Last year I attended 2 days for Flite Fest 2014, and the setup and weather was perfect. I left Saturday afternoon after the watching the balloon launch and podcast...right before they had the drenching thunderstorm. So last year the weather, for the most part, cooperated.
The weather this year is a completely different story. I was able to attended for only a few hours on Friday from 11am to 2pm. While driving up from Columbus Ohio, I hit steady light rain just west of Massilon, Oh. When I got to Flite Fest it was still lightly drizzling and they were spreading bales of hay to help control the mud. The volunteer in the parking lot said Thursday was wet...to the point that a few vehicles had gotten stuck.
Saturday was their best day overall...you can see blue skies during the noon-time jet demonstration. Then today, Sunday, the radar shows they will be getting very steady rain starting about 1:00 in the afternoon, and lasting for at least 2-3 hours. So I imagine most people will be pulling out before then, otherwise there will be a lot more mud and stuck vehicles.
The bottom line is that I think the weather put a big damper on this year's event.
That's a big driver for the lack of posts, pictures, and videos.
Also, my overall impression of this year's event is that things were packed in...
The vendor tents were wall to wall, and everything seemed to be closer to the flight line. Also half the vendor tents were in a second row, and not on the flight line. This was true last year...but to a much lesser extent. Ideally, the vendor tents, especially the big vendors, should be on the flight line on either side of the builds tent...and the food concessions in the second row along with the very small mom and pop RC vendors.
And, what was a big open grass flying field last year, was now planted in soybeans that had grown to about 1 foot high. I'm sure there will be many lost planes left behind out in those beans.
One thing is for certain..."Flite Fest is going to need a bigger boat"..(a la Jaws 1975...40-year anniversary).
But weather aside, for the short time I spent there, I had a good time. I watched the combat, and came away with some items purchased from the Flite Test Tent...2-Versa Kits and a 200 watt Adtech glue gun(very substantial glue gun).
The trouble with all the RC events held in the eastern part of the USA is the weather issue. "IT'S ALWAYS A CRAPSHOOT". There was a Florida FPV event this past spring attended by Stone Blue Airlines. It looked like the mother of all mud fests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxPH1V-2oBo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6epPaZIHgA
Perhaps if a Flite Fest West is in the cards, a time and location could be chosen that would take the whole weather issue off the table.
