Friendly faces 
I’m sorry that I missed dinner.
Friday evening at Felders.
I met some friends, we had few drinks at booth, dinner and lot of beer Besides that, I had four hours of good flying (two each direction), hand flown for pure joy, light icing on both landings and some 20 min total in IMC.
As always, I sold my two tickets kindly sponsored by BP in front of the entrance and entered on my exhibitor’s pass.
TOTAL offered a good capuccino.
Ascair offered Aperol Spritz.
Cirrus offered beer.
RogersData offered my a set of Germany charts.
A good deal.
For the rest nothing too exiting. But I met dublinpilot and SebastianG.
Also talked to the tech rep of Continental about the cam gear SB, but he couldn’t tell what would happen in the future. Nor could Scan Aviation. Apparently, there is some conflicting information floating around (as always) regarding affected engines.
Had a good talk with Martina from Avionik Straubing on possible WAAS upgrades for the Cirrus.
Was there anything new or notable?
Very little for me. I noticed a general trend for less stands, and those that remained smaller. Less “spectacular new engine” designs. Increase of (pseudo-)toys.
A hangar fellow of mine that used to be on a booth told me the organisation/company he works for decided to not have their own booth this year, their most prolific contacts being with other exhibitors rather than with visitors; so that not having their own exhibit saved them both on expense and on time.
Less 120 kg than last time but what there was was nearer to actually flying.
No more “national” booth from Bulgaria as there used to be, but there was one from Hungary whereas “my” Halley supplier used to have their own booth before.
Only a single booth offered paper maps and I was glad to buy my part. That booth (Siebert) saw lots of visitors – and most of them actually buying, I was surprised to see none of the other usual suspects.
I may well have missed out on interesting exhibits, though, I am actually quite good at that. Just like I only met a very few euroga participants though several must have been present, even during my rather short visit (Friday, +/- 10:00 local to +/- 15:00 local). A highlight was talking to Stefan of chickenwings and buying some merchandise – which I almost never do – a pity there were no coffee mugs, though.
On a general note: as I remember, my last visit (2015?) cost 17,50 € entry; now it was 20,00 entry + 5,00 parking so a hefty net increase. Not very sure I’ll wish to visit again in 2018.
I didn’t go this year.
Was there anything new or notable?
Peter wrote:
I wonder if they are still doing that this time round?
I don’t know – I submitted EOBT within the slot out of EDNY and then delayed flight, no complaints.
BTW I was late on departure on Thursday and nobody made any complaints.
Last year that would be OK too – so long as the filed flight plan had the right ETA, relative to the booked slot. Otherwise they cancelled your flight plan.
I wonder if they are still doing that this time round?
Peter wrote:
€10 would be too cheap though; you would still get speculative bookings.
Well, this year is €35 and yet it was not easy to book appropriate slot if you were late in decision making.
BTW I was late on departure on Thursday and nobody made any complaints.
My “+1” will not come but I will.
