Having just returned from Sun and Fun, I would like to share some of my all too brief visit to the traditional first vendor showcase/fly in of the year with you. First, I appreciate the privilege and opportunity to represent USUA as its President while attending Sun and Fun 2003.

As all things do with time, air shows too, are changing. This year at the first vendor showcase and fly in of the year, the mood was relatively pensive. Many of us were thinking about our troops overseas and shared an almost guilty feeling that we should not be having this much fun when our defenders of freedom were over seas having none.

The vendors we all know and recognize at the major fly ins and who grace our most hallowed publications were also worried about the war. Their "personal" war is economics and the victory they seek is financial stability. We all had one thing in common, tightened belts.

The apparent physical abnormality at the event was the size of: the crowds, then the vendors' display of wares, and the USUA exhibit. The vendors and old hands (those that attend the same air show year after year) marveled that most of the time, the vendor wristbands greatly outnumbered the visitors. Enthusiasts are still just that, they are not as eager to make larger investments of time and money to attend fly ins as they were before the war, the economic down turn, and 9/11.

Some vendors who were always the cornerstone of SNF were missing. Somehow it is almost eerie to not see Challenger, Phantom, and numerous other vendors who always had "their" place reserved at Paradise City. Quad City (Challenger) has chosen to not attend SNF for several years now due to the economic return versus outlay for participation in an event so far from Moline, IL. RANS, the prolific kit manufacturer, kept their aircraft on the heavy metal side of the street and did not have their S-18 at SNF. They opted to court the upper end of Sport Pilot market place.

We saw old friends, not only of USUA but genuinely good folks who are as dedicated to flying low and slow and virtually unencumbered as we do. ISON Aircraft (formerly TEAM), Flightstar (Tom Peghiny), and CGS (Chuck "Mr. Junk Yard Wars" Slusarczyk) were on hand to visit with and to be visited by USUA. There was a plethora of powered parachutes present, both with static vendor displays and graceful flying when safe wind conditions permitted.

USUA has a new leaner look. Our tent and display area was noticeably smaller. The tent we share with Ultralight Flying Magazine has been substantially reduced in size; not due to lack of interest in or stability of the Organization, but to better affront the economic challenge we all face! Our on-site staff was the same friendly energetic folks that spectators and vendors have come to expect when they visit our site.

With the help of Rich Pendergist, our EVP and USUA Office Manager, I conducted several "Town Hall Meetings" where both interested and or troubled members gathered to talk with staff about items of concern to them. USUA is in the process of a total paradigm change. We are continuing with those endeavors that have kept us in the forefront of ultralight and light aircraft aviation. Through these interactive meetings, we can better serve our membership by, when possible, better focusing our resources on the emphasis items that our membership identify as paramount.

We empathize with the concern for the well being of our Organization, the sometime feeling of non or misinformation, and overall apathy that comes from lack of visible change when the entire aviation world seems to be changing around us. Fear not! We have taken your suggestions and comments to heart and are now (as we have been, albeit in the shadows) addressing them in a prioritized and systematic manner.

We are communicating in "real time" with our membership using three media vehicles to disseminate this information. Our web site, usua.org, has been completely revamped by one of our own. Bob Comperini, a long time USUA AFI, Safety and Training committee member and just a great guy, has volunteered his expertise as a web master to revamp and maintain our site. Carol Plotnick, a staff member and newly soloed ultralight pilot, has volunteered her service to adding and amending content found on the web site. This media now changes daily. Log on and often!

We continue to communicate through printed word using our long time friend, Ultralight Flying! Magazine. We now have nearly a full complement of Regional Reps and USUA has re-committed itself to keeping these liaisons between staff and membership well armed with new and pertinent information. Since communication is a two way street, we listen with open ears and minds to the exchange FROM the field and react as quickly and positively as our resources allow. USUA is now, more than ever, listening to our membership. We want to make sure we are addressing the issues you find concerning and not just those we must for continued leadership in the U/L community.

Our two "Town Hall Meetings" at SNF told us loud and clear those issues we need to pursue. We have heard you and are reacting. We are addressing the recurring issue of affordable insurance for pilots and instructors. USUA has revamped its website to not only facilitate real-time information exchange but e-commerce as well. We have downsized our offices and display areas to get more bang for the bucks and help control spending. We continue to participate in the ongoing Sport Pilot endeavor. And, through all of this, we still put our members first!

USUA hosted a very well received and attended BFI/AFI refresher seminar. Twenty-one BFI/AFI's attended! These seminars, attended by USUA, EAA, and ASC instructors are yet another service provided by USUA for the entire "fly for fun" community. I solicited input as to what the instructors wanted and needed from USUA. I was given much data, which will be considered as we rewrite the long overdue changes to many of our policies and procedures.

So, in a nyloc nutshell, USUA is here for you; fixed wing, and flex wing. We are here for those of us who will continue to fly relatively simple, slow, and light vehicles we commonly group into the category of "ultralight". These roots run deep and they are not dying! We also are here for those of us who will choose to go with the new Sport Pilot category and its new processes of certification of pilots and registering and maintaining a new type of aircraft. Sport Pilot will happen and we would be remiss to not get our heads out of the sand and have ready a process where USUA members who so choose, could log on to our web site and do a one stop shopping for all the materials and information they need for making the transition to this new facet of sport aviation.

So, Part 103 or Sport Pilot, fixed wing, flex wing, inflatable "wing", hang glider, or ultralight rotary wing, USUA has been, is, and will be there for you!

-Reggie

Editors note: Reggie donned his USUA President’s hat to visit Sun ‘n Fun and the many friends he has made over the years as an ultralighter, Member of the Board of Directors and now USUA’s President.