Well, it’s about midnight here. Absolutely exhausted, and I’m having a technical issue which will delay my first set of pictures from the show (I need to get something to let my computer and my camera grok with each other).
Rolled into Oshkosh at about 6:30 this evening. It was incredible; this year, the grounds were absolutely packed before opening day. Tomorrow, Burt Rutan and Richard Branson are flying in White Knight Two, which will carry Spaceship Two to altitude for it’s suborbital flight (see above). They are supposed to arrive around 3:00 in the afternoon, and I think people are extremely eager to see this massive plane arrive.
We met up with Zach Baughmann who runs the EAA Timeless Voices project. Been volunteering with Timeless Voices for several years now, collecting oral histories of people connected with aviation. We walked around the museum building to meet up with Zach. I saw the De Havilland Mosquito (at left, an all-wood, twin-engined fighter flown by the RAF in WWII; click to see a larger image) had been moved from the museum hangar to the yard. I promptly made a bad joke about the size of mosquitoes in the area to someone milling around the airplane. He quickly fled in terror.
I guess it was a pretty bad pun!
We piled into a golf to help Zach pull together some last minute preparations for opening day tomorrow (Zach got the Mosquito joke), and then whizzed over to the Warbirds area where the Timeless Voices sign up tent is.
Stooges Do Signage (at left). Yep, four of us managed to pound four fence posts and hang a sign. Then, we grabbed some laminated signs and toured the grounds affixing them to plywood pylons used for signage. This meant we had to cover the entire main grounds at sunset…fantastic!
We have nice scenery behind the Timeless Voices tent; here’s a Grumman TBM Avenger (remember, this plane is close to 70 years old!).
The familiar arch at the main entry has been replaced this year with these two sculptures of engines on pylons. It’s attractive, but I’m not sure if this really has the same effect as the big archway.
Because of some changes in traffic patterns and increased attendance, the abundance of golf carts and little runabouts has become a bit of a problem in the past few years. This year, EAA decided to radically limit the paths they can travel. We have two carts which we use during the course of the convention for transporting our interviewees (which include a number of WWII veterans). I can see where this might cause some issues for some of our visitors, but we’ll manage.
I’m just glad I’ve been training (walking, working out, stretching) daily for the past couple of months…there’s a lot of walking involved! Last year was my first time with the cane, and I hadn’t started physical therapy, so it was a bit uncomfortable. I think it’ll be much better this year.
Overall, EAA has reworked the configuration of the grounds. There’s even more exhibitors than usual, a massive increase in benches (and this year, even some flush toilets!), and just a better traffic flow in general. Remember, this show attracts several thousand aircraft, from fragile vintage planes from before WWI (e.g., Mikael Carlson’s Bleriot XI), to private, commercial, racing, military, and business aircraft from every decade thereafter. There’s ultralight aircraft puttering around at 40 or 50 mph, and jets capable of supersonic flight…and everything in between.
We saw quite a few planes on our drive around the grounds, including a beautifully restored Pitcairn Autogyro from the 1930s. This particular craft was purchased new in the mid-1930s by woman who flew for almost 10 years before she died of cancer at 58. For those of you unfamiliar with autogyros, this is not a helicopter. The engine doesn’t turn the rotor blades on top; the propeller in the front pulls the craft through the air, and the rotor blade rotate freely. It’s a very interesting form of air travel. Unlike a helicopter, if the power goes out, autogyros can’t hover.
Speaking of autogyros, we saw Larry Neal’s latest version of his roadable autogyro. When Zach and I interviewed Larry a couple of years ago at Sun ‘n’ Fun, Larry talked about fitting his design with tailfins…and sure enough, here it is with fins and 59 Cadillac tail lights for driving on the road! (Those of you who remember my old Cadillac from college know how much I enjoyed see this!), a beautifully polished T-33, and row after row of homebuilt, antique, and classic aircraft.
Video of Larry Neal’s Sky Cycle, capable of both flying and driving! Zach (even more of an autogyro fan than I am) and I interviewed Larry a few years ago at the Florida Sun ‘n’ Fun Airshow. A true visionary and a intuitive engineer. Also, a heck of a great guy.
OK, I’m beat, and I’ve got to be at the museum tomorrow by 8:00 am to catch the start of the library book sale. Since we’re a little short of interviewers this year (Mel, I’m talking about you!), I’m going to be pulling some extra shifts. This is exceedingly interesting, and I’m looking forward to it!
Timm!
Glad to hear that you’re safely in Oshkosh! Boy, do I wish I was there…I remember as a kid (partly) growing up there the first few days of the show…I would scramble out of bed into the yard to look up and see one of thousands of planes fly in. Enjoy the time, and hopefully the weather cooperates! ROB
Great blog, now that I found it! Tracy did leave a message, but on an email address I don’t access every day. Love your verbiage as much, or more than the pix. This morning’s paper showed an AP photo and a little text about the latest Rutan and Virgen guy’s space ship and the headline read, “one small step for tourism.”