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Oshkosh 2009
On Sunday we arrived at the campground to find it mostly full, which was amazing. We set up camp close to where we stayed last year, and I started looking through the registration packet for a schedule. I was surprised that there wasn't one! Since I had a weekly wristband I went into the show to try and find a schedule so that I could plan out the week. Here are a few pictures that I took along the way. Check out all of those Pietenpols! They beat us there, but probably only because of the head start.
On my way back I saw this great white and gold CB175, which I would guess to be about a 1970 or so. When I got back Tabitha was working hard on her sewing project for Scott and Beth's wedding. We started to rustle up some grub but a big thunderstorm started to get closer and darken the sky.
We had to hop in the car to eat our delicious cheesy shells and tuna while the rain passed. The rainbow in the third picture below was pretty good!
On Monday morning Tabitha was gone, so I headed out early to start on my missions for the week. My first stop was the Avipro booth so that I could sign up for the Bearhawk BBQ hosted by John Thompson. On the way I got to see the latest version of the Skycrasher and the Carter Copter. The Maule on skis had animal furs on the prop, which made me look around to make sure there weren't any animal activists hiding in the bushes.
I enjoyed getting a closer look at the Ravin and noting the similarities to the Comanche.
When I got to the Avipro booth I realized that I was a bit early, so John hadn't brought over the signup sheet just yet. I still had a great look at Ron's Bearhawk that was on display at the booth. At any rate, it was good to meet Mark again, this time in the context of a customer instead of just a prospect. I have been very impressed with their continued support of my second-hand kit purchase even though there is not a direct financial incentive for them to support me. I was able to take some photos of a few of the details that I had been wondering about.
I walked through the sea of RV's on the way to my first appointment, a forum about crash forensics.
The forum by George Bibel was great. It was primarily about transport category airplanes, but since I also have some interest in that area it was very informative. After his seminiar I went back to the Avipro booth and by then John had dropped off the signup sheet. I took another picture or two of Ron's BH and went to go find the rest of them.
I had some good timing and showed up just as Eric and Russ were catching up. It was a bit of a momentus occasion for their Bearhawks to both be in the same place. I was also able to see the blue BH which I believe belongs to Raymond Gabriel. This was quite a treat, since we were considering his color choice as one of our finalists. His is the Polyfiber Bahama Blue and the whole airplane is very nicely built. It is a scratch build and had just recently flown for the first time.
I enjoyed getting a closer look at all of the Bearhawks and then went to check out the vendors. On my way I had to stop by the motorcycle parking lot!
The Super Sherpa is simply huge. I took a look at it on my way to the exhibitor hangars. I thought the ATS price on the tube flaring tool was worth noting, so I took a picture of it. The last picture is of the White Knight 2.
Here is a closer picture of the WK2. I also took a picture of a cutaway prop governor, though it isn't a great picture.
On Tuesday morning I started with a walk to the ultralight area. After a week in Finland and a few days of Oshkosh, I was starting to get pretty good at walking.
I saw a few interesting airplanes and also this beautiful DRZ-400S. I'd still like to have one of those.
I went to a forum about powered parachutes but it wasn't very good. I left early and took a few pictures of the next motorcycle parking lot.
Check out the CB100!
There was a nice Luscombe for sale.
On the way back I stopped by the aeromart. It had just opened a few hours earlier and the line was about an hour long. It was worth the wait, since I got a great deal on a torch and a 1" drill bit. I also saw a few other interesting prospects but the prices weren't good enough for me to buy them.
After the aeromart I walked over to the homebuilt area again to talk with the Whirlwind folks. On the way I took a few pictures. The last one below is of their "booth." One of my missions for the trip was to decide on a prop. The finalists were Hartzell, MT, and Whirlwind. I stoped by the Hartzell booth and told the salesman what I was looking for. He gave me a copy of the spec sheet that is availalbe on their website, which wasn't very helpful. I have a computer. I asked him about the dampener that is required for installation on the 360. What is it? Where does it go? His reply was "I'm not a prop guy, so I don't really know." Hmm... Well, what does your prop have that the Whirlwind or MT doesn't have? His reply was "This is a certified prop. It's installed on lots of airplanes" etc. Not really a very good sales pitch. The MT guys on the other hand were much more helpful. They could tell me why their prop was the best one and which model I should use. I was convinced that it is a worthy product, and I especially liked that they have no ADs. That is perhaps their best selling point that sinks the Hartzell ship. The bad news was that it would be around $11,000 for the MT. That's 3000 reasons that the Whirlwind seemed like a better option, with it's $8000 price tag. The whirlwind sales guys were also busy selling mustang copies, but when they were available they were helpful. They told me that their prop was better than the MT because the airfoil was more advanced and would thus produce more thrust. The light weight, durable construction, maintenance requirements, and price all convinced me that the Whirlwind was the way to go. At least so far.
Since I was there I took a couple of pictures of the warbirds.
Check out those flames! I'm not sure if it's really how I would want to paint an airplane, but the execution is extraordinary. It reminds me of the FedEx panda decal that had been mistaken for a whole blown in the side of the fuselage of an MD-11.
The frog was very nice.
I saw a set of Gerdes brake cylinders in the aeromart, so I went over to the Bearhawks to see if they were the right ones. It turns out that they were not the right ones, but that's too bad since they were $20 instead of $100. I watched the airshow and got an ice cream and a root beer. That was a bad idea because I was out of hands!
I set down my rootbeer on the towbar for the WK2 (see photo 2 below) and took a few pictures. The highly specialized towbar also made an excellent rootbeer holder.
This Skybolt was quite nice. I might build one one day. The Airbus was coming, so I finished up my ice cream and readied my camera.
I didn't see the Airbus "landing," since I was walking over to the Bearhawks again. Since Russ wasn't as busy I was able to get some pictures of his airplane. I probably have similar pictures already on his CD, but I haven't read through the whole thing.
These next three were some of my favorites. My caption suggestion was "the cheese stands alone." I took another picture of the furry prop covers on my way to meet Tabitha.
After we rejoined we saw what is perhaps my favorite airshow act ever. The smoke and the vortices was amazing.
On Tuesday night I was really looking forward to the Bearhawk BBQ hosted by John Thompson. I met several BHers that I hadn't met before and had some good food and good times. The size of our group was evidence of the growing popularity of the airplane. The signup sheet had 70 people on it! Next year the group will probably be even bigger.
Scott Weinberg added another grill to the mix. The second picture below shows John at the helm of grill #1.
I didn't get to talk to everyone that was there, so I'll have to do a better job next time. I need to take notes so that I can keep everyone straight.
On Wednesday morning I started with a trip to the Museum. Tabitha was gone again so I was on my own. I had not been before, but it was well worth the time. Check out the last picture in the row below to see if you can spot the 8-cylinder Lycoming.
The museum collection of airplanes includes some true celebreties.
I was there to catch the last part of a talk by Jessica Cox. I didn't know that it was going to be happening there and then but I enjoyed hearing about her flight training and life in general. I hate that Tabitha missed it, since I know she would have enjoyed it in the therapist context. The second picture is of a notice that was included in a model airplane kit during WW2 with regards to the shortage of balsa. I wanted to get another picture of the Lycoming lineup but there was a forum going on right there in the middle of the room.
The pioneer airport had lots going on but I didn't spend enough time to see it all. I was headed back to the show for a forum about aircraft interiors and I took a few pictures along the way.
Here are a few photographic notes from the forum, which was great. I wish we had 3 hours to talk about just seats.
I had not seen this creative way to use polytak. It is a paint brush with a carboard disk that keeps the MEK from evaporating from the can. Then it also keeps the drips from landing on your hand. Check out the rib stitch hole punch too.
This is the flux that the welding instructors were using for gas welding aluminum. I was very excited to see so many forums on the schedule for gas welding aluminum but then subsequently dissapointed in the disorganized and informal organization. The second picture is the interior of the aeromart. I went back and took a picture while I was thinking about it. In the third picture you can see what looks like a really cool transparent kayak. It looks like fun to me! The last picture is of a hangar door and track system.
After a few more passes through the vendor area I went to a forum that was supposed to be about the Bearhawk. I think nobody really had any plans for what the forum was supposed to be about, but it still worked out. The T-28 Birthday Party was going on at the same time.
Check out the assembly of Bearhawk brainpower! In the first picture below L to R are Budd Davisson, Bob Barrows, Eric Newton, Russ Erb, and Kieth Vasey. The second picture is of a collection of some of the creative machinery at the camping area. The last picture is of an RV that someone calls The Clubhouse, which is also what we call our workshop.
Tabitha was back on the next morning and we started out our Thursday with a tour of the Airbus. The line was over an hour long so we had plenty of time to catch up and compare notes about our experiences so far in the week. In the third picture below you can see the super tug that they had to bring in to move the Airbus.
The first picture below is of the cricket that belongs to the test pilot who flew the Airbus in. They brought it in the airplane all the way from Europe, which may be the easiest way to get an airplane to OSH- just let it ride inside of another one. You could test the airspeed indicator in the flight levels.
Once we finally got to the front of the line we spent about 10 minutes going through the airplane. The people inside were rushing us through, which is probably a good indicator of how they were trying to set records for getting lots of people through.
The interior was not finished at all since the airplane was still in flight testing. It was nice to see all of the wiring and insulation.
We were glad to see Pete there with his Bird Dog. Check out the nautical paint scheme on the RV.
We spent more time with our color chart comparing the shades of blue on various fabric airplanes. We also stopped back by the Avipro booth to see Ron's BH.
The first picture below is a cutaway of a whirlwind prop. It's hollow and is made of carbon fiber. We spent some time in the exhibit hangars and especially laughed at the dog oxygen system. I don't think BNB would go for it. We talked about seats and upholstry and looked at the displays for Artex and Oregon Aero.
The second picture below was either a folding motorcycle or an artistic expression by Eric Buell with his motorcycle crusher. We watched the airshow while we walked down towards the ultralights in hope of finding a starburst paint scheme. We only found the one red one.
We thought for sure we could find any paint scheme at OSH, but perhaps we just weren't looking in the right place. When we got to Clinton Iowa the next day for the much smaller Cessna 150-152 Club Fly-in, we found an excellent example on a Cessna 172. What are the odds? All was not lost, since we had a great view of the heritage flights.
We felt like we had seen all that we wanted to see, so we packed up and left on Friday morning without going back into the show. We had a few other places to visit, so we made our way south and closed the book on our second visit to Airventure.
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