Hobby Expo--February 9th in Petaluma

[PTKohlmann]

Steve Elliot from HobbyTown has invited the Club to participate in the Hobby Expo again this year.  It is scheduled for February 9th.

Steve has held a table for us in the same location as years past.  That provides quite a bit of room to display aircraft.  Jeff Penner will be loaning a laptop with RealFlight for folks to try.

We got a few volunteers for display planes and to man the table, but we could use more.  With a couple more guys, the shifts could be made very short.  The show goes from 0930 to 1600 but we can set up as early as 0800.

If you haven't been there, its well worth the trip to Luchessi Park in Petaluma.  Weather permitting, our guys have flown waterplanes and 3D over the pond right out front.  There's also a group that operates a model navy with ships using compressed gas guns to shoot ball bearings in duels to the death.  No live fire on the pond, but they are fun to talk with.  Lots of other hobbies represented with an emphasis on plastic models.  Robo Cage of Death, too.

Anyone going?  How about guys willing to put in a short stint at the table so that we can spread the load out?

Paul

[RCFLIER]

If all works out I will be there with 2 Planes my Peadator and my Beaver DH2 I will try for all day. but this depends on Work and Boss(wife). Hope to see ya all there

[Jon_Stychno]

I'm looking forward to doing some demo flying! Count me in for that.

-Jon

[adam_clement]

    I will bring some Planes to display and fly outside. Let's hope the weather is nice and they Cleaned up the Goose p***. 

Adam

[PTKohlmann]

I got an email yesterday from Steve Elliot of HobbyTown thanking the Club for participating in the Hobby Expo last Saturday.  This was their 4th one and it was by far the largest.  Steve provided pictures from the event in the webpage below.  There is a link on that page to a PressDemo article stating that there were over 2000 attendees from all over the state!
http://www.htupetaluma.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=614&Itemid=57

We had quite a few members present including Merle, Larry Gustafson, Phil, Patrick, Steve Koll, Adam, and John Reade to name a few.  A great range of aircraft were there as well as Jeff's flight sim.  Several guys got some real flying in, although the answer to Adam's question is no the area is still covered with Goose p***.  In fact, in the morning the seagulls swarmed Merle's icon forcing him to recover his aircraft!  The gulls moved on and things improved later.

About the only mishap that I'm aware of is that yours truly forgot to bring flyers to hand out.  Even so, we met quite a few people including a gentlemen who had flown P40's during the war and worked as a test pilot on the Convair Pogo project, and a prospective member who plans to crash our next Member Meeting on Feb 19th. 

Paul