Forum: Civil and General Aviation

All their costs look good except they get fuel "TO" and "FROM" the airshow. Normally you just get full fuel when you leave a show and you have to cover the "TO" travel fuel costs.

http://www.collingsfoundation.org/2005-CFAirshow.pdf

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Hmmm...

I've only been to a few non-military based airshows, but I've heard about the admission prices Shocked

! Heck, this helps explain a lot! Like those $8.00 personal pizzas and the $6.00 beers Rolling Eyes

...

Isn't it true your military airshows are free??

In the UK the price ranges from £10 per car (Mildenhall) to over £35 ($62) per person for the worlds biggest airshow, the RIAT!

Andy

Andy,

Yes, any airshow held at a military base in the US is free to attend - no admission fees. However, there are admission fees for airshows held at other airports, and I've heard of up to $15 per adult for admission to some of them.

At MCAS Miramar (where Top Gun was filmed), the admission is free, but bleacher seats, box seats and chalet seats will cost you anywhere from $15 all the way up to over $100 per person per day Shocked

! Dad insisted on Flightdeck Chalet seats at the last couple of Miramar shows as it includes access to a large tent for shelter from the sun and lately the rain, a box lunch, unlimited water and soft drinks, and preferred parking. By "preferred parking" I mean you park only about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the entrance to the flight line instead of up to two miles and it only takes you about 30 minutes instead of 90 to leave once the show is over. Sure, there are shuttle buses to and from the flight line for the regular parking, but the trip back to the car is actually quicker walking over two miles than it would be to wait for a shuttle bus. I miss the days when we'd drive out onto the ramp, park the car, open the trunk, and bring out the blanket, lawn chairs, COOLERS, and enjoy the show Smile

.

Aviaion Nation reminds me a lot of "Old Miramar" being a somewhat smaller, more laid-back, less commercialized airshow. The only charge is $2 for the bus ride to and from the parking lots at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the bleachers and chairs under the aircraft shade structures are free of charge, 3/4 of the aircraft there don't have ropes around them - just a friendly crew chief to make sure nobody does any harm to themselves or the jets Wink

, and they've just added a FREE shuttle service to get up and down the 2 1/2 mile flightline with lots of stops along the way which makes life that much better Very Happy

.

Now about those $4 hot dogs and $8 pizzas - I know some of the money goes to Morale, Welfare and Recreation, but good grief Shocked

!

Daniel Webster College does one every year for cheap. Collings Foundation is one of the College's trustees, so their planes are always there.
http://www.dwc.edu/festival/index.shtml

That figures...I knew if the Rhino wasn't the most expensive, it would be one of the most expensive. Turns out, it is the most expensive single-ship demo, and only $2K less than the two WWII bombers! Shocked

Now Gen. Ritchie isn't flying it, AND it isn't the real #463, so I don't know if it would be worth it to pay to see.

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

Active Member Joined: Jan 10, 2005 - 07:58 AM Posts: 137

Someone without much ability to crunch numbers scoffed at me for spending $40 for two days worth of admission to an airshow. I reminded them that simply taking someone to a 2hr movie w/popcorn is often a $20 investment...and there's no guarantee that the movie won't stink. So its all relative. I'll gladly pay to spend an entire day around aircraft (many of which are nearly extinct) but unless the date is really hot, I'm gonna wait until the movie is shown on tv Smile

I can stand $20 to get into a good airshow - not much worse than the movies Wink

. It's also not much worse than most museums, either. I just wish there were more of 'em around here - airshows and museums!

I will say though, that there was no way I was paying $18 to go see the Chino airshow. I fly out of CNO, at a considerably higher price ($85/hr.)...plus I see those aircraft just about every time I'm there. So I'm not missing anything. Well, when I did fly out of there anyway. FBO #2 has now gone out of business Sad

I just attended the Wings Over Houston. Great show. $20 per person; $5 for ages 5-12. The biggest disappointment was NASA: they had the jets out there, roped off, and no one standing by them to talk to the public. You'd think that for all the publicity they are trying to get to keep funding in the limelight, that they would have had a couple of their pilots/astronauts out there in shifts talking about the jets and the mission, just like the military pilots do. With the large attendence numbers, it would have been good public relations.

Forum: Civil and General Aviation

Example of Collins Foundation Airshow Costs