Saturday morning began at 4AM for us….we had been planning
this event since October 12, 2014. It
was our 7th annual Culpeper Regional Airport AirFest 2015. The airport puts on a free airshow event at
the airport and our group, Cruisin For Heroes, provides a lot full of special
interest vehicles for the 7000+ spectators to check out as they enter and leave
the airport ramp. We hand pick the
invitees for their personality as well as their special ride….we don’t want
grumpy people representing our hobby to the curious spectators. We also don’t want junky or uninteresting
vehicles to display….we really have to pick the rides, that’s why we call it an
invitational display. We spend most of
the year at car shows and cruises picking out our special subjects to
invite. We try to carryover about half
of the vehicles from previous years and the other half to be new vehicles &
people. We currently have about 70
people that have committed to assist us if they are available!
This year we again invited some clowns from Love-n-laffs Clown
Alley to offer face painting and walking around among the spectators doing
clown stuff….this was very well received the first time last year. Another group we support, Paws4Vets, attended
to display & explain their service dog program. Rolling Thunder Inc., Virginia Chapter 3, had
a canopy to explain the many ways their group supports our Veterans. And our group, CFH, staffs our Fisher House
Foundation canopy all day to share the mission of Fisher House with anyone that
wants to know. We provide all the
participants with a token of our appreciation in the form of a yearly specific,
custom designed plaque reflecting their day at the airport. This is the second year that the cost of the
plaques was assumed by Chrysler of Culpeper so we invited them to display some
of their new cars and staff the event with a canopy and salesmen.
The vehicles we provide vary from a super modified race car
to a stock 1947 Chevy Pickup. We have a
2006 Ford GT-40 and a whole bunch of hot rods.
We have G&K Pulling Team bring out some of their ‘Garden Tractor
Pullers’ and this year for the first time we invited a restored Military Jeep
complete with all the period correct accoutrements….like a pintle mounted
M-60. We have muscle cars both old and
new. We have motorcycles and this year
one of our invitees was a lady that has a yellow & black Camaro she calls
Bumble Bee. She has a costume she wears
at special occasions that makes her look like a ‘transformer’ figure. She was at the entrance to our display lot
and most of the kids going into the airport ramp paused to see and chat with
her while their parents took pictures of them.
I think she really added to the
enjoyment of many kids Saturday. The
spectators mingle among the vehicles and ask questions of the owners….while it provides
a little stimulation to the memory banks of many people.
Like I said above this is our 7th year at this…..we
have it pretty well figured out. Like
any event held outside, weather is a concern and we usually begin stressing
about it two weeks out. My Dad was a
fighter pilot in WWII, he flew a P-51 Mustang and I remember him relating to me
that the weather people back then “got it right” about half the time. I have read accounts of our air missions in
SEA and weather was always a critical part of the equation….and it was wrong
many times. So we watch the weather a
lot when we have an event we are putting on.
I have four weather sites I consult to try to get a consensus on what
will happen in the next 24 hours! And
that makes me crazy….the same people want to change my life because of something
they say is going to happen a long way in the future…..but they can’t get a 24
hour forecast correct!? That….is a discussion
for another time. We had experienced
some major rainfall in addition to the wet remnants of hurricane Joaquin
running up the coast the week before our event.
We checked the display lot Friday afternoon and it was in stable
condition. But later that night a major
cold front came buzzing through and apparently dumped massive amounts of water
in the Brandy Station area (the actual location of the airport). We are about 35 miles from the airport and had
some rain but only for 20-25 min and not too much actual water with it, mostly just
wind. We arrived at the display lot at
6AM….to a soggy field in the dark! The
first vehicles we park are the trailered ones….which are also the heaviest ones…..which
found the soft spots and promptly sank.
One of our group members was absent that day, another one
was late and one was about two miles away handing out special entry passes to
everyone. So there were only three of
us, in the dark, in the mud….waving our flashlights around. One of the trailer displays that didn’t have
any trouble with the soft ground, had a massive Ford 4WD truck. He volunteered to extricate the stuck truck
& trailer. But we discovered that
there were other “soft spots” in the lot as another vehicle promptly got stuck
too. It was an antique so we got it out
with the help of the hands of the other people that brought vehicles. Our group huddled and determined that about
1/3 of the display lot was unusable! As
the sun’s rays started peeking over the horizon I noticed/remembered that our
critical traffic control guy (the late guy I mentioned above) was still not at
his station as some of the display vehicles were driving right by our lot. I tried to call him, no response. The display vehicles kept coming in and I had
to park them in a holding lot while we gently worked the vehicles through the
quagmire to a safe area one at a time.
Then my “late” guy drove up abruptly, jumped out and announced that he
had hit a deer on the way in and was dealing with that when I called! He quickly took up his spot and began
directing the cars and helping the process….whew!
We have only one entrance & exit for our display lot so
we usually park the display cars from the back to the front to avoid collisions
and confusion. With so much of the lot
unusable we had to carefully pick out where the ground was stable enough to
park the vehicles and by taking time to do that, the number of the cars in the ‘holding
lot’ was mounting up. Plus we also had
to allow space for the cars that hadn’t arrived yet so we had to bunch up some
of the vehicles in the back of the lot.
As it worked out about 10 people decided not to attend so the space we
were holding for them was utilized to spread out some of the remaining vehicles,
but we never unknotted the bunched up vehicles in the back. By the time we realized we would have some
extra room the school busses filled with spectators that had parked at the two
Culpeper High Schools, began to arrive!
It was just too dangerous to try to move cars around with people walking
through the lot. As soon as all the
vehicles were parked we turned our attention to setting up the canopies for the
Dealer, Paws4Vets, Clowns, Fisher House and our hospitality canopy with the
coffee & donuts we furnish. Rolling Thunder
Inc is a pretty much self contained group; we just watched them set up….grinning….
This year the airport had many more aircraft in their
program, I’m told about 50 altogether. I
am busy all day with our display and rarely get a chance to see the air show or
visit the static displays and vendors.
It seems like I take a water brake around 11 then we begin our award
distribution then I try to photograph our part of the deal then it’s time to
help everyone pack up and exit the area.
Everyone in our group has done this before; we know what has to happen
so it just gets done! I want to thank
the guys in our group; Andrew Robertson, Dan Crane, Fred Davis, Lou Realmuto for
their tireless focus on making this a great event for the spectators and the volunteers. We want to thank the Volunteers for taking
their time and bringing out their vehicle to support the mission of Cruisin For Heroes and
Fisher House Foundation; Bill Bell, Bill Errera, Bill Morris, Bob Randall,
Brian Murray, Corey Beach, Dallas Beach, Darryl Dawson, Dave Whetzel, David
Beans, Don Rogers, Duane Mitchell, Glenn Conrad, Kandy Woehler, Mac McDonald,
Mike Curles, Penn Jones, Raymond Carrier, Ricky Thornton, Ron Lacasse, Steven
Dohl, Stuart Sullivan, Tim Ketchum, Tommy Kirtley, Warren Little and the
Rolling Thunder Riders.
We have begun planning for next year’s event and will learn
from this year’s experience. We already
have 8 volunteers….are you up for it?
Please check the pictures that Bill Errera, Darryl Dawson
and I took at; https://www.flickr.com/photos/53063560@N05/albums/72157659305502269
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