Oshkosh 2003 Redux

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:e6kXa.59188$o%2.29570@sccrnsc02...
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...

This was my first trek to Oshkosh. Here's my own recollections (probably not
in any particular order either):

-Drove over to OSH on Wednesday. Arrived about 8PM, parked at Piggly Wiggly
and entered the N40 to look for Jay's plane. Walked on the north side up to
the Hilton when I ran into someone and asked where I could find a plane.
They told me to go back around to the south side and check with
registration. Got to the registration area and found it was closed. Started
walking up and down the rows looking at the N-numbers and see if I
recognized any. Gave up after about 60 rows or so and went to Friar Tucks
for a few beers then returned to my car to sleep for the night. Needed the
beers to get sleep in the driver's seat of a Miata!

-Awoke Thursday to the sounds of aircraft taking off about 6:20 AM and went
into Piggly Wiggly for something for breakfast and get some spending cash.
Re-entered the N40 and walked to the registration to find that Jay was
parked in row 567. Walked around to where Jay was and he suggested I move my
car to either the Super-8 or Hilton and it would be closer. I went back for
the car and took it over to the Hilton and got a cup of coffee. I had a
slight head ache from the beers from the night before (I wasn't flying
anyways!) and was sore from sleeping in the Miata. Jay recommended that I
could set up my tent next to Brian and Christina's (right?) plane. It would
be better sleeping horizontal on the hard ground than crumpled up in the car
again!

-Went back to the registration booth and paid $83 for EAA membership, 2-days
of the airshow, a program and a 'free' hat. Made a bee-line through the
warbirds to where EAA's B-17 was sitting. Looked around at some of the other
warbirds and made my way south. Found the tent that had the type-clubs and
listened for a bit to the Ercoupe club people talking about motor mounts
then asked them about the trim tab mod. I wandered around looking at the
various displays. Went through the venders hangars gawking at all the
goodies available wishing I had the money to buy some of these to upgrade my
plane.

-My cousin wanted me to check out the price of Condor tires while I was
there. Saw the Varga booth and found the 'Oshkosh' price. Spent most of
Thursday walking and looking. Got caught in one of the afternoon rain
showers and was in the AOPA tent at the time. AOPA gave out the plastic rain
ponchos to anyone that asked. Saw the EAA ponchos were being sold for $3.
Found the 'Reopen Meigs' tent and signed the petition -- for what it's
worth. Saw a bunch of other stuff Thursday afternoon and then finally
returned to the N40 and met up with the Alexis Park Inn party group and met
more people from the groups than were at the Pre-Oshkosh party. Had a few
'ground-softeners' then over to Friar Tucks. Slept better Thursday night
than I did the night before...

-Woke up again Friday morning to the sounds of aircraft taxiing and taking
off. Walked over to the showers and back to the camp site. Met with Jay's
family and we decided to go to the Hilton for breakfast. Great breakfast! I
tagged along with Jay's family for a while as we walked through the warbirds
again watching the P51/Cessna incident happening and over to the Fly Market
area. Jay and I went on to the vendor hangars, I was going to order the
tires for my cousin and he was searching for the Narco and Icom radios,
artworks, etc. We went back to the Fly Market to search for an allen wrench
so Jay could swap the Narco radios. After a while I wandered off and looked
around on my own at the Segways at $10 for a 10 minute demo, the 8 Ercoupes
parked in the vintage area and various other 'stuff'. I then walked down to
the south end to catch the bus for the Sea Plane Base for the Friday night
fish fry. Met Jay's family there and enjoyed watching the Russian sea plane,
the sea-ultralights, and looking over the hovercrafts. Heading back from the
sea-plane base, we watched a lot of the various ultralights coming in for
touch & goes then walked up the flight line towards Theatre in the Woods for
the Neil Armstrong talk. Also enjoyed the 13y/o violinist, etc., that
preceded Neil. Still don't know who the emcee was. Headed back to the N40
and had a ground softener and watched the space station pass over Oshkosh at
10:53.

-Left Saturday morning and did my non-Oshkosh stuff, headed to Mackinac, MI
for the weekend. Left there Monday about noon and drove across Wisconsin.
Found the geological marker that says '45°N and 90°W'. Taking out my GPS, it
said that point was 0.20 miles from where the plaque was. Stayed the night
in western Wisconsin and finally made it home this afternoon.

Conclusion:
Bring more money and spend more time! There are a lot of things that I
missed and wished I saw. Now that I have 'some' idea what Oshkosh is like, I
may attempt to fly there next year and spend more time (and money). Great to
meet some of the people from these groups!

-Greg Burkhart

Conclusion:
Bring more money and spend more time!

A) It is not possible to bring enough money.
B) It is not possible to spend enough time.

: )
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Let's see, what can I add.

I did find out that if you get there after 5 PM, you get in free with
the next day's admission.

Listened to Yeager/Andersen/Roy Clark on Wed. night. Best moment was
earlier when someone got an award for his work with Young Eagles. He
went on for about 15 minutes and wasn't close to being done. Someone
whispered to him to wrap it up. He just abruptly said "Thank you" and
left. Does any organization give out more awards than EAA? I guess I
juat say that since I don't have one yet.

Parking at the Museum and taking the shuttle bus over works well most of
the time, but when the evening program gets over at 10 PM, I found the
busses don't run. Walked about 1/2 way. Then the storm started. I
guess you can only get so wet. After that it doesn't matter. Walking
across an open field with an umbrella probably wasn't a good idea.

On to better things. I didn't avoid eating on-site food. I heard the
fresh donuts were good, but I found them greaasy, and no bargain at
$1.25 each. I hate to say it, but McDonalds seems to have the best
on-site prices. I did make another convert to Culver's Butterburgers
though. I should work at starting a franchise in the New England.

The Orbis eye surgery DC-10 was impressive. I wouldn't think they would
need such a facility, but after taking the tour, I'm convinced they're
doing it right.

Listened to Burt Rutan talk about his sub-orbital project. One thing
that doesn't sound too good is that on reentry there will be a 15 sec.
time of a 5G load. The pilot needs to fly the craft during that time
too. Sounds like it's not for everybody yet.

Another unusual thing was the plane with the fan underneath powered by a
450 HP Mazda engine. I can't find its name right now.

Went to the web editor seminar. Held at the same time as Rod Machado,
but I figure I can hear him at AOPA in Oct. I was hoping to get more
tips on web content instead of how to set one up.

Also saw Dick Rutan's Voyager talk again which always reminds me of how
underachieving I am. I wanted to see Kent White do some magic with
aluminum, but didn't make it over.

Saw Scott Shields on the efforts of his rescue dog finding victims of
the WTC collapse. It was an amazing dog, but he was REALLY attached to
it.

Finally, I saw Richard Graham on the SR-71. I believe he said the
record to climb to 80,000 ft and accelerate to Mach 3 was 14 minutes.

EAA's streaming audio was nice to have on the days I wasn't able to be
there. It would have been nice to add the ATC for the day before the
show, but the price was still right.

In article QoWXa.72715$Ho3.10326@sccrnsc03, "Jay Honeck"
writes:


Conclusion:
Bring more money and spend more time!

A) It is not possible to bring enough money.
B) It is not possible to spend enough time.

: )
--
Jay Honeck


I must respectfully disagree to the (B). I just spent 7 days (Sunday thru
Sunday) and can tell you that I spent enough time. My feet and legs said that
I had spent enough time by Friday. I still haven't seen everything but there
is always next year and besides, you want to have something new to look forward
to.


Bob Reed
www.kisbuild.r-a-reed-assoc.com (KIS Builders Site)
KIS Cruiser in progress...Slow but steady progress....

"Ladies and Gentlemen, take my advice,
pull down your pants and Slide on the Ice!"
(M.A.S.H. Sidney Freedman)

B) It is not possible to spend enough time.

I must respectfully disagree to the (B). I just spent 7 days (Sunday thru
Sunday) and can tell you that I spent enough time. My feet and legs said
that
I had spent enough time by Friday.

Well, if we're going to talk about physical limitations, I must admit that I
was toast by Saturday. By Sunday, I was still able to get around the
grounds, but only by ignoring everything my calf muscles, feet and lower
back were telling me. It was really tough hiking back to the bus for the
last time, mostly because Mary wanted to beat the weather and that meant
almost jogging through the warbirds area back to the bus stop. (We were
afraid we wouldn't get out ahead of the airshow...)

But that doesn't mean I wanted to leave. What I REALLY wanted to do was
just sit my butt in a chair for a day and watch airplanes -- but there was
just no way to do that while surrounded with so many goodies! Even after 21
Oshkosh Fly-Ins, I'm still just a big kid, I guess....

Occasionally you'll see some older gentlemen who always seem to be sitting
near their planes in the North 40 campground. During the first part of the
week, I look at these guys with pity. By the end of the week, I look at
them with envy.

I always wonder if their inactivity is by choice, or by force of
circumstance...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Just want to add my thanks to Jay for organizing the rec.aviation get-together,
and my apology for not making it. Maybe next year. Do it again, please, Jay?

My story in brief: arrived Tuesday afternoon before the airshow, amazed at the
number of planes there. It seemed more than any OSH I've been to before. I was
camped two down from the hole-in-the-fence by Friar Tuck's.

Missed Jim Weir's forum, but got to Richard Kaplan's, which was very well done.
Thanks, Richard.

Favorite show airplane: the Hughes Racer.

My tent leaked buckets. Memo-to-self: get new tent before next year.

Left Thursday around noon for my brother's in northern Michigan. Left there on
Friday afternoon, only to be stopped by tstorms in southern Michigan. Did an
unscheduled remain-overnight in Lansing.

What a great time! Now trying to catch up on work :-(

DGB

Jay Honeck wrote:
Conclusion:
Bring more money and spend more time!


A) It is not possible to bring enough money.
B) It is not possible to spend enough time.

: )
Remove SHIRT to reply directly.

--
Dave Butler, software engineer 919-392-4367
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.