Saturday was another successful Cranky Dorkfest, our biggest yet. Thank you to everyone who came out to LAX, and for those of you that didn’t… well I’m going to make you jealous.
The day started out on the ramp outside the Flight Path Museum on the south side of LAX. LAWA really stepped it up this year with a bigger ramp visit that had some surprises. This is becoming a morning staple on Saturday, and I hope to continue the partnership with LAWA in years to come.
The gates opened a little after 9am, and over 300 people streamed in.
Unlike previous years, the Flight Path wasn’t open until after the event, but that was ok. LAX had a bunch of swag available, and it had brought out bathrooms and a water truck as well.
Greeting us as we entered was, for the first time, a static display of aircraft. DHL brought in a 767-300 while Delta had an A321neo.
We were able to go crawl around on both airplanes. It’s a lot of fun to see the empty insides of a cargo aircraft, but also, I had never seen the new Delta First Class, so this was a nice surprise.
Delta Captain Geist was sent out to greet everyone, and he brought treats. He was handing out some of Delta’s famed aircraft trading cards to everyone who entered the airplane.
LAWA CEO John Ackerman was there to welcome everyone, and he gave out some pretty cool LAX backpacks filled with goodies to three lucky people. John is on my right in the photo below. To his right is LAWA COO Doug Webster and all the way on my left is Nicole Carcel from Community Relations who put this whole thing together.
Of course, the real action was on the flight line, where people grabbed spots as close as possible to the runways to get some good views, like this 747 that was taxiing out.
Just before 11, it was time to relocate to the park across from In-N-Out for the main event. The marine layer cleared out and made for a really nice afternoon.
Since nobody has to RSVP for the main event, the best we can do to estimate numbers is to count the number of raffle tickets that get handed out. This year, it was a surprising 527 handed out by Flightradar24’s Ian Petchenik and my son. Yeah, it was a big crowd. And I can’t thank Ian and my son enough for doing the hard work.
Unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures of the main event, because I’m always too busy talking to people and handing out goodies. If you look on social media, I know you’ll find plenty of better photos, like these.
This year’s raffle was huge. Thank you to all of the donors for some really special items:
- Flightradar24, JetTip, and The Air Current for complimentary subscriptions
- Sun Country for a vintage hat and deck of cards
- Breeze and Hawaiian for giving away points/miles
- Alaska, Avelo, JetBlue, and Spirit for roundtrip tickets
- Alaska, Delta, Fedex, JetBlue, Porter, Southwest, Spirit, and United for models (Southwest gave away a MAX in the Colleen retro Canyon Blue livery)
- American for gift packs including a backpack with goodies from the airline’s special D-Day charter
- Alaska for a personalized luggage tag cut from a Convair 240’s skin
And while we’re at it, thanks to Asiana and Korean for their twin A380s departures going on time:
And thanks to Lufthansa for closing the event with the showstopping 747-8.
It was a great day. As I like to say, I’m just a great excuse for people to be able to get together do what they love. Cranky Dorkfest has become an easy way for friends who share this hobby to meet up, watch airplanes, eat burgers, and make new friends.
But it’s not just Cranky Dorkfest that makes this possible. NYC Aviation had its hugely successful SpotLAX events all weekend long, making for an action-packed weekend that could make any avgeek happy.
We haven’t set a date for next year’s event yet, but just keep watching here. Once again, thank you to everyone who made this come together this year, and thanks to all of you who attended.
16 comments on “For Those Who Didn’t Attend, Here’s What You Missed at Cranky Dorkfest This Weekend”
That was a lot of people who attended. Passerby’s must have been wondering what was going on.
Sorry I missed it! I was out of town. I hope to make it next year.
The whole weekend was super fun. The ramp access event was awesome!
Thanks so much to you and LAX / LAWA Community Relations staff for arranging this.
Wow, ramp access really kicks this event up a notch! I’m going to have to drag my tired ass out there one of these years. Kudos to all involved.
Forgot to mention how much I love that pic of the LH 747, poetry in motion!
One of these years I will join the festivities. This year I actually could have made it, unlike in previous years. If only I had paid attention…
Thanks Bret and all the many wonderfull people that made this what I thought would be a once in a lifetime experience for many folks. But, now having experienced this I will be back next year for the whole weekend!
And of all the visual stimulous the 747SP converted into a frieghter being loaded, serviced, and marsheld out right there was amazing. It looked like s big, haunted ghost ( in my imagination). I worked on the Ramp at DFW when those SP’s flew to Tokyo. I witnesed what could have tragic seeing food carts falling off catering truck down onto the ramp and virtualy exploding hitting the tarmac! I gave up lunch that day to get up close to see it. If I remember corectly, it had to stop in HNL sometimes if upper winds were strong. Good times…. Maybe Ill have more 747, DC10 and 757 wild times relived in the future. ( PG only ).
Brad
Ah, work demands and having it fall in the middle of me converting from contractor to full-time did me in this year. As soon as the dates for next year are announced I’m buying my tickets!
I landed around 10:30AM Saturday and saw you all standing around the DHL plane – that was a huge crowd. I could have sworn I also had a Cranky sighting at the Rose Bowl later on Saturday.
Brian – That you did! I was at that terrible excuse for a game that afternoon.
I was also at the game though I wasn’t wearing any aviation attire. I changed into my Indiana University shirt before heading over to the Rose Bowl!
It’s been at least 10 years since we attended a Cranky Dorkfest and WOW, this was amazing. There was no ramp tour 10 years ago and about 40-60 people at the park. (The In-N-Out Burgers tasted the same.) What an amazing event this has grown to be! It was so cool to see the DHL plane’s cargo system and cockpit.
The DJ was OFF THE HOOK!!! All the songs had references to flying, which was fun and allowed for lots of genres of music. You couldn’t have ordered a better weather day. Cloudy and cool while we hung out on the ramp, and sunny with lots of shade at the park. It was truly a perfect day.
Well, I had to scroll back from the pic a bit to check I had glimpse right the first time : Cranky almost barefoot on the tarmac !!!
Made it out for the fourth time in a row, a long with a few more of us from Austin. This was the first time I made it out to the ramp visit, and…that was a lot of fun. I think this was the first time I’ve seen a 747-8…and a record for how little I got sunburned. All in all a solid showing. Planning on being back in 2025!
Thank you for another wonderful DorkFest. Can I have a HD photos of myself (guywalking in with arms raised and the LAX backpack winner).
I had a great time at DorkFest and am grateful for the opportunity to attend having first learned about the event on a podcast about a year and a half ago. I flew in the morning of the event from BWI on UA and went over to the ramp visit after visiting the United Club Lounge at LAX for a quick breakfast. Both the ramp visit and main gathering at the In-N-Out was awesome! I really enjoyed meeting many fellow AVGeeks and am very appreciative of all the hard work from those to make the event special. I hope to be back again in 2025!