! Also Bob, I didn't get tiedown cost. If they are charging, I'll suggest the city/country is making plenty of money on the event, so free parking would be a good idea for San Jose. I'll check.

Mike
 
BTW - Chris - I think only you as author of the original post can re-title the topic to the proper year so we don't confuse people next year (edit the original post and change the subject and save if I remember).

With the Expo now officially 4 weeks away it's probably worth gelling plans. I am in town 11/3 thru 11/13 and will have a car so I can help shuttle from RHV (other other overflows if RHV fills) although APOA says there will be complimentary shuttles from both the GA side of SJC and RHV.

They still haven't posted GA arrival information, it will be interesting to see - RHV is short on parking unless they're making special arrangements for off-pavement parking.

Is anyone doing any of the special events? They seem spendy relative to the value add. Do we want to set up a quasi-official BAC dinner for the fly-in Friday and/or Saturday. There is no shortage of good places to eat and I think we'll have enough local folks with cars to get us clear of the event footprint downtown.

I can suggest some places, some down more San Jose way although my expertise is more up Mountain View way. Several of them offer reservations but we need the start of a head count and date or time.

Doug, Conway and myself will be savoring some fine seared beef on Wednesday and can come up with some consensus suggestions and post suggestions Thursday. I've got direct emails for everyone who's posted here except Rick, Avia and Bob. If you guys or anybody attending wants to PM me your "real" email I can use that to help coordinate with communications more suitable for 1 on 1.

I know Doug, myself and Conway will all have wheels - depending on where you stay transit is good enough down here in the South Bay that the fly-in folks should be fine without a car.
--
Mark
 
mgooderum said:
BTW - Chris - I think only you as author of the original post can re-title the topic to the proper year so we don't confuse people next year (edit the original post and change the subject and save if I remember).
Click to expand...

I think only Master Tim can make a topic title edit! Maybe he'll see this and make the change.

Chris
 
Nope - you can change the title of a topic by going to the original post for the topic, clicking "Edit" for that post, change the subject, and "Save", and the topic will inherit the new title. I just "re-titled" my most recent topic as a test.

Posting this to share the general knowledge. The implication is that only the original topic poster can change the title of a topic (as far as I can tell "Subject:" is in fact ignored on all posts except the first one).

You can also delete a post although I'm not sure what happens if the origianal post is deleted. So we can all remove our sidebar chit chat on this very issue once we fix things...

I suspect Tim can fix the topic as well - but it's good to know that we can fix things ourselves.
--
Mark
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top