First In Flight 2020 Cancelled :(
It’s with a great deal of sadness that we announce First in Flight 2020 has been cancelled. We were all in high hopes that this Covid-19 situation would have eased up enough to let us hold our event later in the season, but recent updates and the continued restrictions imposed by our Governor and health officials has left us little choice in the matter. If we were to hold the event, it would be a very limited number of pilots, no food vendors and we could not provide rental tents. At this point the city is not able to provide permitting for a large number and not sure if they could by September. With the latest information at hand, the First in Flight staff members collectively have decided it is time to focus on the 2021 event. We are very disappointed we have to make this call but it truly is the best decision. This has without a doubt been a tough year on events and it’s organizers. We were very excited about a few things on schedule this year and we also had plans to pay tribute to a couple of iconic modelers we lost this year. With that said I will include you all on two of those now. Most all of you knew Bob Violet and Andy Kane. Both of these gentlemen were bigger than life and contributed so much to both our hobby and fellowship at events. Wanting to show our appreciation to these iconic men, FIF will be honoring them in a special way. Thanks to a generous supporter of FIF for many years, FIF has made arrangements to purchase a newly built RTF Comp ARF Hawk for the Saturday night auction. The plane is complete w/motor and RTF with all top end components. Better yet, this plane was built by Andy Kane himself! Andy was a huge supporter for promoting our hobby to kids and a big supporter to the Boys and Girls Club of America. With that said, we will be auctioning off this beautiful Hawk and ALL profits will be donated to the Boys and Girls Club of Wilson, in Andy’s honor. Bob Violet has been a great supporter to our hobby and FIF. Like Andy, he was there to support us at the first event held in Wilson and continued with his support every year since. Many of you may remember that Bob was honored that year with the first ever FIF “Wright Stuff Award”. As you know, this is our highest honor given each year at FIF. With that in mind, the FIF staff could not think of a better way to pay tribute to Bob than renaming that award to permanently honor Bob for all the years to come. With that said, our highest award will now carry the title of the “Bob Violet Memorial”.
OK, the cat is out of the bag for 2021 now but I know it’s now time to begin the process of refunding some $$$ for those who wish to. With that said here is what we can do. Anyone requesting a refund just shoot me a text/email or phone call and I will refund your payment right away. A few people whom I’ve already notified of the events cancellation have opted to leave their orders in for the May 2021 event. We’re good either way understandably most of you will probably want to request a refund. Tent locations are based on order and date a request is received , so to be fair to all those who have ordered tents and choose to leave their orders in, we will simply move your tent location up the line as we get cancellations. Anyone wanting to know their current tent location can get it by contacting me. Currently there are only 18 tents on order.
Again, we are very disappointed we will not be able to get our 2020 event in the books, but as they say, it is what it is. But,,,,,, May 2021 is not that far away and we hope to see you guys at FIF and all the other great jet events being planned for 2021.
Larry