You are here: Home / Archives for Paris Las Vegas

ICAS Convention – Wednesday

December 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It’s Wednesday.  Although the convention goes on through tomorrow, I’m bugging out on a red-eye flight this evening.

Every day at ICAS is cool, but today is doubly so.  It’s flight suit day.  All performers are encouraged to wear their flight suits.  In years past, I have either not worn a flight suit or I have attended in CAP uniform representing CAP.  This year is a little different.  By dint of having flown a couple of shows with the Tuskegee Airmen Flight Demo Team this season, I’m an airshow performer and I get to wear my zoom bag for real.  I’ll be posting new content soon on that process but, in the meantime, it feels really good to have earned the right to wear sage green on this exhibit hall floor with these people.

I spent this morning at the Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps forums.  These are opportunities for the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps to talk to airshow organizers and others about what it takes to get a military demo or static display and how to host them when they arrive.  It’s also an opportunity for me to get up close with the people who might ultimately be in a position to arange the kinds of media flights that Airspeed listeners have grown to expect.  I’ve had a great experience so far and have a few people to whom to send proposals, so it’ll again be a busy post-ICAS couple of weeks.

My hotel check-out time is looming, so I need to pack up and check my bags.  Then it’s off to another exhibit hall session and hanging out with my airshow bros until it’s time to head out to KLAS for the flight home.  Watch my Facebook page and my Twitter feed for more information and news from the 2012 ICAS Convention.

Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With: , , , ,

ICAS Convention 2012 – Tuesday Ends

December 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

My first full day of the 2012 ICAS Convention ended well.  The exhibit hall opened in the morning shortly after the jet team announcements and it was time to check out all of the new stuff for the 2013 season.

The Aerostars hosted a Redbird G1000 C-172 in their booth and I had a chance to fly around Niagara Falls, including an ill-fated attempt at a wingover abeam the falls.  With all of my airshow flying, I haven’t had the opportunity to get much instrument work in this season, so I’ve been dependent upon a Redbird unit at Solo Aviation at the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport for currency.  Both this unit and the Ann Arbor installation are great units.

Franklin’s Flying Circus brought the new Dracula: The Rise of Vacul aircraft and it’s drawing a lot of attention, taking up multiple booth spaces with lots of production value.  I love the huge control surfaces and the apparently massive engine.  This one if going to be fun to watch this season.

No ICAS convention would be complete without hanging out at Le Central (the “circle bar”) with airshow pros.  I had the chance to meet Ryan Keough in person after all these years, as well as hang out with Matt Jolley, Billy and David Werth, and Liza Eckardt.  And, of course, just sit there at the bar and watch my heroes walk by like it’s ICAS or something.  I hit the hay at 0200L and I’m not firmly on Pacific Time.  This can’t bode well for my condition upon arrival Thursday morning back in Detroit.  But it’s ICAS . . .

 

Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

ICAS Convention 2012 – Arrival

December 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment


The Delta flight from Detroit settled onto the runway just after 5:00 a.m. PT, the baggage claim system worked flawlessly, there was a cab waiting when I walked through the sliding doors, and the reception desks at Paris Las Vegas were fully staffed with no waiting.  Not even the President of the United States of America could make me late to the ICAS Convention welcome reception.

In fact, my flight’s departure delayed pushback because Air Force One was on the other side of the field and we had to wait until it was airborne and a few miles out before pushing back.  But everything else worked out perfectly and I was even early for the reception.

The convention has actually been in full swing for a day already.  For the last three years, the convention has kicked off the initial sessions on Sunday and run through Wednesday.  This year, the convention kicked off on Monday, thus changing the time proposition for a guy like me who also flies a desk on weekdays.  So I got a half day of work in and then hit KDTW for a flight out to Vegas to arrive just in time for the opening reception.

I hit Le Central (better known to ICAS regulars as the “circle bar”) for awhile and made contact again with some of my airshow bros whom I hadn’t seen since last year.  Even cooler, though, was running into people I had last seen out on the performer ramp during my first season as a performer myself.  I suppose that that’s a bigger thing for me than it is for them, but that’s okay.  Tomorrow is flight suit day and I get to walk the floor as a performer for the first time.

The exhibit hall opens this morning after a keynote by former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rocky Bleier.  I’ll be heading down in about an hour to go see that and get an initial run around the floor.

The jet team announcements also happen this morning.  That’s a big deal.  If you’ve ever played backgammon, you know what the “running game” is.  All of the opposing pieces are out of the way and you’re running to get all of your pieces home.  Once the shows know whether they have jet teams, they can go about filling up the remainder of their performers.  So the wheeling and dealing will begin in earnest for many of the performers.  Act type, geography, show composition, and lots of other factors go into the process and it’s really interesting to see it happen.

 

Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With: , , , , ,

ICAS 2011 – Day 1

December 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment


This is a regular blog post that updates listeners and viewers on events in the Airspeed world. Airspeed is an audio and video Internet media source that brings the best in aviation and aerospace to media devices and desktops everywhere. If you’re looking for the audio and video content, please check the other entries on the site. It’s all here! In the meantime, enjoy this update about what’s going on in Airspeed’s world.

I’m here at the ICAS Convention at Paris Las Vegas for a few days. I again hit Airshows 101 yesterday and then got reacquainted with the airshow pros. The opening session kicks off in a half hour and then the exhibit hall opens for the first session mid-day.

I’m working on the Airshows 101 episode and have hopes of getting it out later today.

In the meantime, here are a few shots of the convention so far.

The first is a panoramic shot of the welcome reception last night. We had a nautical theme in honor of the centennial of naval aviation. My costume was a TSO’ed life vest. I gave it a 50-50 chance of making it through the party without someone pulling the handle to inflate it. The handle got pulled as I was making my last round of the floor before heading out to the bar. No worries. That’s what it was for. And now I have experience with yet another piece of emergency equipment. And, yeah, there’s got to be a way to log it.

The rest are shots of Le Central, better known as the “circle bar,” just inside the main entrance. Other than the parties at some of the suites upstairs, Le Central is the place to be. You can check out my episode from last year for a more complete gouge.

Back to work on the Airshows 101 episode!

Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With: , , ,