Thanks for Attending the Very Successful Second Annual Cranky Dorkfest

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For those who didn’t attend, you missed a great event on Saturday at the In ‘n Out by LAX. I’d say the second annual Cranky Dorkfest was a success, despite the looming threat of Carmaggedon just to the north. This shot summed it up nicely for me.

A380 Arrival at Dorkfest

From my rough count, we had about 30 to 40 people show up, many with camera gear in tow. I think the furthest attendee was from Albany, NY with a few others from New York City. Maybe the most impressive, however, were the two attendees who came from the San Fernando Valley, easily getting around the Carmaggedon freeway closure.

I was excited to see some attendees who I worked with both at America West and United. We also had people from Allegiant, California Pacific, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, and US Airways show up to watch airplanes. And of course, there were many familiar Twitter faces with @NYCAviation, @hharteveldt, @AbFabSkyLife, @AirlineReporter, @danwebbage, @MDerekPugh, @flyboyroy, @bigmalx, and @FlyCPAir all attending.

And the spotting was good yesterday. Thought it was a little hazy, we at least didn’t have anything but high clouds in the sky. We had three A380 arrivals along with several 747s and 777s. There were a couple quirky birds including the Virgin America bearded aircraft (which was good to see despite my hatred of the Giants) and towards the end, an American Eagle ERJ with no Eagle on the tail. (After further review, I’m guessing this is because it had its tail sliced back in May.)

Giveaway Goodies at Dorkfest

No dorkfest would be complete with some goodies as well, and Routehappy brought along t-shirts to give away. Randy from California Pacific also brought a few goodies to hand out as well.

All in all, it was a great day. Thanks to everyone who came out. I would definitely like to do more of these in the future in more places. I think we’re going to need to find some sponsors to help make that a reality.

Now back to our regular programming….

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41 comments on “Thanks for Attending the Very Successful Second Annual Cranky Dorkfest

    1. There were actually a few women who showed up. One was a fellow volunteer at Long Beach Airport. There was also a woman who works with Routehappy. The last was the mother of a guy who stopped by on their way up the coast! So maybe the last one got hijacked a little…

      Anyway, when Routehappy was doing the giveaway, I suggested we give it to any woman who showed up but at the time, none were still there.

      1. Cranky-That was my mom I was heading up the coast with! Glad to meet you and do a little plane spotting with you guys!

  1. OK two posts already about the lack of women, so we can assume dork is really a male word…..lol

    I’ll comment that the grass is so green for end of summer in L.A., they must water it a lot knowing they get many eyes looking at their location from the ground and above.

    Looks like you had a winner of a day.

      1. Third. If they’re landing to the south, and the wind is right, you can hear the vortices 15-30 seconds after the flight goes over – auditory wake turbulence!

    1. Ok, Embo. I’m marking you down as attending even though nothing has been planned yet. Maybe I need to get the NYCAviation guys to put something together.

      1. Deal! My husband thought I was insane when we were dating and I proposed going to watch the planes land at LGA. Will be nice to have some fellow dorks around here.
        Speaking of LGA – Did you see that they are following in JFK’s footsteps and holding their first runway run in 2 weeks? I doubt it will be as exciting lacking the larger planes, but I’ll likely have to give it a shot nonetheless…

        1. I didn’t see that LGA was doing a runway run. I remember doing one at Dulles back in college. United trotted out a 757 and Atlantic Coast had a CRJ in the airline’s house colors. That was a lot of fun.

  2. Looks great! When I saw the super A380 pic that looks like it was practically on top of you, I immediately thought of Rodney Dangerfield’s epic Caddyshack line after the low flying plane went right over him, “Hey, I almost got h**d from Amelia Earhart!” Fair warning – if/when I make it to a Dorkfest, I will utter that at least once.

  3. I’d happily be a female attendee if you had one on the SF Bay Area! I do patent law for a living, so I’m used to being a lone female in a sea of dorky guys. ;-) Looks like it was a fun time, and I hope to catch the next one.

    1. The Bay Area is probably next on my list. We should rent out the Elephant Bar and just watch arrivals over the Bay all day.

    1. EricinChi – California Pacific is still moving along. Didn’t seem to be any earth-shattering updates – just steady progress.

      1. Please come to NYC soon, it would be great fun to see you & your little dorks. LOL Sorry brett, I was channeling Lady Ga Ga there for a moment. If you come to the big apple, I’ll be there with friends.

  4. Sorry I had to miss it, it looks like it was a fun time. I would have liked to have met the Airline Reporter.

    Even though they appear to have finally gelled, it looks like the Dodgers are going to fall short (again). I at least hope L.A. can give the Giants something to think about on the way to the playoffs.

  5. Heh, we know CF is LA based if he thinks its more impressive that folks who came from the San Fernando Valley than from New York…

    Although, perhaps next year I’ll ask one of my pilot friends if he’d like to fly us down… Although, that’ll be a full day trip I’m sure, but at least we’d have somewhere to land nearby..

    1. Nick – I only thought it was more impressive because it was Carmaggedon weekend where the main road from the valley was shut down completely!

      But you should be good up there, Nick. Airline Reporter and the Museum of Flight are putting together their geekfest in Seattle so you don’t need to come all the way down here.

          1. I will spout the party line: The weather always sucks in Seattle. The Rainy Season is from January 1st until December 31st.

            (Hey, we’ve gotta do something to keep the population growth in this wonderful place under control..)

        1. In Seattle, every day is aviation geekfest. In an average day in Seattle, we had everything from Q400s to 747s flying over our house in NE Seattle. We also would get the occasional 787 or green 737 out of Boeing field, along with the occasional 747-8. And, of course, the omnipresent seaplanes. I really, really miss that house.

          I’ve never been happier to be stuck in traffic than on I-5 alongside Boeing field.

  6. It was certainly fun. Thanks for putting it together, Brett. And putting a picture of me on the front page (even if my back is turned…)

  7. Brett, if you’re brave enough to plan an event at SEA in February, why not hold one at EGE during the winter holidays? The daily horde of 757s and A320s are a start, of course, but the real action is in the multitude of GA jets that come in one after the other all day long. Some days there are more than 150 private jets on the ramp, which may be why CNN called the Costco parking lot just east of EGE one of the top spots in the world to view aircraft – http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/29/travel/plane-spotting-destinations/index.html. You plan it, we’ll host it – hot cocoa and Costco muffins for everyone!

  8. Denverite here as some know. It is pretty cool to watch the 757s rocket into the sky at EGE and maneuver out of the valley. I’ve stopped along I-70 a few times when I’ve seen one about to depart.

    I’m doing a bike ride between Aspen and Glenwood Springs this weekend and definitely stopping at Aspen to watch the little birds for a bit on the single runway.

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