I'm still recovering from the IPMS/USA Region 12 show, held yesterday in Columbia. To say it was a success would be an understatement. We had 87 contest entrants enter 466 models. An additional 123 people visited us. 50+ vendor tables were more or less packed full of goodies. I know of one minor glitch (and, as Lloyd Christmas said to his pal Harry Dunne in "Dumb and Dumber", "I took care of it!"), but everything else went of with nary a hitch. I was so busy either manning our vendor tables or executing my Assistant Chief Judge duties that I didn't get any photos, and I didn't get to circulate very much. I'm still seeing photos of models that were entered in the show–and wishing I saw some of them in person. That's the way it goes, though–you get so busy with helping run the show that you miss the show. No matter, though–I saw all the aircraft up close and personal, and the quality of the work was super. I managed to see the best of the other categories, too, and if the other ACJ's had the same quality of work, then judging a lot of the classes and categories was tough!
Speaking of vendors, we managed to fill our two tables with no issues–and we managed to sell off most of what we had. Now, I wasn't proud of my stuff–when someone asked why I was "selling out" by pricing them low, I told them that most of this stuff had been moved 8 times, and the last time a lot of it saw the light of day was when I did the inventory last year. Bought with the greatest of intentions, my interests had either changed or I simply realized that I didn't need the kit. Yes, I could have done the eBay thing and made more money. I could have priced them in line with one of the many kit collector pricing guides. And I most likely would have wound up hauling two thirds of it home again. I told anyone who asked that I was more interested in seeing that someone who would build the kits got them than I was in making a ton of money–and anyone who tells you model kits can make you a ton of money is either very patient or operating under a delusion that everything he or she has stashed is worth more than it actually is. What didn't sell got donated to one of the local models for the troops groups–they have the kits on hand for troops who are either waiting to deploy, just back from deployment waiting to go home, or injured troops recovering in various facilities. Again, that goes along with the theme that I wanted to see these kits get built by someone who would enjoy them…
Back to the "I missed the show" theme–back in the day when we held shows in Florida (IPMS/USA Region 11), a good many of the shows were two-day affairs. Registration would be on Saturday, judging would be done Saturday evening, and the awards ceremony would be on Sunday. With the judging being done after the show closed down for the day, you had opportunity to go and look at all the models. The room was empty except for the judges, which left them pretty much unencumbered by the show's visitors, all of whom were still trying to get a look at the models. Up here, I don't think I've been to many two-day shows–most are Saturday-only, and the ones that are more than that are usually Friday night-Saturday deals. There are many reasons for this, and I've noticed a lot of the shows I used to go to in Florida are now one-day events, too. The last show I was directly involved with in Ft. Lauderdale was expensive–the venue alone was $2,400 for the weekend, and we had to guarantee a definite number of room-nights to get that rate. I can see why one-day shows are becoming the norm.
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My trip to Dallas was uneventful. I was glad to see the folks at American Airlines are still working hard to get people from one place to another amid the ongoing bankruptcy and rumors of mergers. The folks I dealt with for both flights were friendly and professional. The Embraer Regional Jets, though, are looking tired. And I'm still puzzled why, with the airplanes in service for this long (initial in-service for the type was 1999), someone at Honeywell hasn't done something to kill that annoying roll oscillation that the airplane exhibits in cruise. It isn't that bad, but you do notice it. If Learjet could do it back in the days of analog circuits and systems, surely a digital or software fix would be possible.
Thanks for reading, and if you attended the show on Saturday, thanks for attending. Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.