Your AirFest team has been hard at work over the past few months and a lot has been happening. We've been so busy that I just realized we haven't updated the rest of the members for a while, so here we go...

Notable Guests
Our good friend CAPT Winston Scott has agreed to give a talk at our opening ceremonies on Saturday the 14th. There is also a rumor that he may be arriving in an L-39.

It's pretty hard to overshadow an astronaut, but a lady from Quincy may give Winston some competition this year. Jerrie Mock, the first woman to fly solo around the world, will be appearing at the AirFest.(Saturday from 1-3PM). Gar Braun saw the story in the last issue of AOPA Pilot and ran with it. See our web site for a link to more info about Jerrie.

When you consider that it took Jerrie Mock 29 days to circle the globe in her Cessna 180 and it took Winston 90 minutes to do the same in the Space Shuttle, you can see that we've got quite a story here.

Web Site
The AirFest web site has been updated and is almost complete. More details about most of what we'll cover below can be found there. Also, thanks to Alan Hanstein, we have a new URL, www.airfest2005.com (the old URL still works as well).

Warbirds
We have locked in 3 warbirds from the CAF Dixie Wing: P-51, SNJ, and PT-26. Rides will be available in all of these aircraft. We want to thank all of the sponsors who have generously contributed to bring these planes to the AirFest:

ACE- ($1,000 or more):
Brian Barnard- Flooring America (P-51)
Doug and Pat Douglass (PT-26)
Terry Fregly- Commercial Consultants Corp (P-51)
Kelley Phillips- Life Solutions(SNJ)

TOP GUN- ( $500 or more):
Jearl Birdwell (Northland Manufacturing)(P-51)
Bill Grow (Grow Construction) (P-51)
Pete Rosen (Benchmark Builders) (Japanese Zero)
Jim Rudnick (Rudnick Development)(P-51)
Bill Thompson (P-51)

We have some interest in bringing in two more CAF planes that are still available: a Japanese Zero and a Japanese Kate bomber (both of these are replicas that were built for the movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!"). The Zero will cost us $2,000 and the Kate is $3,000. If we can raise the money there is still time to bring one or both of these planes in. Terry has been busy drumming up support for this, so if anyone is interested or is interested in forming a group to sponsor one of these planes, let me know ASAP. flyin@eaa445.org

And speaking of Terry, he will be there in his L-39 and he is organizing a flying clinic for several other L-39s that are expected to fly in.

Also, our friend Mike Beaver from Alabama will be here again in his T-28. He was a big hit last year. Hopefully, when the publicity gets going some other warbirds will want to join us..

Publicity
This team is doing a great job and a lot is going on - my hat is off to Pete Rayner, Calvin Sherman, and Alan Hanstein. Alan, by the way, just joined at the last meeting and has jumped right in and is doing some amazing stuff. Hopefully, I cover it all. First, for TV coverage, Pete has arranged the following:

Great job, Pete!

Calvin and Pete are also working with Evolution Media, who have agreed to produce two public service announcements for us, to be shown on local TV.

In the world of radio, Calvin and Pete have brought in WHBT- 1410 AM, Cumulus Broadcasting. They will be promoting the AirFest and having on air ticket giveaways. They will be doing a live feed from the AirFest on both days.

The biggest thing happening, quite literally, is the 10' x 30' AirFest billboard that will be going up on Capital Circle in the next week or two. Alan secured the space with Summit Outdoor Advertising and has designed the billboard graphic. This billboard is Summit #145, on Capital Circle SW at Cascade Drive as you drive towards the airport.

Alan is also designing the AirFest poster and has arranged with Insty-Prints to print the poster and our programs. We hope to have the poster printed this coming week - in time to take some down to Sun 'n Fun next weekend. We will also be printing a separate flyer specifically for pilots that we will be distributing. We will need everyone's assistance in the next few weeks distributing posters and taking flyers around to airports in the area. Click here and scroll to the bottom for a printable flyer.

Marty Roberts a local pilot and businessman has donated the funds needed for printing our tickets. They'll have a Wendy's logo on the back.

The publicity guys are also working on getting coverage in the Democrat.

Safety & Security
Danny Deason is doing a great job getting organized for aircraft and auto parking and overall safety and security. The two local amateur radio clubs (TARS & SPARC) have signed up again to help us with security and communications, and the CAP will be helping with aircraft parking.

Danny has also taken on the thankless job of AirFest Sanitation Engineer, and we all thank him sincerely for that.

Volunteers
Tom Baldwin, Volunteer Wrangler, is making his list and checking it twice, so if you haven't signed up to volunteer, do so before he checks it again! We really need everyone's help this year, even a couple of hours will help out and make it less work for all. As noted above, the CAP and the hams are helping out, but we are still in need of more volunteers. If you haven't already done so, please fill out the volunteer form by clicking on here .

FAA
Lee Bowersox has once again done an outstanding job putting together an official NOTAM for the AirFest. The NOTAM will be published on April 14th, we'll have it up on the web site soon after that. We have a non-transponder arrival window from 8 am - 11 am both days this year (you must follow the VFR arrival procedure in the NOTAM). Since we are (and presumably always will be) Class C airspace, all aircraft must have two way radio communication.

Food
Marc Dupuis is once again planning a tasty breakfast and lunch menu. The CAP will be helping out this year selling ice cream.

That's about it for now, more to come...

Ed Copes