Big Bird Fly-In 2012

This year’s Big Bird Fun Fly was very successful in many regards as outlined below. But more importantly fun was had by all! We had a very sunny day with temps reaching up to 88 degrees and the wind stayed in the 4-6 mph range. I am guessing we had approximately 150 spectators stop by throughout the day. I did hear reports of 200 or so spectators which is exciting. Keeping a count was very hard to do so I just stopped trying! We had approximately 18 pilots.

Why were we successful?

1)      Spectators –
   · We had ads running on craigslist in Portland all the way down to Medford.
   · Brad sent personal emails to many of the clubs in the region with a personal invitation.
   · I submitted our event to several news outlets (KEZI ran a story prior) and our
    travelers bureau
   ·   Signs! Signs have always been great to help pull in people
   · Wayne took several people up on his trainer which was a huge hit. Several people
      were waiting in line for their turn
   · Signs that Jeff Harris made helped reduce the amount of spectators in the pits. I don’t
      know if I saw even one cross the line. It definitely made a huge difference for safety.

2)      Parking –
   · Our lot was double parked and full most of the day.
   · Thanks to Jim for marking the lot on Friday
   · Several volunteers helped with parking throughout the day including Mickey Cohen,
      James Thomas, Doug McWha and Chuck O'D. I know there were others
throughout the day helping as well.
   · Doug and myself stretched a safety barrier along the west side of the runway providing
      a barrier and also additional parking which really helped.

2)      Food –
   ·   Al kept the BBQ running for a couple hours feeding everyone and I heard we had the
       most donations from the food bin ever

3)      Pilots –
   · Pilots meeting kept things organized
   · We invited Chris McVey to demo his helicopters which is always a hit
   · We invited Steve from Chief Aircraft and he brought down some huge planes and a
couple of other workers including Mark from the showroom and Brett that
      runs the Florida operation. They put on a huge show while just playing around -
      that was incredible.

4)      Volunteers –
   · We can put hours and hours of planning, marketing etc… but without the volunteers we
     would have been in serious trouble! Thank you for all that came out and helped.
   · Barrington, Al (BBQ Master)
   · Doug McWha (Lawn, Parking etc..)
   · Jim Corbett (Pre-setup)
   · Cohen, Mickey (Parking)
   · O'Donnell, Chuck (Parking)
   · Blain, Frank (Announced pilots)
   · Jeff Harris (New signs!)
   · Heidi Winklepleck (registration, t-shirt sales and raffle)
   · Jayne Krenz (registration, t-shirt sales and raffle)
   · Wayne Wahrmund (Intro pilot was very busy! Great job!)

5)       T-Shirts –
· I’m not sure how we did but I didn’t see very many left at the end of the day.
     Even some spectators bought some shirts which was cool.
   · Members were wearing their shirts with pride and it gave the feeling of a very
     active and organized club

6)      Raffle –
   · We had a spectator win the $200 gift certificate due to flying with Wayne! That was
   awesome as this new potential young flier can get started in our sport!
   · The raffle was successful as well but I do not know how much we brought in from it.

7)      Marketing –
   · We had two news teams come out and film which I hope will bring more attention to
     our sport and club. You can see the spots by going to kval and or kezi or click the
     links on our site.

Areas of opportunity

1)      Pilots –
   a. We could have had more pilots but due to some conflicting events. We need to
        revisit the date for next year. Medford had a huge event that drew most of our
        Cottage Grove and Creswell pilots.

2)      Spectators –
   a. We need more intro pilots available as Wayne was swamped
   b. More people to greet and discuss our sport to new comers

3)      Volunteers –
   a. We need a new set for each event. We need more people not the same
       members volunteering as this can get very tiresome.

4)      Parking –
   a. We should not double park in the future. We did our best to park those that said they
       would be staying awhile behind another car that said they would leave soon. It caused
      some issues but the spectators were understanding as we tried to hunt people down that
      were blocking them

   b. We need a new plan and I think opening up the field to the west really helped and
       we can make better use of that area next time with some paint lines.

That’s all I can think of right now other than THANK YOU from Brad and I to all those that helped make it a success! If I forgot someone that helped please let me know and I will ask Jim to add them to this report!

Mike Winklepleck, Big Bird Fly In 2012 Event Director