That was one great Dorkfest at LAX yesterday. Thank you to everyone who came out, ate In-N-Out burgers, and watched airplanes. It was definitely the best turnout we’ve ever had. This photo from David Parker Brown at AirlineReporter sums it up quite nicely.
The weather was spectacular and we had plenty of exotic arrivals ranging from the soon-to-be-gone airberlin A330 all the way to the Saudia 777-300ER. Southwest was kind enough to send (presumably by dumb luck) one of the old “desert gold” aircraft along with the Colorado and Nevada airplanes. It added some nice variety.
I also want to thank all the airlines that stepped up and provided goodies to have me give away this year. Southwest started the trend with this 737 MAX model that’s hot off the presses.
United also came to play with the sentimental favorite, a 747-400.
I cried a little inside when I had to part with those, even if my wife may have felt differently.
Thanks to British Airways for the A380 model, to Delta for the A350 model, and to EVA for the amenity kits and pajama sets. And of course, thanks to all of you who showed up with goodies of your own to donate and trade. This was a lot of fun.
To give things away, I had everyone write their names on paper, so after the fact I counted them up. We had 73 names, and I know there were at least a dozen or more who didn’t write theirs down. This really was a great turnout. It certainly helped to work with NYCAviation to schedule this the same weekend as their joint event with PHX Spotters. And the APEX conference being in Long Beach this week was timed quite nicely as well.
I really had a great time and stayed a couple hours longer than I expected… until the last few people headed back to LAX for their flights home. My only regret is that with so many people, I didn’t have nearly enough time to visit with everyone as I would have hoped.
If you didn’t make it, you missed out. But there’s always next year. I think others will agree that it’s a great day.
Thanks again to all who came.
9 comments on “Thank You for Coming to Dorkfest 2017”
I’m sorry I missed it! Cheers from Toronto
Brett,
Thanks for the quick report on ‘Dorkfest’… great turnout.
Sorry I missed it again…
Did the LA Times do a story ??
What is the date for next year. ?
Peter
Peter – I don’t believe the LA Times did a story. As for next year, it won’t be decided until probably June, as usual. It’s always around the same time, but the exact weekend can vary.
It truly was a great day!
Many thanks!
I thoroughly enjoyed it all.
Ed
Great to see you had such a good crowd. Your Fest is typically on the same day as the Dulles FedEx Special Olympics Plane Pull. Great crowd, spectacular weather, maybe a bit too warm for late September. Pull was on a FedEx 757 and a UA 737-800. Only bummer was that the winds were coming from the north so no A388s, 747s, and all the European heavies landing southbound on 19C. A B-52 static, but, tough to beat a combo of airline dorks, an In-N-Out, plus a Cranky!
One of these years I will have to fly down to LAX.
I keep meaning to catch Cranky Dorkfest one day, but I live in the Midwest, haven’t been able to catch a dirt cheap RT to LAX the last few years, and just can’t justify the usual cost of a RT ticket, a day of PTO and an overnight stay. One day I’ll find a $200 RT to LAX on the first flight out and last flight home and make it happen.
Due to circumstances beyond my control I was woefully late to In-N-Out and had to cut my time short to get to LAX and the Star Alliance and KAL lounges at Bradley. I would probably feel worse about it if I hadn’t already come down in July for some very early morning spotting of all the Oceania flights.
At least I was able to give away some stuff I had discovered while purging my parents/grandparents stash of junk collected over the decades. I wasn’t going to be able to keep it and I probably would have trashed it if Dorkfest hadn’t been on the horizon. It’s not every day you can give away a TWA in flight magazine from 1970 and a couple of paper Lufthansa tickets from 1973. I must confess the first thing I did when I saw the TWA mag was go straight to the route map pages. Wow…that really was a different era.
Next year I’ll have to plan it better so I have more time for spotting and not get caught out like I did Saturday.
I missed it as my girlfriend and I were on Catalina. I was there in spirit. Monday before our flight home we walked from the terminal to In and Out Burger to take in the sights, and of course a Double Double.