AOPA
We probably should have made it an official fly-in because we did better than many that have been announced.
I count the following members at AOPA for one or more days.
Bob Lewis, Mark Gooderum, Jean Gurnee, Steve King, Steve Frieson, and myself. Spouses include Mary Friesen, Jeff Gurnee and Adrianne Jaski (my wife). We should also include future pilot Brandon Frieson who is in the picture posted by Jean.
I believe that member Mike Peace was also at the Expo, but I was unable to make that hook-up even though we did exchange voice messages.
I have quite a few photos of the parade of planes and a few more of us in front of the banner. I will try to get them posted in the next day or so.
We had a great dinner with all the Saturday BAC attendees and it was great to meet a few new members.
Adrianne and I had a great flight home today. We had expected to stay an extra day in Southern California, but the weather up this way was worsening over the next few days so we flew home in mostly clear skies although with a 15 plus knot headwind most of the way.
I attended all three days, including the parade of planes the day before the EXPO. This was my first AOPA EXPO and I will admit to weighing my membership from time-to-time. I came away from the experience with some very good impressions of the organization. Their political action and the Air Safety Foundations merit your consideration when renewing or joining.
In particular the morning "general sessions" were more useful than I expected. I was particularly impressed with the final session where a complete and detailed analysis of the recent elections was presented as they related to those issues at the forefront for AOPA (predominately user fees).
It was great to see all the aircraft and the technology. There were vendors there that I wanted or needed to talk with. I thought the seminars were pretty good, but I think that is an area that can be improved on. One of the best aspects of the EXPO was the opportunity to talk with other pilots from all over the country. Everytime I had food at the EXPO I sat with other people and the information exchage was always great.
I don't know if Hartford is in the cards for next year, but I would urge all of you close enough to consider attending.
Finally, Jean Gurnee is serious about a spring Southern California Fly-in. The Southwest Region is going to try and get as many of our members together as possible so if any of you want to get into the act either plan to attend something we are planning or step forward and host one yourself. If I can't attend I will ship the Southwest Banner so that we can continue to add our members photos with it to the photo forum.
Dan Jonas
Napa Valley
