R
Roger, Roger
Guest
Anyone going? If so, have fun!
This is the first time in 5 years that I haven't been at the national competition.
This is the first time in 5 years that I haven't been at the national competition.
Boris Badenov
Fortis Leader
We're refunding your lunch money.
R
Roger, Roger
Guest
Hardee har har. I may be a nerd, but at least I admit it. And now I'm an airplane mech in Alaska, that has to count for SOMETHING in the man-points department.
CharlieRomeo
Well-Known Member
Airplane mechanic: +1 man point
Living in Alaska: +1 man point
NIFA: -3 man points
:laff: Just kidding, Roger. I hope our team does well.
trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
My team left today to head over there. Can't go with them again this year 
jdlilfan
Well-Known Member
Ha! I wouldn't consider it "fun". Fun is definitely not fueling 1-3 gallons at a time into 152's. Or silly NIFA officials thinking they "own" the airport. Or the runway incursion on Monday's practice. Or the fact that local CFI's are forced not to work for a week because the competition is in town.
I guess all I am saying is that it has been pretty frustrating for airport employees.
trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
Ha! I wouldn't consider it "fun". Fun is definitely not fueling 1-3 gallons at a time into 152's. Or silly NIFA officials thinking they "own" the airport. Or the runway incursion on Monday's practice. Or the fact that local CFI's are forced not to work for a week because the competition is in town.
I guess all I am saying is that it has been pretty frustrating for airport employees.
Boris Badenov
Fortis Leader
I've seen this first hand. Sitting there waiting for some Maverick in his 152 to finish his NIFA-runup while you're burning kerosene like we're running out of the stuff is not condusive to positive nerd/regular-pilot relations.
jdlilfan
Well-Known Member
HUF- Terre Haute, IN
trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
jdlilfan
Well-Known Member
We can all use the PUBLIC USE airport. Not a problem with me. It bothers me when NIFA comes in and says "for the issue of safety, we would like you to shut down your flight school and discourage transient traffic" and the airport bends over backwards to accomodate. We had to cancel our weekly DOJ MD-80 flight because of it. It is a big chunk of our weekly income since they take about 2,000 gallons of jet-a. NIFA only gave the airport $500 to host this thing. That was spent with in about 2 hours for painting tie-down spots. Even that was over budget when you figure the cost with labor to run around $2,000.
trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
I doubt NIFA gave the airport anything for "hosting." They may have given the airport 500$ to sweeten the pot for repainting tiedowns. And as far as I know NIFA itself has never asked anyone to shut down, the host school or the airport management may have done that, I don't know.
And lets do some math here:
30ish schools and an average of 3 airplanes per school. I don't know about other schools because their flying is sometimes paid for but in the case of my team it's out of pocket so there's probably about 10 hours of flying on each airplane for the week. That's 900 hours of flying. If they're 152's (not all of them are) then it's 6 gallons per hour of flying. Conservatively that's 5400 gallons of fuel sold in a week. Add to that the oil that gets purchased, revenue for food vendors, pilot shops, local aircraft rental for some schools etc. etc.
I can tell you that when we host a regionals the local businesses love us and it's nowhere near the scale of a national competition.
And lets do some math here:
30ish schools and an average of 3 airplanes per school. I don't know about other schools because their flying is sometimes paid for but in the case of my team it's out of pocket so there's probably about 10 hours of flying on each airplane for the week. That's 900 hours of flying. If they're 152's (not all of them are) then it's 6 gallons per hour of flying. Conservatively that's 5400 gallons of fuel sold in a week. Add to that the oil that gets purchased, revenue for food vendors, pilot shops, local aircraft rental for some schools etc. etc.
I can tell you that when we host a regionals the local businesses love us and it's nowhere near the scale of a national competition.
wow sorry, I didn't know that NIFA was going to strike such a chord! :dunno: I realize that it can put a big inconvenience on airport officials and when I see somebody from either the FBO guy to ATC, I always make sure to thank them because I know how much effort they put in.
As for the kid sitting in his 152 doing a 3 hour long run-up..yea I hate that too when it takes longer for him to do the run-up then the time I could do all my landings! (cough cough riddle).
