Fly'n for Fun, held at Parkes on the weekend, showed what support and planning can do when it comes to making a successful general aviation fly-in event.
The event was thrown together quickly in 2022, but two years later, RAAus and major backer AMDA Foundation have shown they know how to learn, making some fundamental changes that put the future of the event on a sure footing.
Before the start on Saturday morning, Recreational Aviation Australia had over 200 aircraft registrations and the campsite was fully booked-out. Taking into account inflows and outflows of aircraft in the airside parking area, the organisation was very confident the numbers matched up.
But unlike 2022, this year's event was not held on the airside area, which enabled underwing camping at a security-controlled airport, a feature often considered important for a successful fly-in event.
HARS enabled this by preparing ground behind their main hangars and creating a new, unsealed taxiway to get display and camping aircraft through to the site.
Once there, visitors were free to wander around the site inspecting aircraft and products from several of GA's most prominent suppliers including Rotax, Tecnam, Jabiru, GAP, Bristell and more. One marquee was reserved for a very full seminar program, whereas the other one was given over to more exhibitors.
For RAAus and AMDA Foundation, the most important aspect early on was that the event showed significant growth over the 2022 event. Spokespeople from both organisations made optimistic comments about the potential for the show and the energy that was evident on Day One.
Exhibitors that spoke to Australian Flying consistently said the quality of visitors to their stands and aircraft was much higher than that of "tyre-kickers". People were asking all the right questions and spending time at display stands, which demonstrated the bulk of the attendance consisted of flying people rather than general public.
However, RAAus made the decision not to charge entry to the event, which meant that no record of foot traffic is available, consigning any evaluation of numbers to opinion and conjecture only.
Regardless, Fly'n for Fun clearly enjoys the confidence of both AMDA Foundation and RAAus, and both have plans and ideas to increase the event's presence and importance to the GA community in Australia.