Oshkosh - EAA's AirVenture 2008 - Daily Notes
Saturday, July 26, 2008 - Arrival
After a beatiful morning at Brodhead (more later), we traveled Northeast on excellent Wisconsin roads (would have been a great day to fly - but too much camping gear) to Oshkosh. As we turned northward at Waupun, on WI 26, we started to see planes on the arrival route to Ripon.
... a bit more later as we get everything settled.
One of the disappointments is the new location of the bicycle corral on the South side. It is now all the way back to the "Red Barn" store. We don't yet know why, but maybe someone will see the problems this creates and put it back where it was an advantage to use the bikes. The WALK back and forth every day on several occasions is now longer than the bicycle distance from our campsite to the bike corral. Hmmm?
Sunday, July 27, 2008 - Almost Here
A bit warm and humid. Not untypical for Oshkosh this time of year. Many airplane groups (the type club arrivals) came in today. We even saw a couple Eclipse jets arrive. Watching spot landings can be fun and informative.
Since the sun was hot and we have a whole week to go with limited shade, we decided it would be a good day to do our annual visit to the museum. Every year there are additions and removals from the collection. And, even if there weren't changes, it is impossible to see the whole facility in one or two days. We spent a lot of time at the Pietenpohl (a REAL one with the Ford Model A engine) and took many pictures in the antique planes hangars at Pioneer Airport. If you have not doen the Pioneer Airport visit, don'e miss it this year.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Without a cloud in the sky, it seemed like a good day to check out the
exhibitors' buildings. There is a a logical reason for that which might be
obscure, but we spend so much time in the sun at Brodheard that I thought a
shady day would save later sunburn issues. We visited with a number of
great folks at many different exhibitors boots. Among them:
Clarity Aloft headsets - an upcoming article on FlightSmith
Hooker Harnesses - one of the best in the business
Spot - we'll have more later on their exciting new product.
Vanguard and the new Liberty XL2
Aspen Avionics (included in the Liberty show plane and a
great option for those two center instruments.
...many, many more.... we'll fill this in after AirVenture
And, since today was the REAL first day, LOTS of airplanes in the sky. The first day of the traditional Warbird introduction airshow, a handful of Aerobatic flights - you need to see Mike Wiskus' airshow performance to appreciate the years spent on the competition akro circuit leading to this level of performance.
Arrival of Dreamlifter... Mike could do most of his show routine INSIDE the Dreamlifter.
More... LOTS more tomorrow. We'll try to get a few pix up later or early Tuesday.
Tomorrow includes a visit to Liberty for the Vanguard XL2, a conference on the White Knight 2 rollout, and Sam Lyons unveiling of a new painting, the Red Tail Project.