The day was February 13, 2010, the Arizona Blue Sky Flyers held the club’s second social activity for this new year. In January, during the planning session for upcoming monthly events, a suggestion was made to put on our activities list for February, the Mustang and Muscle Car Show to be held at the Commemorative Air Force museum at Falcon Field in Mesa. Well, today was the day and what a great day it was too for our short flight to FFZ and to spend time outdoors. The weather was excellent; the day started off cool but by mid morning we were shedding our jackets and were beginning to think that shorts might have been appropriate attire for the day!
We started the day with a short flight (about 20 minutes) from Deer Valley to Falcon Field where we all gathered for breakfast at the airport restaurant, Falcon’s Roost. Nothing fancy but a respectable place; comfortable, the coffee was hot, good food, very accommodating service and prices that seemed pretty fair. Three airplanes made up our flight group today. Club members attending: Sandy & Dewey, Margaret & Keith, Gert & Jim and Gena. Sandy & Dewey invited their neighbors, Judy and Bill Burch to ride along to enjoy the day with us.
After breakfast, we headed for the flightline area where we walked the display area of cars and airplanes while getting our morning exercise. We covered the ramp area completely, checking every car in the competition. We checked out the big CAF hangar too. The sights, the sounds along with the festive atmosphere, the bright sun and warm temperatures made for a most enjoyable day.
I don’t know how many Mustang cars were in attendance at this show but I think it is safe to say there were close to 100, maybe more. Mustangs of all ages! There were a lot of Corvettes as well, a few Dodge Chargers, a 1960 Cadillac plus numerous beautifully crafted, many one-of-a-kind, custom cars of all sorts. There was one ’57 T’Bird too, one of my favorites. The total number of cars on display was hard to estimate as they kept coming and going; the line up kept changing. Very likely though, there probably were 200 give or take a few.
Not to be left out were the on site vendors too who were there to sell a variety of goods ranging from food/drinks, car polish, airplane and car models, accessories and other related products, signs of all kinds, and of course, a variety of “T” shirts. One unique piece of merchandise was the “hair” hat! A somewhat ordinary looking ball cap arrangement with hair coming out the top and sides. I wish now that I had taken a picture of one of these “hats”.
Owners of the cars on display had the opportunity to have their cars photographed with one of the Mustang aircraft……….in a setting such as seen above. This event drew a lot of people; not just the owners of the cars on display but aviation and car buffs, admirers of both and of all ages too. I tried to get an idea of the places these people came from to display their cars. Most of the cars had Arizona plates on them but many were from California. There were cars from other surrounding states as well. From my own accounting, the Orange Crush truck would take the prize for having traveled the greatest distance, he came from all the way from British Columbia! This event was also an interesting place to just “people watch” and chat with strangers.
The Commemorative Air Force had their vintage aircraft on display too. A long line of people waited to walk/crawl through CAF’s Sentimental Journey, a B-17 bomber. The museum was open so everyone could wander through the big hangar to see a variety of museum aircraft and associated artifact displays
We ended the outing, tired from all the walking, after all of us flew back to Deer Valley, put our planes away then headed across the street from DVT to Culver’s for an afternoon treat. Culver’s claim they don’t have fast food……….they serve good food quickly! Though the menu is full of Culver’s “butterburgers” and various side dishes plus some great ice cream desserts………all of us stuck to ice cream this time. The hot fudge sundaes Gert and Jim ordered looked awesome!
Membership in the Blue Sky Flyers has been on a slow and somewhat steady decline. Several years ago our roster held the names of 45 members. Today membership stands at just 15. Some of the members have been lost due to economic conditions and the individuals just aren’t as involved with aviation very much anymore. There’s likely a whole host of reasons why membership is down, Yet, it should be recognized that ABSF provides a social outlet for people with similar interests. Your board members put together a schedule of activities in hopes that all members will want to participate in at least some of the events. Member input for these activities is welcomed. It is also worth noting that owning an airplane or being current as a pilot are not necessary or required to belong to the organization and take part in activities. There are activities planned through out the year that do not require flying in order to participate. For example, the annual May hangar party, June light rail downtown event, July dinner at Anzio Landing, the Christmas party, plus any one of the club dinner meetings at the DVT restaurant. Check out our event schedule and join in on the fun.
For March, April and May we have some fun things planned. Perhaps some of these activities will inspire members, and non-members alike, in order that we can get more participation and perhaps a few new members too. We can always hope that some of those members we’ve lost will renew their memberships.
More Pictures below. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view
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