The late Don Hoefler, in 1971 the editor of Microelectronic News, probably never intended his use of the insiders' term "Silicon Valley" to stick. But it has, describing the Santa Clara Valley, where the sound of the 1960s computer boom was heard the loudest. Today the valley, and its largest single city of San Jose, still bear the label, and it's still well-deserved.
There's more to this southern extremity of San Francisco Bay than computer nerds and silicon chips, of course, and that's why AOPA will bring its annual convention to San Jose this year. Happening October 17 through 19, one of the most anticipated aviation events of the year — AOPA's Expo — will for the first time visit Northern California.
Why San Jose in particular? Demand has a lot to do with it. California has more pilots and AOPA members than any other state, and many of you westerners have asked us for a site that's a bit closer than the way-south Palm Springs location that we've visited before. With the need for adequate convention facilities, a central location, and good autumn weather, San Jose was it. In addition, San Jose has first-class convention facilities and world-class hotels. (For hotel reservations, call the Expo hotline at 800/942-4269.)
Riding high from ever-increasing attendance, Expo will roll into this city of 845,000 with more exhibitors, more edge-of-your- seat seminars, and greater optimism than ever. (Do you get the feeling that the industry's turned a corner here? We do.) After record-setting attendance — for guests, members, and exhibitors alike — in each of the past few years, hopes are high that San Jose's moderate climate, proximity to a large pool of pilots and AOPA members, and surrounding attractions will help us reset the high score once again.
Certainly the pieces are all in place for a barn-burner of an Expo. As in preceding years, Expo will have a host of interesting exhibits — by last count, we'll have on hand more than 350 exhibitors from all corners of aviation. From product demonstrations and how- to seminars to flight safety and legal discussions, Expo is shaping up to have the key elements you have been clamoring for.
Of course, there's always the desire to press the flesh to shiny new and refurbished metal, and you'll have that opportunity at the storied Reid-Hillview airport, the site of this year's static display. Every 15 minutes free transportation will leave from the convention site for Reid-Hillview. Among the airframe manufacturers we expect to see is Cessna with one of its new models — maybe still in prototype form, but we'll take what we can get — as well as the revitalized New Piper and ever-strong Mooney (Cirrus, Commander, Diamond, Lancair, and Socata will be represented both indoors and outdoors). Take a moment to look at AOPA's blueprint-painted 182, the Spirit of Revitalization. It's on hand to symbolize the 1996 AOPA Sweepstakes airplane — the first new Cessna 182 off the line.
And there's going to be more than just the new iron; aircraft modifiers and parts suppliers will have products to show. For many members, seeing the mod shops' work firsthand offers the incentive to whip out the checkbook — or at least head for home with some fresh ideas for sprucing up the old pony. For the do-it-yourself crowd, there will be a contingent from the kitplane manufacturers.
Three full days of seminars make the Expo's breadth and depth unparalleled — and there's a new twist called "tracks." Six tracks help to organize the seminars for different areas of interest — ownership, advanced flying techniques (aimed at the seen-it-all high-time pilots), medical topics, safety, general interest, and one that cuts across the topics for all pilots. The idea here is that if you want to follow one of the tracks, you can be assured of seeing every seminar in your area of interest — no more having to be in two places at once.
Naturally there's more to Expo '96 than taking in the seminars, pawing over new products, and smudging the glass of shiny airplanes. Expo '96 will be strong on social events — a Thursday luncheon and Friday's AOPA Night at the Great America theme park; stop in and you'll see that AOPA's reputation of putting on an outstanding party is well-deserved. And, in the grand Expo tradition, there will be the Saturday night closing banquet. For the more business-minded in the crowd, mark your calendars to attend the three general sessions, all starting at 9 a.m. On Thursday come to see the Team AOPA session, where we give you a state-of-the-union address on what the association has accomplished in the last year and what it is working on. Friday's session centers on GA Team 2000, an industry consortium focused on revitalizing aviation; Saturday's session will reprise the popular "Meet the FAA," with FAA Administrator David R. Hinson.
Hand in hand with the seminars and social events goes quality time for roaming the exhibitor booths. Expect to see the latest in avionics, accessories, and pilot supplies. Want to know what's happening in the fast-changing world of IFR-approved GPS? Well, the manufacturers of the devices will be on hand to answer your questions authoritatively.
AOPA's coming to San Jose also represents a willingness to support the often-beleaguered urban airports. Whip out your San Francisco sectional chart and you'll see that there are more than a dozen airports just within the Class B airspace's 30-mile Mode C veil centered on San Francisco International — a pretty amazing number, considering that almost half of the veil is over water. And there is a handful of airports just outside that ring, making this part of California one of the richest in airport resources in the country.
Part of the lure of any convention — AOPA's Expo included — is the opportunity to see another part of the country for the first time. And San Jose is one of the more pleasant and diverse you are likely to discover. Because Expo closes on Saturday night, visitors will have Sunday open for return flights or another day of sightseeing. In San Jose, take a tour of the unusual 160-room Winchester Mystery House, built by firearms heiress Sarah Winchester; it's architectural anarchy at its best. Or check out the Egyptian Museum and Planetarium on the west side of town.
Of course, those of you with airplanes at hand might consider a short day trip to the bucolic Half Moon Bay Airport or brush up on your actual instrument flying with a trip down to the famed Monterey peninsula; it's about even odds that you'll get to use the ILS there even when the rest of the valley is clear. California's renowned wine country lies about 50 miles to the northeast — you can stop in at Napa County Airport and grab a car for a whirlwind tour of the wineries.
Whatever you do, try to carve some extra time out of your Expo schedule to see the sights, visit the area's small urban airports, and enjoy the exceptional flying experience that is the Silicon Valley.
The Other Amelia
Amelia Reid: San Jose's first lady of aviation
Step into Amelia Reid Aviation and you could easily be convinced that you've crossed the threshold into another time. The cluttered office/classroom is decorated with hand-lettered signs and humorous cartoons. On the tables pushed against the wall you might find a current advisory circular on wake turbulence as easily as you would an AOPA airport guide from the Nixon administration. Bills and invoices, pinned through the envelopes they came in, adorn a corkboard. You're as likely to see Reid herself strapping on a parachute to give some aerobatic instruction as to witness her tackle the more mundane aspects of business. It may not be the most efficient way of doing business, but it's Amelia's way.
Taylorcraft L2s, various Citabrias, an Aeronca, Luscombe 8E, and J-3 Cub fill out an eclectic lineup whose main concession to complex airplanes is an early 1960s Comanche 250. Oh, there are the usual 150s, 172s, and a 182 on the line for you Wichita-iron lovers. The L2s rent for all of $35 an hour. Wet. Reid owns them all. Moreover, Reid is an accomplished aerobatic pilot — she does a low- level routine in a Cessna 150 Aerobat that makes you think long and hard about the concept of energy management. She's also a crack aerobatic instructor; just ask former student and top airshow pilot Sean D. Tucker.
If a quick tour of the Reid facility makes you think she's been around from the beginning, you wouldn't be entirely wrong. Amelia Reid has made her mark at Reid-Hillview of Santa Clara County Airport for many more reasons than having been married to the son of Robert Reid, one of five men who started the airport in 1939.
"The five partners bought the land in 1939 and made their first flights here in 1940," says Reid. "They had 53 acres of land here, very little else around. Paid $5,000 apiece."
Amelia hadn't yet entered the Reid-Hillview picture by World War II's end, though; she was completing her private training at the Congressional Airpark; it's now a shopping center in Rockville, Maryland. She worked for the U.S. Navy for six months, then moved west, going to work for the National Bureau of Standards in 1947. Shortly, she was transferred to the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics, precursor of today's NASA.
She flew out of Moffett Field and Reid-Hillview during her NACA days. "Then I made a mistake — I got married. Quit flying for five years, put my husband through college. When he was done, he said, 'See ya.' That was a real shocker," she says. So she returned to flying and by the late 1950s had met Robert Reid, Jr. "Bobby and I got married in 1959. He was a cropduster pilot. The best, most talented pilot I've ever met," she says. When NACA refused to hold her job for maternity leave, Reid worked hard on her flight instructor ticket, eventually starting her instruction career at the end of 1960. "I was teaching out of the trunk of my car then," she says, "first for students with their own airplanes, and then Bobby and I bought an L2 Taylorcraft for $350. In those days, you could do all your work — private, commercial, CFI — in the Taylorcraft." Her business grew. "We just kept buying airplanes, one by one, and teaching more and more students," she recalls. (By the late 1970s, the Reid fleet would fly a total of 10,000 hours a year.)
"You know how it is to run a private airport. You scrape along, never making any money...all airports are like that, really," Reid says. By the early 1960s, the Santa Clara Valley — not yet dubbed Silicon Valley — had begun to spread into the rural surroundings. As the area became more residential, the county government decided that it should be making more in taxes from the airport. "Then one day the corporation got a tax bill for $12,000. That was a lot of money back then, and we didn't have enough to pay it. So the partners got together and decided the only solution was to sell." The county purchased the airport and began an extensive renovation program; ultimately, the airport would encompass 179 acres.
Reid has been far from passive about its administration. "The early managers here were businessmen, and they understood that you needed to make the airport work to make money," Reid says. To make sure Reid-Hillview and the other San Jose-area airports were kept on the straight and narrow, Reid joined the Santa Clara Valley Pilots Association.
In 1987, Reid became one of the founding members of the Reid- Hillview Airport Association, starting yet another tireless defense of her home field. "Look at our board of directors — they're not businessmen anymore; they're housewives. So here I am, a woman fighting for a cause — fighting to keep this airport open — and I have to fight other women," Reid says. More grating, though, is the incessant call for closure of the airport. "You know, airports have accidents. But you don't call for the closure of the airport every time something happens. That's crazy. And now we've had six or seven studies done to determine whether the airport's safe — to the tune of $250,000 each — and each one says that the airport's not the problem. How many more of these do we have to pay for?" she asks, somewhat rhetorically.
It's a good question, one posed by someone who has seen the airport grow from one oiled-gravel strip ("We used to land on the grass next to the runway more than anything," Reid recalls.) to an important tower-equipped, two-runway reliever for one of the most vital metropolises in the nation. Reid is not shy about carrying the word to council chambers and pilot meetings — anywhere she can find an audience — that Reid-Hillview, like other urban airports, deserves an assured future and involved management. In that sense, Amelia Reid and people like her are our greatest resource. — MEC
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