Wednesday, September 10, 2003
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Wednesday, September 10, 2003 |
Air show survives a little rain this year'Within budget,' chairman tells KiwanisBy J. FRANK
LYNCH
Though it rained both days of the 6th Annual Great Georgia Air Show, that didn't stop near-record crowds from coming out to Peachtree City's Falcon Field over the weekend. Brief showers fell early Saturday and then again around noon on Sunday, but the skies opened up for the main events in the afternoon. That's a break from last year, when heavy storms pummeled Falcon Field on the weekend of the air show, cancelling it entirely. The Kiwanis Club of Peachtree City and the Dixie Wing Historical Preservation and Education Programs, chief organizers of the air show, had to swallow the financial loss. But Greg Hall, air show chairman, said Monday night that the show "would be within budget. We had a Kiwanis Club meeting tonight, and that's what I told them." That would suggest all the bills get paid, and from the looks of the crowds on Sunday, ticket sales were swift. Hall, who was called out of town late Monday due to a death in the family, said final attendance figures for the two-day event are yet to be determined. Organizers had hoped for 10,000 spectators, and from the number of folks being shuttled back and forth from parking areas at the Starr's Mill school complex on Sunday, that figure might have been conservative. "I was told we parked nearly 1,000 cars in the field (overflow) at Peeple's Elementary," Hall said, after all the surface parking spaces at Starr's Mill High, Rising Starr Middle and Peeple's Elementary schools filled up. The show, now in its sixth year, has been a major attraction for aircraft aficionados from all over the nation, and many in Sunday's appeared to hail from all over metro Atlanta. Scott Slade, morning news anchor for media sponsor WSB-AM, was master of ceremonies. The star attraction was an unusual contraption called the Chevy Jet Truck, which travels from zero to 334 miles per hour in one-half mile. In a race down the Falcon Field runway against an airplane, the truck won by a long shot. The crowd ate it up, though the entire race lasted less than 10 seconds.
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