Page 8 - World Airshow News Spring 2023

It’s All about

Greg Koontz: From the ACE entertaining

YOUR

It’s a Tough Business Audience!

I n my way of thinking, If you’re ICAS Convention and went there to learn. And learn I did. The
not doing something you are
cost of a Super Decathlon was just the entrance fee. I had no sug-
wasting your life. The idea of re-
tiring doesn’t set well with me. I can’t ar daddy, so this was only going to work if I ran it as a business.
Twenty years prior, when I worked my fanny off to learn to fly,
imagine sitting on the back porch I also learned what a work ethic could get you. I have no toler-
staring at my land in some kind of ex- ance for heavy debt. I was raised by parents who suffered through
pected harmony. Nope. I’ve got to be the Great Depression. To them, debt was sin. So, staying in the
doing! I have no ambition to keep the black was the only option. And I did. I was entering the business
pace I used to, but then again, I have at a time when airline pilots and the like were involved in com-
no intention of voluntarily giving up petition aerobatics, and they had found doing airshows would
anything I can still do. I only have fund their hobby. They didn’t need to balance the books. They SPONSORED BY:
one life. I’m going to live it flying. just wanted some extra income to justify their hobby.
Flying airshows was my set goal Today, I am watching young people trying to break into this
since I was seven years old. When business. Some are well funded, but many have a budget like I
I was that age, I had no concept of had. They have the talent, and they have the motivation, but to
making money. My mom and dad did that. I just wanted to fly. compete, some of them are going to need a break. I’m not talking
When I got old enough to pursue my dream, I never let the lack about a Go-Fund-Me account or a charity. They know the sacri-
of money slow me down. I would just work one job all year (flip- fice they are going to have to make to succeed. But all their hard
ping burgers six nights a week) and add to it a 40 hour-per-week work might never pay off without some opportunity. Jim Moser
day job during the summers. I didn’t know how much money and his dad, Ernie Moser, needed help to run their school. They
I needed, but I knew how hard I could work, so I just did that. found me and they recognized a person willing to work hard.
Economics is a course I learned from doing. I want to share with Running the flight school would get me the opportunity to fly OVER 450 AIRSHOWS PERFORMED BILL BARBER SHOWMANSHIP AWARD
anyone out there on that up-hill battle, never give up! Fate is the in airshows, and it changed my life with the opportunity to live
art of circumstance. a dream.
I first flew airshows as an employee of AeroSport, Inc., an FBO Hire an up-and-coming performer to fly in your airshow. Ev- GREAT VALUE FOR YOUR SHOW!
in St. Augustine, Florida. The job was to run their flight school ery airshow needs to leave a slot for this. Give that person a little
and do the things I do in their little airshow troupe called “Col. time in your show so they can get the experience and log it. Pay Super Decathlon Aerobatic Performance
Moser’s Flying Circus.” (Jim & Ernie Moser have since been in- them all you can so they can pay their bills. Help the industry
ducted in the Air Show Hall of Fame.) I got paid what they decid- grow by giving a little back to the industry. If we don’t, somebody Alabama Boys Cub Comedy Act
ed to pay me, and with great gratitude, I accepted. I was living the is going to figure out how to turn the airshow industry into a CGI
dream. I guess if they told me I was going to have to pay them, I special effect show and we will all be the losers. Heaven Forbid! Package Pricing if we bring both
probably would have. (If I had had any money.) Flying airshows
is so incredibly exciting, it’s surely like being addicted to a drug. I Greg Koontz is a full-time airshow performer and teaches basic Show Sponsorships available
was flying shows with the best people in the business. I was doing aerobatics at his Flight School/Bed & Breakfast called Sky Country
comedy and car-top-landings, solo acro, and even was part of a Lodge. Greg is a former chairman of the ICAS ACE Committee,
three-ship formation act. I wouldn’t let anyone pinch me for the holds an unlimited aerobatic waiver, and has been designated a 37 YEARS OF DEPENDABLE AIRSHOW EXPERIENCE
dire fear that I would wake up! Master Certified Flight Instructor-Aerobatics by the National Asso-
But reality eventually did hit, and I moved on to pursue a cor- ciation of Flight Instructors. Please send your comments/questions
porate flying career so I could get the traditional house payment, to Greg@GKairshows.com
a dog in the yard, and babies on the way. It took twelve years be-
fore I finagled a way to get back into airshows. This time, I wasn’t
just having the fun as someone else’s employee. This time I had
to pay the bills and make ends meet myself. I signed up for the

GKAIRSHOWS.COM
www.airshowmag.com 8 Spring 2023