http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=m ... 98e1c1c96f Were the owners billed the actual costs of the clean-up for their airplanes or were the costs 'padded'

Can't say if the costs were 'padded', but...

I had one of two S-7S Couriers that were totaled by the tornado. Mine cartwheeled over a Seneca and a Mirage and 'landed' about 100 feet from where it was parked at the Rans commercial booth. It ended up on its gear under the tail of a Piper Meridean. Rick's S-7S was also at the Rans booth, and was upside down on a Dakota when it was all over.

We were almost immediately ordered to leave the area, so left the planes as they were. The next morning we finally were allowed back to the planes and found that Rick's had been removed the night before from the Dakota and placed back in front of the Ran's booth. More damage was done to the plane from the removal. No permission was asked or given by Rick to move his plane. Mine wasn't moved, and the Piper guys and I extracted it from the Meridean that morning.

As far as we were concerned, it was a business decision to move the 'ugly' planes that would have looked bad for the re-opening the next day. The show must go on...

Fast forward to last week and Rick gets a bill for $2568, broken down between moving the plane and environmental clean up. He submitted it to Nationair who forwarded it to Chartis. They have agreed to reimburse SnF since Rick had full coverage. Two Pietenpols were also apparently moved and each of them got a bill for $4000! I am pretty sure they only had liability coverage. Be interesting to see if SnF goes after them individually. They better not!!

Tom

Insult to injury! Ouch!

Why bill the aircraft owners? Why don't they sue the tornado? Everybody got hit by the thing. The aircraft owners should bill S&F for their damage too since they hosted a tornado at their event. Same stupid logic.

IMHO the people who operate Sun n Fun are running what was a great event into the ground. Several of the more experienced vendors have mentioned this to me at various trade shows. The consensus among the old timers in the vendor area is that greed, ego, short-sightedness, and just plain arrogance is killing the event. (I went in 2010 and had such a horrible experience with them as a vendor that I vowed never to go back. About 40 of us were "sold a bill of goods" as far as the display area, and SnF management never did anything to mitigate the problems).

So hearing that the SnF management is trying to send the bill for an "act of God" to individual aircraft owners who had nothing to do with the mess, and were not allowed to participate in the cleanup, does not surprise me. Their own event insurance should have covered this. If their insurance didn't cover it, then they at least owed the aircraft owners the opportunity to choose between cleaning up their own aircraft or the option of paying for their crew to do it.

Even if Sun n Fun knows that the individual aircraft owners would send the cleanup bill to their insurance company... they are STUPID to not understand this would give them so much bad press and negative goodwill (bad-will?) that there had to be some other way to get this done. Even a phone call to the airplane owner, saying "we know your insurance will pay for this and you will send the bill to them, but this is just a heads-up that we have to send this to you".

I quit going to that event 8-9 years ago, and I was just a spectator, or sucker?? I have been limiting my OSH trips some too, but have not put OSH in the "never again" bin, yet.

I like New Holstein and Sentimental Journey, and they may be my only "go to" events soon.

I know there is more than one former aviation event promoter here so please temper my one and only comment with the understanding that I am frequently wrong and often short tempered.

So here it is:

Large event promotion and administration most often gets handed off to large event promotors and administrators. County Fairs are not run by farmers, Nascar is not run by race car drivers, ICAS is not run by aerobatic pilots, and Sun & Fun is not run by homebuilt aircraft owners and operators. I know of one very large aviation event that has many paid staff. Almost none of them are pilots. They may love aviation; but not like we do. It's just a job. It's about the money.