Recounting Oshkosh Airventure 2013 highlights

This trip began with a whole lot of trailer repair work through the months of May and June, and yes, that was all being done at the same time I was working on bathroom stuff for the house. I basically removed all the old sealant around the three air vents and re-sealed them, replaced the vent screens and vent cover hardware, and then I repacked all of my trailer wheel bearings for the first time. I had also repaired my broken window from last years excursion, and also replaced most of my cabinet door latches to ensure that the broken window situation would not occur again.

We had significant monsoon moisture throughout the latter part of June and into July, so I was a little worried that this trip would be another weather challenge. It turned out that the weather moved off to the east, and a very deep cold front had come down from the north. As a result,I was ableto make the whole trip up there without turning on the air conditioner once - not even when I rolled into Omaha, Nebraska. I bet that will never happen again in my lifetime.

Other high lights for this trip:

- The weather during the entire week of the event was absoutely perfect - 70s and 80s the whole time with no rain to speak of. It was bitter cold on Friday and Saturday night before the start of the event due to the cold front.
- Mike Rettig decided to stay in the trailer after the cold snap - amazing how much better it is to have "solid" accomodations than just a tent! Mike enjoyed having eggs for breakfast every morning.
- I attended the VAF/Vans gathering on Monday - metone of my heroes Paul Dyeadn severalothers and had to the chance to speak with him in person.
- I saw the Jet man and the Tarafugia Tranistion Flying car fly publicly for the first time
- I had the opportunity to volunteer a couple of hours each day at Kid Venture.I helped with the Kiddie Hawk motion simulator for little kids. THis  is actually quite an amazing design. It showed the kids what it felt like to experience flying an airplane. THis was my first official volunteer participation with Airventure and was very rewarding and enjoyable, even if it did interefere with my forum and classroom session plans from time to time.
- Attended several forums and classes from Mike Busch - a very well respected mechanic and pilot who provides very good advice for maintaining your aircraft.Also attended some composite classes and several classes that dealt with an ever-increasing concern amongst the EAB world - that of enhancing safety by changing regulations to allow for better transition training and safety for all pilots. Much of this dealt with reviewing the current LODA rules and attending a forum given by the FAA rep that is writing the new regs for this.
- New food vendors on the grounds made a huge impact at the event this year.
- I saw tons of RVs and took lots of pics that I will post later.
- I ran my first 5k run with Mike on thefinal Saturday morning of the event. You get to run across the approach end of the runway and back again, while airplanes arelanding above you.
- I attended the memrial service offered for friends and family of the fallen EAA members that are inducted onto the memorial wall. THis was held on the final Sunday of the event and I may post the video I cr eated for the family of EAA Chapter 301 member Brian North who passed after a horrible aircraft crash claimed his life. The family could not make it to the service, and I worked with John Schneider to attend the event and obtain etchings of the plaque that was added to the memorial walland returned and presented them to the family. This was a very humbling but rewarding experience, but is one that I hope I do not have to repeat very often.
- As I recall other things that I did during this trip I will addthemto this post. As usual there was just too much happening at one time to be able to attend everything even during the whole week of the event. That is why I can hardly wait to go back again next year, and I am already counting the days....