Busy with Shows
It’s been a while since I have updated my website but that is only because I have not had a chance to sit down long enough to do an update. I have spent plenty of time sitting but that’s been on airplanes or behind the wheel – not a good time to try to connect.
During the last month I have been fortunate enough to attend a huge photo show in Paris, the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show and the AOPA Aviation Summit in Tampa.
The photo show show in Paris was very interesting but also very crowded. My main interest for being there was my need to replace my Nikon SLR and my Canon point-and-shoot. These two cameras have served me well but they are in need of replacements: as most of you know, my cameras go with me everywhere and as someone that travels a lot, that means my cameras get banged up quite a bit. Well, I’ve had to retire the Canon because picture quality has started to suffer and the Nikon is having some problems, too. Of course, I am still planning on sticking with Nikon for my SLR but the question is which one to get? I still have not sorted this out. As far as my point-and-shoot, I still have not decided what it’s replacement will be – whatever I get, in addition to having great picture quality and being compact, it has to be rugged. I saw a lot of great things in Paris which means that I am even further from making decisions on replacement cameras.
The Ft Lauderdale Boat Show made me wonder whether the recession was still on: boats costing over $30 million and chartering for $250,000 a week were everywhere. There were even several different submarines to choose from in case you got tired of your yacht. One yacht was even available with a submarine (I think it also had a helicopter on-board)! If speed is your thing, you could find plenty of speed boats including one with twin Ferrari engines. Speaking of Ferrari, they were also on display as were Lamborghini, Maibach, Bentley, Roisson and even a $60k plus Hyundai. One other thing there was plenty of in Ft Lauderdale: heat and humidity. It’s November and we were all still walking around with soaking wet shirts.
On the return to Houston from the boat show I came home via Tampa just so I could make a stop at the AOPA Aviation Summit. This was definitely something that was more to my taste … and budget. The convention center had plenty of things going on to keep a pilot entertained: guest speakers, airplanes on display, developers pushing airport communities, getaways to choose from and pilot gear to try out including instruments, headsets and clothing.
The best part for me (and it was free) was seeing the airplanes on display at Peter O Knight airport. There were vintage planes, Cessnas, Diamonds, Pipers and other typical General Aviation airplanes to view. What seemed to be the most popular were the LSA airplanes and they must have made up about 50 percent of the airplanes on display. People could not get enough of them! I even recognized a few people I had met earlier in Texas at our very own LSA expo.
Interestingly, I also ran into a couple of people/airplanes I had seen in Ft Lauderdale: the submarine company and one of their submarines had also attended the boat show. The Tecnam twin engine that caught my interest at the Ft Lauderdale Executive Airport was on display at Peter O Knight airport. (This twin-engine Tecnam burns about the same amount of fuel or less than your typical single-engine airplane!)
Although I complained about the heat and humidity in Ft Lauderdale, I feel very lucky to have made it home just before Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana were drenched by hurricane Ida. What timing!
