Last week I attended the Festival of Flight which took place at the Suffolk Executive Airport, inSuffolk VA. It was quite enjoyable, and I still have to write up my article and post photos, which I hope to do in another couple of days.
Today, Saturday, I attended the Air Power over Hampton Roads show at Langley Airforce Base.
There's no comparing the two shows, the one at Suffolk was a civilian thing, and had several hundred attendees over the weekend, the Air Power show of course had plenty of Military planes, as well as civilians, and dozens of shops, and tens of thousands of visitors. But I enjoyed them both and to the aircraft enthusiast they were both worth going to.
Nancy Lynn
A bittersweet return to Langley AFB for me... as the last time I'd gone, a couple of years ago, I had seen Nancy Lynn, the aerobatic pilot, who died in a crash just a couple of months later.
Anyway, I took lots of photos, but I'm not in the mood to do anything with them today as I've had too much sun and have developed a headache in consequence... I thought I'd been well prepared with a hat, sunglasses, and a water-sprayer, but as I've gotten older my susceptibility to bright sunshine and high heat has gotten worse...
Long line
I must say I entered the air show in a rather bemused fashion...I had to wait in my car in line 45 minutes before getting from the West Gate of Langley Airfield to the place where they were having us park... there were shuttle buses from there, but I'm willing to bet 99% of the people there didn't realize that til they were walking back on sore feet towards their cars...
Security Gate
So after we parked our cars and headed toward the plane area, there was the security gate to be got through. I was a bit nervous - I'd purchased a mini-backpack the day before, in which to keep my water sprayer and a bottle of water, and the signs leading up to the security checkpoint said "No backpacks". But purses were allowed, so I was hoping I could pass that thing off as purse - it was about that size. Not to mention the fact that the only things in it were the two water bottles.
So we as a crowd are walking through roped off lanes toward the security checkpoint - which broadened out into five lines with tables and metal detectors to step through, and as we walked through, I, at least, passed by two soldiers stationed at various points, chanting, "No pocket knives, no pocket knives."
So, I get up to the checkpoint, and I have to take off my ballcap, and my camera, as well as my minibackpack, and put them in a basket. I also have to put my keys in the basket.
And on my keys was a fingernail clipper.
Which was confiscated.
I just laughed. I'm a 5f ft 4 middle-aged woman, swallowed up amongst a crowd of ten thousand or more...not one of whom would be at all intimidated by a woman waving a 1-inch nail file around, screaming to be allowed to be the first in line to pay $7 for a hamburger.
So the soldier took the deadly weapon off my keyring and threw it into a bag underneath the table. And I glanced into that bag and lo and behold there were a couple of fancy pocket knives in there... and I'm thinking to myself... I am not the most noticing person in the world... but I saw several signs that said "No pocket knives" as we were headed up here, and I heard at least two soldiers chanting non-stop, "No pocket knives," and yet at least two people had ignored this and tried to bring pocket knives onto the field.
And, I dunno... a guy waving a three-inch, sharp blade around, trying to be the first in line to buy a $7 hamburger, would seem to me to be much more intimidating than some poor schmuck with a fingernail clipper.
On my out, I thought vaguely about asking for my fingernail clipper back, but there was still a line of people coming in (I left about 1 pm...) and I decided there was no point... after all they only cost a dollar or so...but it was just the inanity of it that annoyed me...
Stereotypical Girl's Store
Another thing that got my knickers in a twist was one of the commercial booths - I took photos of it and will post them tomorrow... in addition to aircraft-related stores (or rather tables or tents with merchandise spread out) there were also other things - one of which was a table selling things for little girls -- hair ribbons, feather boas, etc. (and not a thing related to aviation on it.) And you could get your photo taken, sticking your head into one of two wooden placards - one with a Cinderella torso, the other some fancily dressed woman getting out of a limo at the Emmy awards or something...
And I've got to admit this torqued me. Give little girls something a bit more substantial and high flying to aim for!!! One of those torsos should have been an aviator dressed like Bessie Coleman, for example, and the other should have been dressed like Amelia Earheart, Jacqueline Cochran...or even a Thunderbird pilot! But nope. It was the same stereotypical, fairy-tale crap that it always is....underlining to girls that obsession with appearance, and seeking boyfriends...or at least a baby daddy... is everything...
Well, that's a long rant for someone with a headache.... I'll stop now.
I'll be posting photos tomorrow...
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