October 2014
KAVX
Avalon Harbor
Santa Catalina Island, CA
The Scheyden Catalina Air Show 2014 was held just outside the Avalon Harbor, Santa Catalina Island, CA and aircraft operated out of the Avalon Airport KAVX
on October 4, 2013. A NOTAM (Notice To Airman) was in effect with a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction), a rectangular aerobatic box to avoid. This made
photography a bit difficult. Such is life. Our purpose is operating the Unicom at the airport so photography is secondary. Still, parked on the tarmac were
some awesome aerobatic and vintage aircraft. Airborn performing aircraft were unavailable to my camera as aerobatics are prohibited at the airport. But what
I captured is still interesting!
From Coarsegold, I drove to Fresno and picked up Mark Lambie. He is also retired from the FAA, from Fresno Tower/TRACON.
We proceeded to Samy's Camera in Culver City where I bought my new Nikon D810! From there, to the Catalina Express dock
at Long Beach. We had time to spare, the boat ride was nice and we didn't sink. We stayed at The Catalina Canyon Resort
and Spa compliments of Scheyden. They took very good care of us.
Leaving the hotel, we were transported by Justin Bollum, the Airport Manager, and the Wildlands Express bus back and forth to the airport.
Upon arrival, we immediately started set-up. After careful consideration, the "UNICOM Tower" was set up on the third floor of the terminal building. We operated UNICOM from the balcony and all necessary equipment was placed. My own equipment included a base station radio and antenna, a hand held radio, dry erase status board, binoculars, reference material, traffic count worksheets, and the facility log. But I left the antenna pole at the hotel! Frustrating, but not a problem. We mounted the antenna on the 4th floor balcony and the base station radio was quite effective, reaching out well over 100 miles.
The pre-briefing is mandatory. Conducted by Donna Flynn of Showline Airshows, attending personnel include all the performing pilots, the FAA FSDO,
the Air Boss (of course, that's Donna), Airport Management, Unicom, and local police. Procedures were displayed and thoroughly discussed. I was
able to explain that we are Unicom Only, NOT a control tower. That limits our liability big time. When the meeting was over, we were all on the same
page. These briefings are essential to safety. We all need to know what will happen, what to expect, and what to expect of each other. As a result,
everyone did what they're trained to do and we had a safe air show!
The weather cooperated this year! Clear skies, descent temperatures, and lots of great performers in their vintage and high performance aircraft! The only bummer for me is the aerobatic box is off shore just outside Avalon Harbor so I didn't get any maneuvering photos except what was allowed at the airport. Still, I'm happy with what I captured.
The Catalina Express took slightly more than an hour and we were lucky, it was a smooth ride on smooth waters. Overall, it was a nice ride, a safe Unicom, airport, and air show operation, and overall a great experience with a great group of professionals. I hope to work with them again some day.
The scheduled detarture was 4:30pm so I had some time to enjoy the island. After wandering through the shops and lunch, I spent some time
watching the harbor activity. There's quite a lot to do out here.
