OSH '05

We just got back from 7 glorious days spent camped next to Atlas, at the
largest fly-in convention/air show in the world, held annually in Oshkosh,
WI.

I will have a more complete report after downloading/uploading the photos
and some unpacking, but I just have to take a few moments to express our
gratitude to Jim and Tami Burns, who spent an unbelievable amount of time
and effort on the rec.aviation party at our campsite Wednesday night.

Between the fantastic home-made potato salad(s), fresh green bean salad, and
many hours of preparation and hauling, those two really made the party an
EVENT.

Montblack, as always, performed super-human feats by schmoozing his way past
EVERY security road-block on the field, and by providing all of the meat,
grills, chairs, etc.

Despite a few moments of uncertainty, when it looked like he might offer a
free beer to EVERYONE in the North 40, or when we thought the "Gate Nazis"
might prevent him from returning with more food (or the PMC -- Pimp My
Cooler, AKA: "The Casket" -- which was always packed with splendid examples
of beer), he always came through in the pinch!

And, of course, thanks must also go to Ryan Wubben, who -- as co-chair for
flight-line ops -- managed to save Montblack from the "Gate Nazis" a couple
of times! Without his efforts, it is doubtful whether we would have been
able to get the grills, etc., out onto the field -- even with Montblack
doing the schmoozing!

And, of course, Mary and I must thank all of you who came to the party(s),
or stopped by our campsite. It's amazing -- just a few years ago, Oshkosh
was a largely private affair for us, where we might meet a few people we
knew throughout the week. Most of our time there was spent quietly, just
the (first two, then three, now) four of us, as we gaped and gawked at
aviation's finest.

Now, it's a party every night! Thanks to our hotel banner, which clearly
marked our territory to all who passed, we had a steady stream of visitors
and well-wishers throughout the week, all either bringing (or taking) a
beer!

Man, I tell you what -- I *had* to come home, just to get some rest! :-)

Anyway, more later -- I've got a few hundred photos to go through, and about
200 emails to answer...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Welcome back home. I'm glad to learn everyone had a good time and a safe
week for all.
Dudley Henriques

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:QYaHe.203202$_o.178925@attbi_s71...
We just got back from 7 glorious days spent camped next to Atlas, at the
largest fly-in convention/air show in the world, held annually in Oshkosh,
WI.

I will have a more complete report after downloading/uploading the photos
and some unpacking, but I just have to take a few moments to express our
gratitude to Jim and Tami Burns, who spent an unbelievable amount of time
and effort on the rec.aviation party at our campsite Wednesday night.

Between the fantastic home-made potato salad(s), fresh green bean salad,
and many hours of preparation and hauling, those two really made the party
an EVENT.

Montblack, as always, performed super-human feats by schmoozing his way
past EVERY security road-block on the field, and by providing all of the
meat, grills, chairs, etc.

Despite a few moments of uncertainty, when it looked like he might offer a
free beer to EVERYONE in the North 40, or when we thought the "Gate Nazis"
might prevent him from returning with more food (or the PMC -- Pimp My
Cooler, AKA: "The Casket" -- which was always packed with splendid
examples of beer), he always came through in the pinch!

And, of course, thanks must also go to Ryan Wubben, who -- as co-chair for
flight-line ops -- managed to save Montblack from the "Gate Nazis" a
couple of times! Without his efforts, it is doubtful whether we would
have been able to get the grills, etc., out onto the field -- even with
Montblack doing the schmoozing!

And, of course, Mary and I must thank all of you who came to the party(s),
or stopped by our campsite. It's amazing -- just a few years ago, Oshkosh
was a largely private affair for us, where we might meet a few people we
knew throughout the week. Most of our time there was spent quietly, just
the (first two, then three, now) four of us, as we gaped and gawked at
aviation's finest.

Now, it's a party every night! Thanks to our hotel banner, which clearly
marked our territory to all who passed, we had a steady stream of visitors
and well-wishers throughout the week, all either bringing (or taking) a
beer!

Man, I tell you what -- I *had* to come home, just to get some rest! :-)

Anyway, more later -- I've got a few hundred photos to go through, and
about 200 emails to answer...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

So, did Joe actually go through all that soda?

John

("John T" wrote)
So, did Joe actually go through all that soda?


He inhaled a number of icy (pre-frozen) PowerAids I brought over in the
PimpMyCooler (PMC) ...something about he likes PowerAid and it was 95F that
first Sunday afternoon :-)

He did miss out on one pop (hehehe) - a frosty 20oz diet A&W Cream Soda he
was eying on Friday morning (last cold pop) ...but I got to it first. g


Montblack

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:QYaHe.203202$_o.178925@attbi_s71...
We just got back from 7 glorious days spent camped next to Atlas, at the
largest fly-in convention/air show in the world, held annually in Oshkosh,
WI.


Jay Central,

Looking forward to reading the after action report.

Glad all are home safe and sound.

Jay West
Chandler, AZ

Jay

Sorry I missed you. I was there only Sat & Sun. Camped at Scholler. Didn't
really have time to look you up. Glad you guys had a good time.

("Jay Honeck" wrote)
Despite a few moments of uncertainty, when it looked like he might offer a
free beer to EVERYONE in the North 40,


I offered a beer to one guy, and all of a sudden a hundred skinny CFI's hop
out of this clown car/plane/tent and head over for their free beer too. Who
knew?

I did wrangle Jay up a cold beer (Miller MGD) for the Saturday evening
departures, but it was in a can - plus, he had already resigned himself to
drinking Sprite.

Head out for a quickie beer run or sit and watch planes depart. Oddly
enough, planes departing won out. g


Montblack

Well, Jay, I sure wish that you'd given out a cell phone number. Brothers
Ed, Dave and I walked (actually, Dave drove his electric wheelchair) over
from the other side of Aeroshell Square to come to the party. We had your
tail number, but the North Forty locator shed was closed. We asked around
to see if anyone knew how we might find you but no one could help. We
couldn't really walk/drive all the way down the line looking for you, what
with Dave's chair, so I tried all the frequencies we had discussed but
nobody was home. If I'd had your cell phone we might have been able to find
you, but we had to just go back to Camp Scholler and fix some dinner. Sorry
we missed it. It's a shame that the handicapped camping section in Camp
Scholler is so far from everything.

OTOH, we had a ball at OSH! For three admitted aviation freaks, it was
almost too much. We left late Wed night, after dinner, but even with only
three days, we all (including Dave) had a great time. I'll certainly try to
go again. Dave, sadly, is unlikely to still be with us by next year, but if
Ed and I can find someone else to go with, we'll try and be there.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:QYaHe.203202$_o.178925@attbi_s71...
We just got back from 7 glorious days spent camped next to Atlas, at the
largest fly-in convention/air show in the world, held annually in Oshkosh,
WI.

I will have a more complete report after downloading/uploading the photos
and some unpacking, but I just have to take a few moments to express our
gratitude to Jim and Tami Burns, who spent an unbelievable amount of time
and effort on the rec.aviation party at our campsite Wednesday night.

Between the fantastic home-made potato salad(s), fresh green bean salad,
and many hours of preparation and hauling, those two really made the party
an EVENT.

Montblack, as always, performed super-human feats by schmoozing his way
past EVERY security road-block on the field, and by providing all of the
meat, grills, chairs, etc.

Despite a few moments of uncertainty, when it looked like he might offer a
free beer to EVERYONE in the North 40, or when we thought the "Gate Nazis"
might prevent him from returning with more food (or the PMC -- Pimp My
Cooler, AKA: "The Casket" -- which was always packed with splendid
examples of beer), he always came through in the pinch!

And, of course, thanks must also go to Ryan Wubben, who -- as co-chair for
flight-line ops -- managed to save Montblack from the "Gate Nazis" a
couple of times! Without his efforts, it is doubtful whether we would
have been able to get the grills, etc., out onto the field -- even with
Montblack doing the schmoozing!

And, of course, Mary and I must thank all of you who came to the party(s),
or stopped by our campsite. It's amazing -- just a few years ago, Oshkosh
was a largely private affair for us, where we might meet a few people we
knew throughout the week. Most of our time there was spent quietly, just
the (first two, then three, now) four of us, as we gaped and gawked at
aviation's finest.

Now, it's a party every night! Thanks to our hotel banner, which clearly
marked our territory to all who passed, we had a steady stream of visitors
and well-wishers throughout the week, all either bringing (or taking) a
beer!

Man, I tell you what -- I *had* to come home, just to get some rest! :-)

Anyway, more later -- I've got a few hundred photos to go through, and
about 200 emails to answer...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

("Bob Chilcoat" wrote)
[snip]
Sorry we missed it. It's a shame that the handicapped camping section in
Camp Scholler is so far from everything.

OTOH, we had a ball at OSH! For three admitted aviation freaks, it was
almost too much. We left late Wed night, after dinner, but even with only
three days, we all (including Dave) had a great time. I'll certainly try
to go again. Dave, sadly, is unlikely to still be with us by next year,
but if Ed and I can find someone else to go with, we'll try and be there.


We were *really* looking forward to you three stopping by. Party was down
the road (to the west), just past the red shower building - big banner (and
all of us) were in the first campsite - next to the road the buses use.

It was good seeing everyone, though more time to chit-chat would have been
nice :-)

I thought this was the best OSH of the three I've attended. Might have
something to do with staying the whole week g.

Oh, did you see they had a handicap plane/camping section by the N40 main
entrance? It was a roped off area with it's own (handicap accessible)
port-a-potty.

Man I wish it had worked out this year, but thank you for the effort on your
end anyway!!!

BTW, I suspect your brother will be with you every time you visit OSH in the
future.


Montblack

Plan for next year.... Jay could call me or another group member on Sunday
when he gets his camping spot, and we can post the spot number and
directions for the other group members that arrive Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday.

Many people had suggested to get to the North 40 Info building because it
would close prior to the airshow ending, but I also heard many people
complain that the building was very crouded also and people were simply
unable or unwilling to wait.

Jim Burns


We were *really* looking forward to you three stopping by. Party was down
the road (to the west), just past the red shower building - big banner
(and
all of us) were in the first campsite - next to the road the buses use.

It was good seeing everyone, though more time to chit-chat would have been
nice :-)