Of course, I'm talking about AOPA Expo, the association's yearly convention and trade show, coming up October 24 through 26 in Palm Springs, California. Every year, AOPA Expo draws more than 10,000 of your fellow pilots and their friends and family, and it looks like this year could set another record for attendance.
This year's Expo will feature an astounding collection of the newest airplanes and accessories, more than 500 exhibit booths with virtually everything GA has to offer - including the latest fantastic avionics - and more than 80 hours of educational seminars. In a very real way, this year's Expo will be a resounding confirmation that GA has not only survived post-9/11 public paranoia, but is thriving!
This year's Expo will be kicked off October 23 by the AOPA Parade of Planes, a nose-to-tail procession of nearly 80 new and unique aircraft, taxiing smartly from the Palms Springs International Airport to the aircraft display area at the Convention Center.
If you can arrive in Palm Springs a little early, be sure to mark out a good spot along East Alejo Street or North Avenida Caballeros for the parade. It starts at 2 p.m. on October 23; the south side of Alejo or the west side of Avenida Caballeros will give you best lighting for photographs of this dramatic event.
(Aside from promoting GA by taxiing a large flock of sleek, beautiful new GA airplanes down city streets, there's a very prosaic reason for the Parade of Planes: it's the quickest and easiest way to move all those airplanes from the airport to the Convention Center, where you can admire them up close and personal for all three days.)
I started this column by mentioning the learning opportunities at AOPA Expo. And it's true that this year's slate of more than six dozen seminars - 80-plus hours of educational opportunities - is one of the best AOPA has ever assembled. About a third of the sessions are new since the last time AOPA Expo was held on the West Coast, and fully one-half are aviation safety related. Other seminars deal with renting or buying an airplane; modifying or upgrading aircraft; and medical issues such as Lasik eye surgery and flying with diabetes.
Of special note is the AOPA Air Safety Foundation's perennial favorite, the Pinch-Hitter(r) Ground School. The widely acclaimed program, which will be offered several times during Expo, is geared toward frequent GA passengers, often spouses. It teaches the basics of flying, including the principles of how to land if the pilot becomes incapacitated. Graduates of the course often say it increases their enjoyment of GA flying.
But learning about GA isn't confined to the 80-plus hours of educational seminars. Leading off each of the three days is a general session exploring serious issues in aviation; this year, we're expecting the new FAA administrator (not yet confirmed by the Senate as I write this) to appear. This will be only the second FAA administrator to serve a fixed five-year term.
The last general session, on Saturday, October 26, will be a report to members from AOPA's top management on how the association has served their interest in the past year.
Between general sessions and seminars, there's a vast exhibit hall, with vendors eager to tell you about the latest and greatest, neatest and niftiest things GA has to offer. More than 500 exhibit booths will allow you to try out equipment you might have never before seen. In addition, major aircraft manufacturers, including Adam, Aviat, Cessna, Lancair, and Socata, will be exhibiting their latest models.
Once you've soaked up as much aviation education as you can, there's comic relief: Political satirist Mark Russell, perhaps best known for his appearances on PBS, will entertain at the gala closing banquet on Saturday night, October 26.
Up-to-date information about AOPA Expo 2002 can be found on AOPA Online ( www.aopa.org/expo ). At this site, you can preregister for Expo and also plan your Expo experience by selecting seminars and other events you'd like to see, then printing out the resulting schedule.
If for some reason you can't be at this year's Expo in person, you can experience it vicariously, via the "Virtual Expo" on the AOPA Web site during the event. With rapid-fire updates and vivid pictures of the festivities, it's almost - not quite, but almost - as good as being there. Unfortunately, you can't attend the 80-plus hours of educational seminars via the Web.
We all know that a good pilot is always learning. Fortunately, the learning will be easy at AOPA Expo 2002.
Related Articles
