Reid-Hillview Airport Day - June 26, 2010

Reid-Hillview Airport Day 2010 was held on Saturday, June 26. It was organized by the Reid-Hillview Airport Association (RHVAA). I was the announcer this time - it was my air show announcing debut. I still managed to get some pictures, though more during setup and cleanup because I was usually busy telling everyone about it when things were happening. I had some breaks, such as when bands were playing.

The event looked like a success to me. Everyone seemed to have fun. There were so many starry-eyed children clearly having a great time seeing the airplanes, and in some cases getting free airplane rides. It's so important to give them a chance to be inspired by flight the same way we were as kids.

A very pleasant surprise... San Jose City Councilwoman Rose Herrera presented RHVAA with a commendation plaque made by act of the entire city council. RHVAA President Mark Kadrich accepted the plaque and had a big smile on his face the rest of the day.

There's a lot of credit to go around. Many RHVAA volunteers organized and helped put on the event. There was also a lot of work done by Santa Clara County Airports Dept staff. Many pilots brought their planes from locations on the airport or flew in from other airports, as far away as Fresno and Chico that I heard. The formation flying pilots and remote control aircraft flyers all obviously put in time to practice before the event. The air traffic controllers and some RHVAA volunteers gave tours of the control tower. Some Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) members donated airplane rides through the Young Eagles program to children ages 8-17, which were booked solid fairly early in the day. Many community organizations made presentations or performances. And while we're giving out credit to people for what made it a success, let's not forget the members of the community who attended!

There was a fairly continuous stream of people through the event all day. For the most part, we didn't have a large crowd at any one time. But it's all well above the threshold I considered a success. And I suspect that we had major competition for people's attention with other high-profile events going on, including the ribbon cutting and open house for the new Terminal B at San Jose International Airport, the other airport in San Jose. It was an "oops" in our community that both our airports managed to schedule their biggest event of the year for the same day.

My other events this weekend were San Jose RACES Field Day 2010 and the San Jose Int'l Airport Terminal B grand opening and open house.