Oshkosh 2003 Redux

Jay Honeck wrote:

Mary and I just returned from six glorious days camped next to Atlas on the
field in Oshkosh! We're tired, sunburned, our feet hurt -- and damn, if
we didn't want to stay another week or three...

Yup.

I hadn't been back for years, and it was good to bring my kids. A lot
of highlights, but I guess it was good to cap it all off at Sunday's
session with Burt Rutan. Iconoclastic as ever, he offered a persuasive
argument contrasting the space program's historic trajectory with that
of aviation in its early days. The R&D timeline's empty space to the
right of the shuttle and Soyuz in his power point presentation was the
coup de grace, IMO.

We'd never camped at OSH, so it was fun to get a spot on 56th, a
stone's throw from vintage and conveniently near the Farm. What
fortune -- in contrast with the misfortune of waking up in a tent
floating westward past 35th on Wed. night. Heck, that meant we had to
dash a quarter mile back just to get to our ark for the night (5
people in a ford minivan). [no, not even my exaggeration tops your
story; are you sure your tent wasn't just trying to qualify for use as
a parafoil at the Farm?]

- Almost saw a disaster, though, when a Mustang taxied out in front of
landing traffic on RWY 27. Amazingly, the Mustang driver simply firewalled
it and actually OUT-accelerated the Cessna (that was trying land OVER him),
and took off in front of him. Boy, it was close, though...

There was one more. I believe it was Julie Clark whose Saturday flight
scared the crap out of me. Coming down just in front of us a couple
hundred yards left of center, she disappeared below the runway
(heading north), apparently clipping the grass on its east side. I
couldn't see even a piece of her for a moment. Everything got real
quiet for a bit, and no one wanted to say much for a while.

I'm darned glad that Velocity was the only real incident -- but I
didn't know it was a Velocity till you posted that. Figures. I'm an
inactive pilot with a hankerin' -- someday when I can afford it -- to
build that plane.

Till then, maybe I'll strap one of those fans on my back, like I saw
up at the Farm. I can probably afford that once I have my daughter
past college, following her brothers. Let's see, she's 5 now...

- Scott