I've been watching this whole thing with interest. Now, I used to live in California. It is BIG. It has BIG MOUNTAINS.
Realistically, if you pick a spot (either north or south) a lot of people are going to be a long ways away. If you pick a time, circumstances are going to make it tough to get there. Between people who have something else they must do and people who'd just rather be doing something else either flying or no, you won't get much of a turn-out. Maybe their kid has a soccer game. Maybe the EAA chapter they've been with for years has a fly-in. Maybe they fly to the same little field up the road every Saturday and Sunday for breakfast with a bunch of Cubs and T-Craft. If you pick breakfast, you've got people taking off in the dark to get their 100MPH airplanes there. Or driving all over tarnation. California, even cut in two, is a big tarnation. Here in the East we have a different problem. We don't know what our weather is going to be like; we have adverse conditions all year. I think a lot of people love their Ercoupes, but that doesn't mean that they're going to burn a quarter of their weekend just to park it next to five others. The world just doesn't work that way any more. And it doesn't work to get your knickers in a twist because people can't work up to your level of enthusiasm for a gathering... ...free steak or no. I've had my Coupe for several weeks now, and I haven't yet gotten around to mailing a check off to the EOC. Partly because I'm a procrastinator. Partly because of some of the things I've heard about the organization and its leadership. And partially because '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' seems to be as much Ercoupe organization as I really need. Now, given that the EOC seems to have been adamantly against putting its resources on-line, that doesn't help. Heck, I sent an e-mail to the EOC e-mail address months ago, asking them to point me at someone local who might give me an Ercoupe ride. Either they don't pick up their e-mail, or they didn't think I was worth bothering with. Either way, it doesn't hasten the check, now that I'm an owner. If I want to organize a NorthEast Coupe fly-in, all I really have to do is pick a spot, pick a time, and send out an e-mail. No, I'm not going to buy a cooler of steaks to do it, then get miffed when nobody eats 'em. I'm going to pick Sky Manor, or Blairstown, or some other place with a good on-field restaurant. Once the e-mail goes out, I can hope that a couple more pilots (maybe someone with an EOC roster... ...that's the real value) will spread the word to people they know. If the Ercoupe is enjoying a revival, I believe it is because of the work that a few good men are doing in CyberSpace, more than the work that the EOC is doing. In the North East, Pete, Leslie, and I have probably, just by buying and activating three planes in the area, contributed as much to the revival as anyone. Heck, Pete and I have our own little fleet; two Coupes in a row on the tie-downs, both of which fly at least once a week! So I'm just not sure Region 7, or any other region for that matter, is going to be what you think it *could* be. Oh, yeah. I'll probably join the EOC, just because I think I should. Greg
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