Return of the Rally?

[Rod1]

My spies tell me we may be having an LAA rally at Sywell next year? This is a full rally, not a regional event. I hope we can pull this off with no financial risk!

Rod1

[Joe Iszard]

Hope there is a Rally at Sywell in 09, however, given the cost of fuel I shall probably attend on my push-bike!
Joe

[JonKil]

My spies tell me we may be having an LAA rally at Sywell next year? This is a full rally, not a regional event. I hope we can pull this off with no financial risk!

Rod1

Great,
It is one thing that should have never have been sacrificed.... I know, financial argument and such things...... A way of running it without or limited financial risk should have been sought.
We have lost a good part of our identity without our annual "big" rally, it is needed back...... |I regularly attended Kemble, and Cranfield before that, lets get this back on the events calendar for 2009...... great news indeed.

Jon

[Nigel Ramsay]

It's no secret guys, just too early to say anything. We did have a meeting, effectively as a sub-committee. A number of venues have been considered but Sywell asked to be considered.

As a starting point for a Rally resurrection it holds a lot of merit, to say nothing of happy memories for long term members who remember the old rallies there.

I can tell you it's the only venue being considered right now, but there's a lot of work to do before it becomes a reality, so it's a case of 'watch this space'

All support for such an event however will be welcomed; expect a very grass roots rally however, and don't expect too much to be free!

I hope I haven't said more than I should have, but the leak is already there!

[Ian L]

I hope this comes off, We shot ourselves in the foot by getting rid of such a well liked event.
Let's hope we have a record attendance from our friends in the BMAA.

Ian L

[mike newall]

Moth Men and Cub's United - way to go fellas !

We should have our 'fleet' of Nipper, PA12 and RV7 there if possible.

[Nigel Ramsay]

Cirrus, you need to get this in perspective! Regional Rallies exist because of the demise of the national rally as was. Some of us have never given up on the idea of a NAtional event but due to changes in attitude of the 'management' and of course some serious losses made by the event in the last years it died a death.

Membership of the association for many years was, in it's simplest form 6 magazines AND a National Rally. For PFA a/c owners and builders the membership offered much more in terms of membership, but we must never forget the non-flying membership who made up half the total approximately (in those days).

I haad a number of conversations with enthusiasts whils working on my plane last year. They were all attending a fly-in and inevitably had wandered into the hangar in groups. ALL of them HAD been PFA members but had left the association because of the lack of a National Rally which they saw as part of their membership right. Whether that 'right' was in fact so is immaterial really, it was the glue that bound them to the association.

I have no axe to grind over regional events but I firmly believe we need a return to one National Rally; a place whre one meets particular friends only once a year, and a chance for foreign visitors to attend too.

However good a regional event is, it will never match a National one.

The rally site has a laid down set of criteria against which all proposed venues are measured. This set of criteria has been refined over many years by the rally committees and it works.

Sywell has proved it can meet the criteria, at least for a resurrection. You don't mention which airfield you are talking about so it's not possible to comment. But wherever it is, no-one wants to blight your event, and I doubt a National would necessarily do that anyway.

One of our tasks now in this planning stage is to gauge membership opinion in anycase, but please remember that however many BB members vote either way, it's not a representative number compared to the whole mmembership, and we are a democratic association. It's up to all of you to support the proposal or not (if it actually gets the go-ahead anyway!)

[mikehallam]

Well I remember the Sywell rallys with affection, largely I suppose because it was in my early days of love and it was a small enough gathering to wander round.
However, via Leicester, Wroughton and Kemble they became just too big for me to get around & enjoy. Necessary perhaps to accommodate a larger mass of followers, but impersonal and obviously requiring generous advertising sponsorship and massive funding. Show stands are expensive and the nanny State's demands for insurance, CAA approval etc. make every time running it a gamble for going broke. Nowadays the wx isn't just rain but frequently gusting winds that make any fixed big 'do' date a risk.

With demographic change & hosts of alternative amusements available to seduce them our core road visitor base may be reduced once more to reasonably handleable proportions. One can't expect to turn the clock back to the 1970's, but seeing how attractive the microlight 'show' at Popham has become with much less financial exposure, perhaps something along those lines is what is being brewed.

If the running manpower and costs can be reduced by an order of magnitude we may find the enthusiasts can find a successful 'old' formula.

[Bill McCarthy]

Cirrus272,
Once again I don't see what your complaint is about. You can still hold a regional rally at your venue, in addition to the main event. The more the merrier. Anyway, I can't come to yours, lest I get set upon and beaten up by a gang of "heavies" for being too slow in the circuit, reading a newspaper on final - in my "frame tent" !!

[Mike Mold]

I'm sure many members would welcome a return to a national rally but irrespective of the venue and how well it complies with the selection criteria, if the financial business plan doesn't make sense it'll be a non-starter. That's the bottom line and until the one-rally sub committee can deliver that arguement, the regional rallies will be the way forward.

[Nigel Ramsay]

No argument there Mike, the cost exercise is now the way forward. The rallies had got out of hand rather but also there has in the past been a lot of financial chicanery, not to say downright scandalous mismanagement at times, but it's all history now and there's no point in raking things over in that department; lessons have been learned.

Our brief is to take a clean sheet approach and to expect no sponsorship, nor any substantial funding.

However, a grass roots rally with simple aims in mind is still a viable proposition.....we think! Lets remain positive.

[steveneale]

I must admit the distinction between a Sywell regional rally and a "back to basics" Sywell national rally is unclear to me. By all means for marketing reasons change the name on the gate but not at the expense of the other regional rallies. British weather etc..

For example if the cash underwriting regional event losses is all sucked into Sywell it would be a very bad idea. No strut can be expected to carry such risks and the regional events would fizzle out if that happened.