Nice to meet people at dinner. Amazingly walking around yesterday I didn’t see anyone. Show was interesting but I doubt it will be an annual event for me.
I decided not to visit the Aero first of all due to the senseless and very sloppily done slottery business, where all useable slots were gone within minutes of the not announced opening of the slot site as well as the extremely selfish behaviour of some operators who booked multiple in/out slot pairs therefore closing the whole system off to those who did not spend the night waiting for that idiotic site to open. Honestly, this system is worse than any I have ever seen and a HUGE deterrent for visitors who actually fly, not 10 year old boys who come to dream the dream.
From what I read here I am thankful that I did not waste a day (it would have had to be thursday for me so I would not have met any of you guys, THAT would have been a good reason thoug) looking at the same thing I have seen the year before. I am sure the saved cost will more than compensate for the cheap Jeppesen updates I missed.
My impression even of last year’s show was the same as Jason and some others notice. Certified GA is totally overpriced and therefore not interesting to see, and as I am not interested in UL’s at all, half of the show bears no use for me.
No wonder some friends I have take the airlines to Oskosh or Sun and Fun each year and simply forget that this provincial little exhibition happens. Definitly not worth it anymore.
I was there during the day on Friday but mainly to chat with suppliers and meet colleagues and in that respect it was worthwhile. If I had gone as a regular visitor I don´t think I would bother to go again.
We stayed in Donaueschingen and came with a rented car. This avoided the hotel mafia in Friedrichshafn with their rip-off show prices and also solved the problem caused by the absurd slot system.
I must say that I have just got back from Sun & Fun, where I’ve been going for several years, and although the show seems to be getting less exciting, I still very much enjoy the efficient organisation and especially the good weather (85F and SUN).
As some have already pointed out about Aero, not much has changed since last year: quite a few LSA and 4 halls of mostly
electronic wizardry. Peter would have liked the TBM 930 I expect, and perhaps the Lancair Turbine or perhaps the Cirrus Vision.
Left base for Lakeland:
A few more notes:
On the outbound flight I got KOK-LNO as always, regardless of what Autorouter generates; 3:20hrs
On the return flight, I got another huge long DCT, over 200nm, to KOK… 4:20hrs this time, with a 30-35kt headwind
A jet fighter like looking plane which is actually a fan driven by a BMW motorbike engine. Reportedly it makes an unusual kind of noise
The front suspension
The lakeside is nice – this is a view from one of the restaurants
The hybrid Panthera was spotlessly clean and obviously has never gone anywhere
This is the Siemens motor
It has a turbocharged Rotax engine hidden underneath
They have lifted the headroom for the rear seats
Another electric project with the same Siemens motor
behind which was a thousand laptop batteries 
The King KI300 AHRS replacement for the KI256. As usual, 10 years too late…
The Eclipse panel
TBM930:
PC12:
As the saying goes, there’s no accounting for taste 
The TBM930 data plate
This turboprop engine has been there for years… not sure if anybody is using it significantly
An experimental t-shirt One of my Czech friends made some samples, and added this one the back of his
Lots of funny looking people
A lot of these got taken away… somewhere…
(but we need to do more so if anyone who can leave some at their airfield can send me their address, I will put some in the post… it is your chance to help our community by doing very little work)
As I posted, it was brilliant to meet up with so many people and that (and a trip with my younger son) was really why I went there. I always just feel a bit of an idiot because I can’t remember most of the names
Today’s return wx was evidently possible to climb up through if one was fairly pro-active on the “avoids”. This is my son kicking away the rocks from the edge of the taxiway because 3 of us could not move the plane by hand so it had to be warmed up and go under almost max power…
This is about FL100
FL120
At one point I was not getting an “avoid” clearance for a while so I just did it anyway…
Almost there at FL140
FL140 worked for a while
but eventually we had to go to FL170 (-28C… unusually low temperatures today)
MH O2D2 system doing a fine job (2 of us used up about 1/4 of the “48 cu ft” cylinder on the whole trip)
Coast of Belgium, FL170. It was thick again over the UK – top right
The UK
I noticed from ATC talk that a de-iced Twin Comanche beat us to the UK (as it should – at least 10kt faster?) but only by 15 minutes. He seemingly flew at FL100-120; between layers I guess. I can’t take that risk. But I will be getting the full TKS this winter. Ordering the bits this week…
On the descent, -800fpm, prop TKS on, instant icing as usual but only thin, and SFC temp was +9C so no risk of having to land with it. Tops here were FL100
Popping out below, 4000ft
After 20 mins at +3C, still there
Landed with 38.7 USG, exactly as per the fuel totaliser predicting at the top of climb
A nice trip, but if it wasn’t for the social side of it, 2.x days at the show is way too much. You can do it all in one day, easily.
The slot system is a disgrace which allows various forms of abuse, of the “towel on the deckchair” variety. I hope that a lot of people complain.
Peter if you make the a5 poster available for download as a PDF I can put up at Blackbushe, Popham & Thruxton.
I was helping out at the PocketFMS stand again this year. The show was much smaller than in previous years and the visitor numbers were visibly down. There was plenty of walking space in the halls. But the show went very well for us with significantly more interest than last year which itself was an excellent year. So we were very happy and looking forward to next year.
It was great to meet Peter and Sheldon again. I also got to briefly meet Michael again and admire his attire! It was also great that I got to meet jesse and Vieke for the first time too. Sorry Vieke that I didn’t have much time to talk. You caught me just a bad time. With a bit of luck we’ll meet again at one of the flyins.
Colm
