Sullenberger Aviation Museum — Attraction in Charlotte

We went on Day 2 of grand opening weekend, and I have been waiting YEARS for this reopening! I was NOT disappointed, there are a few things to be improved upon but they are minor and overall the experience was amazing. Here’s my key take aways: Good stuff: -All of the staff is incredibly polite and friendly and happy to help or direct you! -As a non aviation expert I left feeling more educated because the displays were both interesting and educational! -we spent 2hrs here just wandering and absorbing all the videos, content and exhibits, and I feel like we truly didn’t see everything -Location is amazing - getting to sit and watch planes land and take off is such a cool bonus! -So much variety in exhibits including really cool interactive tablets, videos, touch screen maps and infographics

Things that could use improvement: -lighting - the lighting in the main exhibit hall for the most part is great and directs you towards certain things or creates dramatic effects but in some cases it’s so dark you can’t see what’s actually being shown to you, and it almost feels hazardous like the path isn’t clear. I feel like this could be easily fixed with some standalone lights at ground level or within some of the exhibits etc -ticketing/gift shop entry: it’s unclear what you are supposed to do when you enter as there are no signs and no one directing guests. There is a gift shop you have to walk through to enter and one would assume if you pre bought tickets you would just pass through this to the employee allowing entrance but we were directed back to the gift shop sales counter to have our tickets scanned before we could enter which caused some delay because the people in front of us were making purchases. This could have been because we arrived literally minutes after opening and may not be typical - when we left there did appear to be someone actually checking tickets at the door and only guiding people to the sales counter if they needed to BUY tickets. -the large “cockpit” sim wasn’t working yet but 3 desktop sims were - slightly disappointing but overall glad they had some interactive options!!

Honestly the “needs improvement” items are nitpicking, we will be back...

We made a 4+ hour round trip to see this museum. Overall, disappointed. It started with the ticket person making a big deal about a coupon we where given by one of their own staff who was promoting C.A.M. at another museum a few months ago. It wasn't a big deal to us, but the staff member acted very oddly, as if someone earlier did cause a fuss and was responding to us somewhat hostile. Apparently, the "old" promotion lists kids 4 and under free, but it's now 3 and under. After that a very nice guy talks to us and tells us quite a bit. He seemed to like his job! We enter the hangar. It's pretty dark...As in, I had to get out a flashlight to see some areas. The main lights are off and everything is lit with blue "mood lighting". It makes it pretty hard to enjoy looking at the aircraft and taking photos when it's that dark. There was a small group of kids being let into a Cessna 150 two at a time and allowed to play with the yokes and the staff member was telling the kids about the basics of flight. Our kids have spent a lot of time in GA aircraft, but still wanted to hop in. My wife and kids waited inline. When it was their turn, the staff member refused them. My wife said he was pretty rude about it. I guess it was only allowed for select special groups? The aircraft displayed indoors appeared to all be in good shape and they had iPad displays giving additional information. The Sully AirBus was presented well and had good displays. The kids liked the old Boeing flight sim and the divorced Phantom II fighter cockpit. When we got to the outdoor section, we found the whole ramp area blocked off with a 6 foot chain link fence. You could only look at the aircraft from afar. Pretty disappointing overall and a fair bit of money for...

he folks in the gift shop offered me a suggestion of coming back on a Saturday. That's a 2.5 hour drive each way for a total of 5 hours for the "opportunity" to spend 10 or 15 minutes on the ramp getting some photos of a plane that would have some meaning to friends. No one even thought enough to mention that there might not be an admission charge levied for that privilege, a courtesy I thought might have been extended.

So there you have it ** A five hour drive, round trip. Three hours walking through the exhibits. And a simple request for an additional 10 or so minutes spent in an area that required an understandable need for a staff member to be present. And a small thing that apparently DIDN'T matter enough to the staff that was present to do a small but big thing for a guest. I've decided that even if I DO find myself in the vicinity of the museum again, it won't be worth my time or money to stop to take those 10 minutes out of my time.

Remember sir, it IS the little things that count; and I think your staff needs to be made aware of that when they have guests in your museum.

Thank you

My full letter to the museum was too long to post in its entirety in this application which will be why any reader will see multiple posts on the subject.

Note to readers / Museum Staff

This occurred on 8/9/2016. I have

1. addressed this directly to the staff on that day ... and have received no response.

2. written this email to the director (I have disguised his name here so as to hopefully prevent him from getting emails from the public and possibly overwhelm his in-box) ... it's the lack of response that finally caused me...