Oshkosh Reflections

Jay Honeck wrote:

[snip] Eric Rood was there (with some little French girl pilot who he
SWEARS is just a "friend" :-)

Do I have a great wife, or what? She lets me go to AirVenture with other
women!

Hell, yes!

The "little French girl pilot" is Laurence Bonneau.
You may recall the posting I made in late January about spending a day in
the emergency room with a friend who slipped on the ice and separated
their shoulder when we were preparing to go flying. That was Laurence.

I'm just kidding you, Eric. She was really nice, and fun to talk with at
the party. And she knew her flying stuff, too.

I'm surprised she's single! I can think of about 200 pilots who would
love to meet a chick like her...


Yeah and some of those pilots (about 5%) are probably single too! ;-)
John

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:yeXHe.214762$_o.161611@attbi_s71...
One of the problems with a 1 gig camera memory card is that it is possible
to take virtually unlimited pictures at OSH. If you figure it takes a
minimum of 1 minute per pic to look at, adjust, and save -- and I took 250
photos -- we're looking at a minimum of four hours just to save the pix
onto my computer!


Jay, thanks for the great review. I've drooled over OSH for years, but since
I'm not a flyer, and it's hard to get off work, I've never been able to
attend.

Now, for your picture problem. We use 512K cards and a little toy called a
roadstor. You plug your card into the portable, battery powered device, and
it burns them right onto a $0.25 cd. Now, you can take as many pictures as
you want without buying a bunch of expensive cards, or taking your laptop
with you. When you get home, you can do whatever you want to the pictures
right off your cd rom without filling up your hard drive. It also doubles as
a DVD player if you plug it into a television.

Jay Honeck wrote:
One of the problems with a 1 gig camera memory card is that it is possible
to take virtually unlimited pictures at OSH. If you figure it takes a
minimum of 1 minute per pic to look at, adjust, and save -- and I took 250
photos -- we're looking at a minimum of four hours just to save the pix onto
my computer!

Then they must be resized, captions added, webpages created... Sheesh, in
the old days, I sent the film canister into the processing place, and a few
days later -- voila! -- I had my pix... But I digress.

Film cannister? Last time, I hauled my dozen or so rolls of exposed film to the
processor and paid ~$12/roll. A few days later I had my pix. About six months
later they were all sorted and in the albums. Of course, you gotta come to my
house if you wanna see 'em.

Quitcherbitchen.

Then -- best of all -- on our last day, we returned the bikes to the
Goodwill store, and they gave us a receipt for a $40 tax write-off! Free
bikes for the week!

Uh.... Jay ...... A $40 tax writeoff isn't the same as a refund. Those bikes
cost you about $25-30. Cheap, but it ain't free.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

Then -- best of all -- on our last day, we returned the bikes to the
Goodwill store, and they gave us a receipt for a $40 tax write-off!
Free bikes for the week!

Uh.... Jay ...... A $40 tax writeoff isn't the same as a refund. Those
bikes cost you about $25-30. Cheap, but it ain't free.

Hey, your crappy reality can't burst my fantasy bubble!

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

Let me try to make you feel a little better....

Since the $40 is such a small amount, you would simply "expense" it, I can't
imagine putting a couple bikes on a depreciation schedule.... so the $40
that you paid you can deduct from your taxable income... if you're at a 30%
rate, the real cost of your bikes was $28.

But then you took them back and got a reciept for a $40 donation to
Goodwill... if you're able to deduct 100% of that amount from your taxable
income, you can take another $12 off your tax bill.

So I'd say that the use of the bikes cost you about $16.

Jim



"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:1ngIe.235818$nG6.198967@attbi_s22...
Then -- best of all -- on our last day, we returned the bikes to the
Goodwill store, and they gave us a receipt for a $40 tax write-off!
Free bikes for the week!

Uh.... Jay ...... A $40 tax writeoff isn't the same as a refund. Those
bikes cost you about $25-30. Cheap, but it ain't free.

Hey, your crappy reality can't burst my fantasy bubble!

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

So I'd say that the use of the bikes cost you about $16.

Compare THAT to Peninsula State Park (in Door County, WI), where bike rental
is close to that per HOUR for a single bike....

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

Dang.... don't remind me.... thinking of doing the Mackinac Island thing yet
this summer.... even $45 per day is crazy. Let me know when Goodwill has
some foldup mountain bikes, will ya?
Jim

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:G5oIe.219407$_o.51931@attbi_s71...
So I'd say that the use of the bikes cost you about $16.

Compare THAT to Peninsula State Park (in Door County, WI), where bike
rental
is close to that per HOUR for a single bike....

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

I must say, I was rather suprised by the red barn prices. I never looked
too closely before, but I noticed that Johnsonville brats were cheaper
in the Scholer red barn then in normal stores (at least here in
Illinois), and they had a decent collection of steaks.

Mike

snip
4. Food/Supplies. Once again, there were no provisions made for the campers
in the North 40. Why?

snip

On 2-Aug-2005, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

Instead, Sean Tucker wielded his clout to get his son's act in the show,
the
aptly named "Stars of Tomorrow" (or something like that). They weren't
bad -- but it's pretty clear (after talking with some of Skip's sponsors)
that Tucker doesn't want his "heir apparent" to be anyone outside the
family...

I'll take issue with this one. We attended a forum presented by Sean Tucker
and the three young people in the Stars of Tomorrow. SOT was started by
Mike Goulian and Sean Tucker in 2003. They had six young people flying that
year, and according to what was said at the forum, Eric Tucker was rejected
as not being good enough. Eric was not pleased (to say the least), but his
dad told him straight-up to go work on his flying, win some aerobatic
competitions, and try out again. Eric did that, and this year was selected
for the team. Eric and his father both stressed that Eric wasn't given any
favoritism. Sean and the other team members all said Eric EARNED his place
on the team, it wasn't a "gimme". The other team members and Sean both said
if anything, Eric's tryout was even tougher than everyone elses.
Chandy Clanton, who also flew at OSH this year (red, white and blue
Extra), was one of the original SOT performers, for what it's worth. In
2003, they had six team members, but their financial backer insisted on
the team being reduced to three. The SOT now have the addition of Wayne
Handley (flew airshows in a plane called the Raven) and Bill Stein,
right-wing on the Red Baron Pizza Squadron who serve as mentors for the
kids. They are not above "firing" someone who isn't performing up to
standards. During the forum, they mentioned having to drop a female from
the team who just wasn't working out, and Jessy Panzer was selected to
take her place.
Anyway, my wife and I came away from the forum absolutely impressed with
Sean Tucker and the SOT members. Sean's motives seemed to be purely to
help deserving, hard-working young people break into the airshow business.
I have no idea if Sean pulled any strings to get the SOT in the EAA
lineup, but with all the backing they have from other big-names in the
airshow business, I doubt it was necessary.
Scott WIlson

I have no idea if Sean pulled any strings to get the SOT in the EAA
lineup, but with all the backing they have from other big-names in the
airshow business, I doubt it was necessary.

You make many good points, Scott. And I have no way to refute them.

However, the fact remains that one of the best new airshow performers in the
country, Skip Stewart -- a guy who has recently been written up and profiled
in half a dozen top-notch aviation magazines as being THE up-and-comer in
the airshow industry -- sat on the ground WITH HIS PLANE, itching to go up,
while three relative unknowns took to the skies over OSH.

That is crap, IMHO, and stinks of nepotism, whether it was or not.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"