Thanks for the invite to speak ...

Jim here.

With avgas at $5 a gallon and heading north, and with EAA taking a tack
decidedly against the little guy in favor of heavy iron, and after 35
straight years of attendance at Oshkosh, and with all of the academic load
I've taken on in the last year at the national level, and with the 182
sitting in the hangar with a sick prop, I'm going to miss Oshkosh this year.

You can call it Airventure to your heart's delight. And we old geezers who
know it as "Oshkosh" will be declining in numbers in a straight line
agreement with the actuarial tables. But so long as I have a breath to draw,
the July/August convocation of experimental aircraft at Wittman Field will
be "Oshkosh". Sorry.

As you may know, Gail and I met at one of my forums at Oshkosh '95, got
engaged at my forum in Oshkosh '96, and married on Pilot Hill after my forum
in Oshkosh '97. We are as about "Oshkosh" as you can get, but the both of us
are Oshkoshed out. We'll be back, but not this year.

Actually, I've been giving forums at Oshkosh since 1975. That's a hell of a
long time to be blathering on without a break. This year is a break.

Just for your interest, not that it means a tinker's dam to EAA, I'm the
elected VP of the faculty at the college from which I teach, the elected
Treasurer of the California State College Association, the elected higher ed
(college) representative to the California Teachers' State Council, and the
elected higher ed California representative to the National Education
Association assembly in Washington DC. All of which pay a fraction of my
salary, but demand much more than that fraction in my time.

Anyway, I ain't agonna be there in July. Keep a hole open for me next year
if you would, please.

Jim & Gail


--
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it."
--Aristotle