chgomonitor
Silent Key
Joel Love and I attended the show yesterday. Some of the best flying we've seen at an airport based / "local" show. Questionable weather never got to us, but it was a little hot. It was a great show, and I had a good time, but I must include a few "knocks";
1. Gates opened late (9:20 am). Not a good idea with a record crowd in attendance. Would it kill them to set up a ramp to drive across the drainage ditch at the main entrance? Would have greatly reduced the inbound and outbound traffic snarl.
2. Little or no availability of drinking water. I talked to one of the Pepsi vendor managers, who thought this was a great thing. This is a pet peeve of mine at 'hot" shows. While the announcers continued to urge the crowd to stay hydrated, at 3 dollars a bottle for Aquafina tap water that may not be an option for everyone. Take care of your crowd. We saw several heat casualties in the crowd and one performer, a junior marine. Made us mad.
3. Fairly challenging walk from parking to the show line. This could have been set up a lot better. Trailer transits and busses were there, but we never saw them actually transporting anybody.
4. At the back end of the show line I saw several aircraft ground taxi through attendance areas. Way stupid.
5. Great vendor lineup and decent food, but they need to be selling more "salt stuff" (chips, nachos, etc), in this heat.
6. -Sigh- no Su-29. Oh well, one day I'll get to see one fly...
Other than the above, the show was well managed and run by a mostly volunteer staff. Our thanks to them for volunteering. With this size crowd at this small a facility, they clearly had their hands full.
Frequencies:
123.550 Platform, no UHF pair
122.925 Discrete, air to ground audio
123.150 Aero Shell
123.475 Golden Knights
122.475 A-10 West Coast team and Heritage flight w/P-51
155.670 Rock County Sheriff detail
462.650 One of the organizer's operations freqs
118.800 Tower
225.400 Tower
121.000 Rockford Radar
327.000 Rockford Radar
121.650 Ground
139.8125 (FM) Blue Angels ground support
142.6125 (FM) Blue Angels tower support
275.350 (AM) Blue Angels
346.500 (AM) Blue Angels
255.200 (AM) Blue Angels - little used
305.500 (AM) Blue Angels - Fat Albert
237.800 (AM) Blue Angels
284.250 (AM) Blue Angels
396.875 (FM) Unknown traffic on USAF ISR radios
462.6875 One of the airport FBO's
There were several other FRS/GMRS channels is use, sorry I didn't get them all, but they are there.
Well, I got a little more sun burned than I had intended and my wife is not up to this sort of trek to/from the parking lots carrying our gear, so we won't be up today for Sunday's show, but have a great time if you are going or listening.
Happy Scanning! - Ted
1. Gates opened late (9:20 am). Not a good idea with a record crowd in attendance. Would it kill them to set up a ramp to drive across the drainage ditch at the main entrance? Would have greatly reduced the inbound and outbound traffic snarl.
2. Little or no availability of drinking water. I talked to one of the Pepsi vendor managers, who thought this was a great thing. This is a pet peeve of mine at 'hot" shows. While the announcers continued to urge the crowd to stay hydrated, at 3 dollars a bottle for Aquafina tap water that may not be an option for everyone. Take care of your crowd. We saw several heat casualties in the crowd and one performer, a junior marine. Made us mad.
3. Fairly challenging walk from parking to the show line. This could have been set up a lot better. Trailer transits and busses were there, but we never saw them actually transporting anybody.
4. At the back end of the show line I saw several aircraft ground taxi through attendance areas. Way stupid.
5. Great vendor lineup and decent food, but they need to be selling more "salt stuff" (chips, nachos, etc), in this heat.
6. -Sigh- no Su-29. Oh well, one day I'll get to see one fly...
Other than the above, the show was well managed and run by a mostly volunteer staff. Our thanks to them for volunteering. With this size crowd at this small a facility, they clearly had their hands full.
Frequencies:
123.550 Platform, no UHF pair
122.925 Discrete, air to ground audio
123.150 Aero Shell
123.475 Golden Knights
122.475 A-10 West Coast team and Heritage flight w/P-51
155.670 Rock County Sheriff detail
462.650 One of the organizer's operations freqs
118.800 Tower
225.400 Tower
121.000 Rockford Radar
327.000 Rockford Radar
121.650 Ground
139.8125 (FM) Blue Angels ground support
142.6125 (FM) Blue Angels tower support
275.350 (AM) Blue Angels
346.500 (AM) Blue Angels
255.200 (AM) Blue Angels - little used
305.500 (AM) Blue Angels - Fat Albert
237.800 (AM) Blue Angels
284.250 (AM) Blue Angels
396.875 (FM) Unknown traffic on USAF ISR radios
462.6875 One of the airport FBO's
There were several other FRS/GMRS channels is use, sorry I didn't get them all, but they are there.
Well, I got a little more sun burned than I had intended and my wife is not up to this sort of trek to/from the parking lots carrying our gear, so we won't be up today for Sunday's show, but have a great time if you are going or listening.
Happy Scanning! - Ted
