Air No Show

I guess being hyper-responsible when it comes to money isn’t necessarily a bad thing but canceling Air Rendezvous forever on the chance that it might not make money for the first time seems like an overreaction to me. But whatever.

I do wonder how places like Peoria, the Quad Cities, Rockford, and Terre Haute all manage to have annual air shows but we can’t. (Rockford’s air show is this weekend and features the Blue Angels if anyone is interested). I have no idea how those other places finance their air events but maybe someone here could look into that and come up with a plan.

Also, I was sort of amused by this from the SJ-R story one the subject this morning:

Springfield Airport Authority chairman Frank Vala said Wednesday that he would like to see some version of an air show return to Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, but he does not expect a return of Air Rendezvous.

“Anytime we get an event like that, it lets people see what we have to offer at the airport,” said Vala.

I’m not sure AR attendees really saw much of what the airport “has to offer” since we all gathered in a field off one of the runways. The airport facilities were off in the distance and most of the planes in the show had no relationship to the airport. Occasionally, the air show would be interrupted by an incoming or outgoing commercial flight but that was more of a nuisance than a display of what the airport had to offer.