Day 13 at Airventure 2024 in Oshkosh, WI
Today was the first day on this trip when I haven’t actually flown and I must admit, I appreciated the break.
I spent the night in my tent and did reasonably well. There are lots of lights and noises that tend to interrupt my sleep but at least this year I remembered to bring some blinders for my eyes so I didn’t wake up at 4 AM. I did wake up at 5:15, but I’ll call that a win.
Since I was already up, I figured I’d get up and wander the grounds looking at airplanes. I always find it really peaceful to see everything most folks won’t as they’re mostly still asleep. This year, though, I was very surprised of the large number of people that were up and about before six in the morning. Part of this was because unlike in previous years, the FAA had set up a dedicated two hour departure window for this morning since the vast majority of people who’ve been here all week tend to leave on Thursdays.
During the special departure window, no new arrivals were allowed into the field, and they were handled more quickly and efficiently than they normally would if there was a mix of arrivals and departures. Ironically, right as the end of the departure window approached, a fog layer popped up and caused the airport to be closed for almost 2 hours. I know because I spoke to somebody who was flying in and they spent two hours in holding at the entry point coming into the course rules for the field.
At 7 o’clock, I went to a breakfast sponsored by the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) for Flight Advisors and Technical Counselors. We are volunteer specialist who aid homebuilders by ensuring that their airplanes are safe to fly and their pilots have the skills necessary to do so.
Once again, the emphasis was on the physical aspects of the airplane - the talk was directed entirely at the Technical Counselors. I’ve spoken to members of leadership at EAA before about the need to emphasize the pilots and their skills on first flights, and they always say they’ll do something, but never do. At the end of this morning‘s breakfast, I spoke to members of the Homebuilders Council, a global leadership organization that helps establish priorities for things like Tech Counselors and Flight Advisors. I shared my concerns, and once again they said that they agreed and we try and do something about it. I’ll wait and see.
After breakfast, I set out to walk. The very first place I went is this one corner of the grounds that has a real hodgepodge of exhibitors hawking their wares. The reason I made it such a high priority is because many years ago, during one of my first visits to Oshkosh, I stumbled upon a shop that sold a variety of shirts with designs. One of those featured a Bernese Mountain Dog just like the kind that Kay and I have, so I got her the denim shirt with the Berner on it.
No such luck this year, but there are variety of vendors of various low-cost or low-quality tools and other knickknacks. I picked up a few as I do every year, usually finding tools that I have already made on my own, but these seem to be a little bit more durable. I also splurged and bought myself what amounts to a compact inflatable couch to stretch out on. I’ve seen them for years at airshows and just decided that I wanted something really comfortable to relax on. As I write this blog, I am currently sitting under the wing of my airplane watching the airshow while enjoying the comfort of this couch.
To make sure that I didn’t miss any of the different vendors, I carried around the detailed map of the entire airshow and marked off in pen each time I went down a particular road or in an exhibit hall. If you’ve never been here before, it is difficult to understand the scale of things. There are of exhibitors spread over 50 acres of exhibit space.
One of the hallmarks of this show, called Airventure, is the spirit of innovation across all aspects of aviation.
One major exhibitor at the show is the US government. They have exhibits ranging from the FAA to law-enforcement to the Park Service. Part of the Park Service outreach includes a simulator of the Wright brothers’ airplane, which I tried out. I didn’t think I did very good, but the guy who was handling it pulled me aside and said that I had been pretty much the longest flight by anybody this week - almost 2 minutes. Looking at the simulator I don’t think I ever got more than 10 feet above the ground and I know I must’ve bumped a wing tip on the ground once or twice. No idea how the Wright brothers did it.
This simulator uses hips to make the plane roll, just like the Wrights did
Just before lunchtime, I went to the forum area and grabbed a seat to listen to a talk by Burt Rutan. Burt is the gentleman who designed my airplane, as well as hundreds of other unique and interesting designs. He is undeniably a brilliant designer and inventor, but also rather quirky. This year, many activities have been dedicated to him, as this is his 50th year exhibiting designs at Oshkosh. Part of the tribute included a fly-by on Monday, featuring one of every major home built design that he has had here at Oshkosh over the years.
Today’s talk was supposed to feature his sharing four designs for various Aircraft that he has not fully matured. His hope is that those of us in the audience will see it, and maybe choose to pursue these design concepts. Each of the designs was unique, but seemed a little bit far-fetched. A couple of them even rehashed ideas that were vetted back in the 1950s and shown to be impractical. One other aspect of listening to Burt talk about his design concepts is his attitude usually is that everybody else in the aerospace industry are a bunch of idiots.
After this talk, I went over to the Chick-fil-A vendor and grabbed lunch. All the other vendors here at the show could learn a lot from them about how to do things quickly and efficiently.
Then it was back to the forum area, where I listened to a talk on “things to consider when painting your own airplane or hiring somebody else to do it”. This is very timely for me as this coming winter I plan on stripping my airplane and repainting it as the paint job is approaching 30 years old.
That finished, I set out to walk around the ground some more, this time going over to the warbirds area. This section includes airplanes from the World War II, Korea, and Vietnam errors owned by private individuals. I was fortunate that there was a Spitfire on display, which is my favorite aircraft of all time. I was able to get up close and take some nice photos.
After that, I walked back to the other end of the show to go through the vintage area which features airplanes going back as far as the 1920s.
Just before the start of the airshow, I happened to be over using the restroom and saw an elderly gentleman walking by. It turns out that it was Dick VanGrunsven, the founder of a company called Van’s. Van’s has manufactured more kits for Homebuilt airplanes than any other company in the world. There are said to be over 10,000 of them flying. When I look out from where I’m standing, I would say probably 40 to 50% of all of the airplanes on the homebuilt parking side are from that company. Dick and I met at the very first airshow that I flew and I will always remember and appreciate him. He took the time to come over and chat with me before my first performance and counsel me to be safe and leave myself plenty of margin and everything I did. These are words that I kept with me and they served me well.
Dick VanRnsgren
As I mentioned, I am sitting under the wing of my plane and relaxing, something that I haven’t actually had much time to do on this trip. I don’t anyway regret this, but I will admit to having a lot of cumulative fatigue. Sitting here, I spent some time looking at possible routes home for tomorrow as I head westbound. I hope to be back in Seattle by Saturday night as I miss my wife, Kay, our sons, our dog, and my own bed.
The show was quite impressive featuring a combination of standard civilian aerobic ax, and some very high-performing military hardware. The F-22 Lightning is incredible in the amount of noise that it can produce, as well as the raw power it exhibits. There were also a pair of EF – 18G growers so the Navy was finally represented
After the show, I caught up with Jim Price and Filipe, his friend from Portugal. They had also came with another family from Portugal that Felipe knew, so the six of us took off and went out the gate of the show, then walked about half a mile to have dinner. It was a relatively simple but good meal and reasonable prices compared to what they charge inside the show, best of all, they had Coca-Cola, which is because Wisconsin seems to be a Pepsi country. Yech.
After dinner, I’m returned to my tent and prepared to depart in the morning. I packed a few things I could, checked the plane to make sure it was ready to go, took myself off to get a shower. Over the years, EAA has dramatically improved the amenities for campers. We now have individual cubicles that we can lock and then take a shower with real hot water. I even was able to shave as a result now feel much more like a human being.
Looking at the Strava app on my phone, it shows that I walked 15 1/2 miles today. I suspect that’s a little on the high side because when you’re sitting inside in a conference hall, it can occur up to half a mile, but still, I know I walked my tail off.
I’ve had a good time here in Oshkosh, but it’s time to go.
I’m going to clean up this blog and post it, Give Kay a call, and go to sleep.
