For many attendees at NBAA’s annual convention and exhibition, the static display remains the highlight, a showcase where airframers and aircraft brokers alike can present their finest aircraft. But while showgoers prowl the Orlando Executive Airport ramp this week, few will take into account the vast amount of logistics that goes into the precision marshaling of all those aircraft, as well as providing the support for them during the show. None perhaps are more familiar with the process than Showalter Flying Service, which has hosted every static display in Orlando since NBAA made the central Florida city the “unofficial home” of its biggest show starting in 1996.
Bob Showalter, chairman of the company and son of founder Howard Showalter, was part of the group that sold the organization on Orlando back in 1992 when NBAA was considering leaving Miami. After convincing one of his based customers to pick up the NBAA representative and fly him to Orlando, Showalter arranged a tour of Orlando Executive Airport and the then-under-construction Orange County Convention Center. Fast-forward 22 years and Orlando finds itself hosting its ninth convention, including the one in 2005 when it was quickly substituted for a flood-ravaged New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
This year, organizers expected approximately 100 aircraft in the static display, and while that may seem like a decline from the peak of 147 set a few years ago, space was sold out by mid-August. “What’s changed is the planes are bigger, more heavy iron,” said Showalter, noting that the size of the exhibitor chalets have increased as well, including one this year that occupies more than half an acre.
“I don’t think it has ever been sold out so early,” he added, referring to the more than 20 acres encompassed by his company’s ramp, which is leased each time to NBAA to accommodate the display.
While planning for this year’s static display began long ago (indeed, according to Tracy Tippett, NBAA’s manager of static displays, preparations for next year’s show in Las Vegas are already under way), the conversion of a portion of the Showalter ramp into the display area started around the beginning of August, as NBAA organizers used laser equipment to survey the display area down to the inch and mark where the main and nose gear of each airplane would rest. According to Tippett, the area was first rendered in a CAD/CAM computer program, which was then manipulated as aircraft were added or deleted from the exhibition roster, in some cases right up to show time.
Tenants Are Displaced
For Showalter Flying Service–which began its 70th year in operation this month–having the world’s largest business aviation show in town meant certain changes to normal operations for many of its 125 based aircraft. “Our tenants are the unsung heroes of NBAA because they all mostly willingly give up access to their hangars and regular spaces for about a month,” said Showalter, who noted that the company’s largest transient hangar has also been off limits from the time the static display was set up.
For a period of time, some based aircraft owners could still access their airplanes and have them towed through the growing maze of fencing, but for a span of 10 days, extending past the end of the show, all access froze, requiring the owners to either leave their aircraft in the hangar or out in a remote parking area.
The aircraft in the static display arrived in a precisely determined sequence depending on where they were to be located. Large aircraft such as the Gulfstreams were among the first to enter the area. As each aircraft arrived, it stopped at the front ramp near Showalter’s terminal, where it was met by a customer service representative (CSR) who completed a checklist of each aircraft’s departure requirements, such as when it would require fueling, what catering it would require and its intended departure date and time. “The goal is to have everyone delighted with the service,” said Showalter. “I think most people have been in the past, and that’s certainly the goal this year.”
Until the last few shows, the FBO’s staff would move the aircraft into position in the display, but that task was taken over of late by aircraft tug manufacturer Lektro, which brings its own equipment and selected workers to do the job. When signaled, Showalter personnel towed the airplanes to the “throat” of the bottle-shaped static display area and unhook them to allow the Lektro personnel to move them to their designated spots. The entire process will be reversed at the end of the show.
“NBAA thinks the show is over on Thurday but a whole lot of the folks are staying that night and want to leave at O-dark-thirty on Friday,” Showalter told AIN. “By Friday afternoon the place is a ghost town and our tanks are empty, mentally, physically and certainly and hopefully fuel-wise, too.”
Specialized Staff
Under such a crush, Showalter has learned to take great steps to make sure his staff, which nearly tripled during the course of the show to 75, including volunteers and borrowed line technicians and CSRs, doesn’t get overwhelmed. “The hardest part is to keep people from moving too urgently and too fast and therefore losing the safety edge, which is at the top of everything we are trying to do,” he said.
At a meeting on Saturday before the show regarding safety protocols, the entire group met with representatives from the FBO’s insurance provider as well as from fuel supplier Phillips 66 (which brought four additional fuel trucks to bolster Showalter’s fleet).
Each time it hosts the static display, Showalter Flying Service creates a thick three-ring binder full of notes, which is used to further perfect the system. Among the lessons learned in the past is the establishment of a “perimeter road” around the edge of the display to facilitate the delivery of catering and materials to the chalets, and the need to have enough chargers to keep the fleet of Lektros properly powered. Another learned lesson is having all ramp workers tuned to the same radio frequency, so everyone will know to stop what they are doing if someone notes an emergency situation.
Improved Communications Services
New to the ramp this year is a mobile cellphone relay tower, providing broadband Internet and cell phone service to the entire display area, eliminating the previous tangle of cables. According to Showalter, the ubiquitous portable generators, which power things such as chalet air-conditioning, may also soon be a thing of the past. “I think in the near future we’ll see underground power added to this ramp,” he said, adding the airport authority is considering the upgrade in the aftermath of NBAA’s recent agreement, which could keep the show a regular visitor to Orlando through 2025.
In addition to the static display, during the course of the show, the airport will receive several hundred aircraft bringing attendees. Rental car provider Enterprise was ready for the demand, setting up a booth inside the FBO and staging more than 300 rental cars on the property for the duration.
While Orlando’s hosting of the show typically proves to be a lucrative endeavor for Showalter Flying Service, that wasn’t the case in 2012, the last time it was in town. “Between Mr. Obama closing us down on arrival day and Superstorm Sandy taking the four largest states that usually fly in and making them not come, that was a very small show for us,” noted Showalter. “We didn’t have a single airplane from New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut or Massachusetts.”
As presently scheduled, the annual convention will be held in Florida in even years, and NBAA is looking to swap it to odd, for political reasons. Florida is a noted swing state on the national stage, and the timing of the event just before November elections leaves it vulnerable to disruptions from campaigning officials as happened in 2012. According to Showalter, it’s uncertain when the availability of convention centers will accommodate the shift, which will likely see the show in the same venue two years in a row.
