OK - so no posts in almost 3 months. Guilty as charged! I don't even remember what I was doing in June - probably still organizing my garage, but July and early August were some of most memorable, fun, and educational weeks of my life! I attended my very first EAA Airventure annual fly-in from July 25 to August 2, 2009. This is the largest gathering of general aviation and other aircraft in the WORLD, and it happens in beautiful Oshkosh Wisconsin, location of EAA Headquarters, every single year since 1970. For those that are unfamiliar with its location, it sits just north of Milwaukee and south of Greenbay, Wisconsin, right next to Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan.
If you have never heard of or attended this event, it is almost impossible to describe, and I won't attempt to write a novel here to explain it all. At the risk of sounding a little bit religious, perhaps, the best way I can sum it all up is to say that if there is a heaven, I hope and pray that it looks a lot like Airventure! Having volunteered in various flying organizations for a large part of my life, I can honestly say that I have NEVER been anywhere or experienced a place where hundreds of thousands of people all convene in one place for one week, and volunteer their time to make the whole thing operate as smooth as glass. Everyone was happy, selfless, and anxious to share their passion of aviation. Events took place daily from 6:00am till after dark, and it was difficult to plan an itinerary with everything was happening.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The family did not come with me - too many conflicts with work and summer activities, so I was disapointed about that, but I decided to stick to my guns and make this trip, no matter what. I decided to drive the 1,022 miles from my house and take my 20 foot trailer with me, and stay in the Camp Scholler (pronounced Show-ler) campground. The plan was to drive all day to get to Omaha/Council Bluffs, stay overnight in a hotel, and proceed to Oshkosh the following morning. The start of my journey was a bit rocky - a late start in the afternoon led to driving in storms with tornado warnings and tennis ball sized hail. Luckily I bypassed all that, only to start having trailer brake problems and sparks flying out the back end as I rolled down I-80. I finally rolled into Council Bluffs at about 3:30am. One end of a water tank support bracket had come loose and was dragging on the road. I had to stay an extra day to fix some wiring problems and to purchase some hardware to address the bracket problems. Should have flown instead of drove, right? Safer that way......
- After another day of "rest" ( that's spending it mostly on your back in a Home depot parking lot in 95 degree humid weather), I got the trailer fixed up enough to travel safely again, and continued on my journey. I arrived at Oshkosh at about 4:30pm - just enough time to find a parking space and enjoy the sunset.
- Picture in your mind what the largest campground is that you have ever visited, then multipy that capacity by about 10 thousand or more, and you start to get a feel for how huge this place was. The amount of money represented by huge bus-sized RVs was probably in the hundreds of millions of dollars! The place is huge, and I learned quickly that if you walk everywhere, you will walk an average of 7 miles per day just get around. They had buses and such, but I needed the exercise, so I walked everywhere.
- What is there to do in Oshkosh you might ask? Rock Concerts, walk in outdoor movie theaters, concerts, airplane gawking, attending forums and seminars, volunteering, it goes on an on.
- One thing that I never expected was to have access to a full blown 24-7 aviation radio broadcast from EAA radio. It was on 1210 am, 93.1 fm, and was non-stop info about Oshkosh.
- Flying highlights - White Night Two - transport vehicle for the next commercial space vehicle courtesy of Burt Rutan and company. The Airbus 380 arrived - its just a big Guppy, but its huge. EAA has video of its very hard landing on http://www.eaa.org/. Daily airshows featuring all sorts of different aircraft, 60th anniversary of the T-28 Trojan (there were at least that many of them there for several days), ultralights buzzing the campground, and it goes on an on and on.
- Took my first helicopter ride in a bell 47 MASH helicopter - same as they used in Korea and in the TV show. I will add a short video from that experience
- Since he must have "failed" to mention it in his blog, I met up with my friend Ron Duren and his girlfriend Samira about midweek that week. Ron is building an RV 7, and I use him as my "info-slave" to tell me all the good tips and tricks and errors to avoid as he completes his tail section, which I am also about to begin building for my project. Check out his blog. They flew into Milwaukee and rented a car and stayed in a tent at the campground. I loaned them two extra chairs to use, because I felt bad for Samira having to brave the weather without too many creature comforts! :) We went to "the bar tent" one evening and met up with a contingent of very funny and very drunk blokes from South Africa. They told us a story about two men from there that had built a new LSA aicraft called the Sling in about 2 months time, tested it and flew it all the way from South Africa to Oshkosh in about 2 weeks time, and were proceeding from there to fly it the rest of the way around the world after that! I recently checked up on this and found the website - they are due to arrive in South Africa again on August 27, 2009 - having flown about every other day for the last 1 and half months. Checkout http://www.airplanefactory.co.za/world/default.asp. They have crossed from LA to Hawaii, then to the Marshall Islands, and are currently resting int the Seychelles Islands before making two hops to get home. All this in an airplane no bigger than a Cessna 152, with 118 gallons of fuel on board! 20 hours in an airplane - repeatedly - don't know if I could do that or not. They are attempting to prove a point about the reliability and safety of LSA category airplanes, and if they complete these last two legs, they will go a long way to doing just that. Hopefully more good press for homebuilt aircraft. My best thoughts and prayers for them on this final leg home.
- Of course I stopped off at Vans tent and picked up a tool box kit so I could start ramping up for building the tail of my RV8. I just completed it except for paint the other day. I think I used just about every tool I ordered except for the C Frame and the back rivet set in the construction of this tool box. Made some errors along the way, learned how to drill out rivets, prime metal, work with hinges, and, of course, drive alot of rivets. Pics to follow perhaps tomorrow. (past my bedtime).
Now for the video of my helicopter ride:
