Oshkosh 2003 Redux

Jay Honeck wrote:

(remainder of cool description deleted. I dunno Jay, Oshkosh sounds
too deadly to the budget...)

With this statement he stopped, and asked "why not Lightspeeds?" I then
proceeded to tell him my tale of woe (three sets, purchased over three
years, all back in the shop on multiple occasions, etc.) in a very
unemotional way. I told him that the product was great, and their customer
service was fabulous, but that I was simply not able to live with a product
that kept breaking -- no matter HOW good the repair service was. It was
only then that I noticed that he was wearing a very subtle "Lightspeed
Aviation" shirt -- oh, crap!

At this point he stopped and introduced himself -- as the PRESIDENT OF
LIGHTSPEED!

I couldn't believe it. I had just spent five minutes absolutely
eviscerating his company, and he was still being polite! More importantly,
he was LISTENING, and when I was done he absolutely, 100% admitted
everything. Every quality control issue, every stupid design flaw that I've
bitched about here long and hard -- he ADMITTED, and apologized for...

Then, the best part. Because Mary and I represent his "ideal customers" --
meaning that we've spent almost $1500 with him over the course of three
years, I presume -- he wants to keep our future business. He pulled me
aside, gave me his card, and told me that "when we get back to the real
world" I should give him a call, and he will send me, absolutely FREE, a new
pair of 30Gs, just for being patient with them! How's THAT for customer
service?

A Diner While Dining in Crewe
Found Quite a Large Rat in his Stew
Said the Waiter, "Don't Shout
Don't Wave it About
Or the Rest will be wanting one too
the Rest will be wanting one too!

Cheers,
Sydney

(Jay Honeck wrote)
snipped stuff
And our rec.aviation get-together was a rousing success,

I'm hoping [Montblack] snagged the beer before some EAA lineguy did...


Random thoughts, because I'm tired - haven't unpacked yet...

I did find the "abandoned" beer cooler - thank you Jay. And please thank
Mary for me.

Jack Allison and his brother, another Steve, were at the
(rec.aviation.N40festival) - He flew a 172 in from Sacramento California,
IIRC. It was nice to meet everyone who was there. Went to Friar Tuck's twice
this week. I recommend the $3.50 Chef Salad and the $3.95 Little John or
Mini-Tuck or (whatever), long bun beef melt thing - excellent. Stay away
from the onion rings. Pitcher prices were ok-reasonable. Cheeseburger was
the size of a car hubcap - $3.50. I liked the place.

Never did bump into Jim Weir ...at the dorms (I was 2nd floor Fletcher) or
at Friar Tuck's. I'll have to attend one of his seminar(s). Next year.

Never been to Oshkosh before this year. Will return.

I kept stumbling across Australians and New Zealanders. Lots of them -
everywhere you went ...there they were. It got to be kind of spooky after
awhile.

Quick blurb on today - Sunday

Woke up in the dorms. Planned on meeting Jay, Mary and their two OshKids for
breakfast. Larry, from rec.homebuilt, couldn't make it to breakfast with us
because of morning forums. Everyone else I knew at Oshkosh had already
headed for home.

Packed up the room, checked out, loaded the car and drove over to the
Hilton, which is practically on the field. We hung around Jay's plane from
8:30am until enough voices pleaded, "I'm hungry" - then we walked 100 yds
over to the Hilton for buffet breakfast. Had a relaxing and enjoyable
breakfast.

After breakfast, Jay and Mary were planing their Sunday departure options.
Looked iffy for VFR. I said good-bye and caught the school bus over to the
warbirds, before Mary could put me to work packing up the camp.

Bus dropped me off by Fighter Ally (or whatever it's called). Many of the
planes were all rev'd up and in line to depart. I think most pilots saw a
weather window and figured it's now or ...who knows when?

Sat on the grass for over an hour watching the parade of (mostly) warplanes
taxi in front of us (me, and 100's of other gawkers). Poor planes were in
quite a traffic jam - I was worried some might overheat. There was one
emergency declared while I was listening on my scanner. A Warrior type took
off, declared emergency - "engine out" (his words), and returned to the
airport safely. He seemed to have some power when he returned. There were
other return-to-the-airport planes, but that was the only person who
declared "emergency".

Next year I'll bring an earjack for the scanner. All those warbirds, in a
departure parade traffic jam, made too much noise for me to be able to hear
the scanner all that well

Saw more of the vendor tents today. Went through many buildings today.

Carried a plastic bag (with handles) around for info sheets, brochures, my
scanner and a 32oz PowerAde/Gatorade bottle - for water. Water faucets
everywhere. I went through over a gallon per day (5-6 bottles).

Riley Superskyrocket was scheduled for a space (#65) but were a no-show. The
juicy scoop I got from SMA Diesel was, SMA is -- "no longer in communication
with Riley". (Read between the lines)

Symphony planes had the right idea - remove the wings and doors, then
display the plane. People could walk right up and see the roomy(?) interior.

Enjoyed talking with the Russian "Sherpa" kit plane folks. They had a
t-shirt that had (in big red letters) OSHKOSH 2003. And because it was
theirs, and not EAA's, it only cost $5.00. Perfect gift!!

D-Jet was cool at Diamond. Single engine ..."Williams 44"

Mustang has a MONSTROUSLY HUGE display screen in their panel.

Eclipse had a fun tent. From a "big picture" cynic's point of view, however
....it looked like a damage control display as much as anything else.

Ran out of time, didn't see the Adam A-700 Jet.

Didn't see any booths for the other small jet players.

Looked like rain, so I dropped plans to watch the afternoon air show and
headed back to the busses. Jay was gone, beer cooler was waiting for me
vBg. I got to my car, a short distance away, just as the rain started. Air
show was on hold because of lightning. I listened to the Oshkosh EAA AM
radio feed, driving back to Minnesota. They threw together an abbreviated
effort for the visitors - car was out of range after a while so I couldn't
hear how it finished.

300+ miles (6 hours TT) got home around 10 pm. Nice relaxing drive - no
deer, no tickets.

Other fun stuff, must sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.....mmm...D-jet
(2006)....zzzzzzzzz

--
Montblack

Its amazing how much stuff one can miss that others report on!

I was tempted by the cessna 120 "project" plane in aeromart, but with no
information (telephone number, logbooks, dataplate, etc), just didn't
take it too seriously. Only $3K, and probably could have made more than
that parting it out if it wasn't worth fixing.

Its amazing how much stuff one can miss that others report on!

Oshkosh is so big, there is simply no way for any two people to see the same
show.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 03:15:40 -0500, "Montblack"
wrote:

Never did bump into Jim Weir ...at the dorms (I was 2nd floor Fletcher) or
at Friar Tuck's. I'll have to attend one of his seminar(s). Next year.

I'll sign off the excuse for Jim as far as the Thursday evening bash at
Friar Tucks. He was channeling Bob Newhart that evening, as part of the
surprise roast of Kitplanes editor Dave Martin. A number of other RAH
regulars and itinerants roasted Dave, including John Ousterhout, Ed
Wischmeyer, Barnaby Wainfan, Chuck Slusarczyk, and myself. Since it was a
surprise, we couldn't quail about the selection of Thursday night for the
netter's get-together.

Ron Wanttaja

Ah, at least *somebody* remembered me and my brother. Must have been the
schnapps that affected Jay's memory. :-) Yep, flew from Sacramento, CA in
a 2000 model super spam can. Made it home in two days though so we've
proven to ourselves that yes, it is possible to traverse a vast portion of
the country at speeds of 90-130 kts. You just get to enjoy more of the
landscape this way.

Firsts:
1) First time flying into and attending OSH for me. Got a "Nice job white
Cessna" after putting it down slightly past the white dot on runway 9.
Arrival was a rush and it was great hearing those words from the 9/27 tower
controller. ATC guys/gals did a super job during our arrival and departure.

2) First time flying through Bravo airspace on our way through Salt Lake.
Great view of Hill Air Force base and Ogden as we dodged clouds getting
lined up to go over the pass.

3) First time landing within Charlie airspace as we gassed up in at Reno
Intl. Ah, the perks that come with 100LL at $3-something a gallon.

4) First time flying through more states than I can count on our way to/from
OSH. Very cool, very tiring, very much worth it. Definitely added to my
bucket of experience without taking too much out of my bucket of luck.
Logged a tad over 16 hours of PIC time. Total time on the airplane was 32
hours. Never before have I logged so much time in such a short timeframe.

5) First time camping next to our plane, getting my sleeping bag wet and
attempting to dry it out before the next storm.

6) First time sleeping in a parked airplane as it was the only thing not
leaking during one of the early storms. I'm glad the seats reclined.

7) First time meeting some folks from the newsgroup. Had a blast at Jay's
little get together and as Jay said, didn't have the urge to try flying
after consuming a fair quantity of adult beverage. Great chance to put
names/faces together.

8) First time flying within 10 miles of a lightening strike. Over Salt Lake
on the return trip, we were headed toward an area of clear weather. To our
right was a rain squall about 10 miles away. Kept an eye on it and when I
saw two bolts hit the water, called for plan-B from brother/at the time
navigator. Managed to divert north and get over the MOAs and around the
weather.

Managed to avoid sunburn and dehydration but man did my feet hurt. Will
post pictures and description of our trip when I get some time. The trip
was definitely worth it and we're talking about coming back next year. The
plan is to drag our Dad with us. As a retired Air Force fighter pilot, he'd
get an absolute kick out of attending, especially since he's flown many of
the warbirds that are displayed.

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

"Montblack" writes:

Random thoughts, because I'm tired - haven't unpacked yet...

Tired...flying an Aircoupe 4 days to get back to California, I'm
tired...

Here's one observation that sticks with me. I was parked in the
Vintage Camping near the North-South runway, sort of half listening to
the announcer (who was far more often annoying, than helpful), when
something he said caused me to pay more attention. Some kind of high
wing plane, powered by a 300 hp geared-down diesel, went zipping by as
a demo. You could hardly hear it, so well muffled was the engine, and
the prop geared to 2000 rpm. Amazing quiet.

"Montblack" wrote in message
.. .

I kept stumbling across Australians and New Zealanders. Lots of them -
everywhere you went ...there they were. It got to be kind of spooky after
awhile.

Yep - hehehe - we turn up everywhere!

:-)

After Canadians and Germans us Aussies are usually the biggest "out of town"
contingent at Oshkosh.

Wasn't me this year though :-(

Spent an unforgettable 5 full days there in 2000 though - ahh heaven.

It's been great to read everyone's reports for 2003. At this stage 2005
looks like it could happen - so here's hoping. If it does come off a night
at Jay's place will also be on the itinerary.

Aubrey

It's been great to read everyone's reports for 2003. At this stage 2005
looks like it could happen - so here's hoping. If it does come off a
night
at Jay's place will also be on the itinerary.

Aussies and Kiwis are always welcome at the inn!

This year Mary and I kept running into South Africans, for some reason.
This group had special hats, back-packs and shirts made up -- and there sure
was a BUNCH of them.

They were pretty quiet, though -- not like folks from "down under" at all...

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

Jay Honeck ) wrote:

snip
- Once again Oshkosh was heaven on earth for one week, and the ONLY place to
be during the last week of July. Our 21st consecutive Oshkosh was as
fabulous as the first -- better, since we now know a bunch of you guys and
gals! -- and we're already making plans to attend again NEXT year...

Jay, thank you very much for providing your Oshkosh experiences here. The
Lightspeed story was apropos, given all that I have been through as well.

With all of the rain and t-storms there, you were able to leave VFR? I was
watching the weather closely the last few days and noticed line after line
of storms in the area of Oshkosh.

--
Peter












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