OSH '08 VAF Coverage ...from a
guy with no training whatsoever for this. I'll try not to muck
it up too bad.
Start At The Bottom To Read This
Stuff In The Order It Happened...
Aug 5, 2008 1220z
-
Van And The Gang Home Safe...RV-10 PIREP from Ken S.
"Van, Scott Risan and I climbed into N410RV on Sunday morning,
fired it up and broke ground just before 8:00 a.m. Oshkosh time.
I flew and fueled, Scott ran the weather checks and navigation,
Van sat in the back and enjoyed the view, occasionally
contributing bits of wisdom to our in-flight decisions. (I mean,
if you have to have a back seat driver, get someone like him!)
We stayed low to stay out of the headwinds (and even picked up a
bit of tailwind) and after wrestling with a bit of low scud and
reduced visibility in South Dakota (no on-board weather), popped
out the west side of the activity into clear skies. Climbed to
12,500' coming out of Bozeman to clear the Bitterroots and
finally spotted Mt. Hood from the east side of Pendleton --
about 125 miles away.
Landed Aurora after 9:30 flight time. Two (expensive!) fuel stops
in Gettysburg, SD and Bozeman, Mt. (route)
These airplanes continue to amaze me. Half a continent and home
with five hours of daylight left."
Outstanding Workmanship Kit Built
Chris Cox, Delta, BC, RV-7, CFCOX
Bronze Lindy Kit Built
Lyle Hefel, Durango, IA, RV-8, N98LH
Chuck Labarreare, Collierville, TN, RV-8A, N685RV
Scott Chastain, Merced, CA, RV-8, N898W
Jeff Hagg, Indianapolis, IN, RV-8, N548JH
Steven Hamer, Apple Valley, CA, RV-6, N642PS
Mark Taylor, Dearborn, MI, RV-7, N834ST
-
Jack Clark OSH Pictures "This is a sample of the sights at AirVenture
2008 taken between Monday and Friday. There was so much to see
and do and so little time! I personally like one of the F-22
Raptor photos and one of Sean Tucker."
- The man himself doing what he does.
Dale Ellis photo
-
Trash Detail...courtesy Joe Ferraro "So there we are, walking along the flight
line, and a golf cart comes to a screeching halt right next to
us. This elderly gentleman gets out and starts picking up a VERY
SMALL couple of pieces of trash...the kind of loose paper left
over after the truck empties the dumpster.
He stands up to drop it in the dumpster and Brad Oliver and I see
an EAA shirt with Paul P.'s name embroidered on it. Both our
jaws hit the ground! Here's the "Pope" picking up garbage!
Unbelievable pride in his "baby", and truly a down to earth guy. snip......Paul, it appears, is still the same guy I'm sure
he's always been....snip."
- Sam Buchanan got a shot of where my plane was
parked Sat-Wed.
Thanks Sam!
-
Danny and MJ's SPOT track of flight home from OSH
(non-stop w/extended range tanks).
image of track
- Danny Talks About The Flight Home
"Yes, the Tru Track ADI Pilot II was engaged just south of
Oshkosh and remained on until just five miles from 52F. The
Electronics International fuel computer is just wonderful. I had
a slight headwind from the west. If I was going to make the
flight non-stop, I wanted to arrive with at least one hour of
fuel on board. I flew at 8500' and pulled the fuel flow back to
7.8 GPH until the computer said that I would land with nine
gallons. I always lie to the computer and enter one gallon less
than the FOB, so the Electronics International thought I had 50
gallons when in-fact the Doll holds 51. That would leave me with
10 gallons over 52F. I burned 41 gallons for the trip which
means a normal RV-8 without extended range tanks could have done
the Shuttle One arrival to 52F with the normal fuel load of 42
gallons. The Hotel Whiskey extended range tanks were my reserve
fuel for the trip.
Both 'Builder Doll' and myself had no problems with the five hour
trip, and we were not uncomfortable. Flight time was 4:48,
breaking my last non-stop record of 4:32 from Elkhart Indiana to
52F.
The Doll continues to amaze me with her abilities.
__________________
Danny King
Beautiful Doll 80434 TT 1006 hours
I0360 A1B6 200 HP
Christen Inverted Oil
First Flight 12 July 2000"
-
RV Formation at AirVenture08 Debrief...courtesy Stu
McCurdy. "This year, rather than set a specific goal like last years
35, I just asked for volunteers. Twenty (20) FFI formation
pilots signed up and showed up at Rock Falls IL (SQI) where we
practiced Sat and Sun and then took it to Oshkosh. We had a Mass
Arrival reservation this year, so we conducted an arrival flyby
and then split up for 4-ship landings. I coordinated for our
performances on Tues and Wed at 1130-1200 overhead the pattern
and AirVenture grounds. We entered from over the lake with a
Criss-Cross maneuver, which Kahuna hit perfectly, then entered
the Figure 8 over AirVenture for four more passes changing the
shapes on the turn around for each pass. Using photos from each
day's practice and performance we tried to perfect successive
day's performances. From favorable comments from the Warbird
community and others, I guess we did okay.
Accolades should go to the individual flight leaders and wingmen
who practiced during the year to maintain proficiency, then
arrived at SQI ready to blend with other formation pilots from
around the country to perfect the skills and exercise the utmost
discipline and concentration. Here's the line up:
Alpha Flight
1 Stu "Falcon" McCurdy, Falcon Flight, Round Rock, TX
2 Bill "Gunnbody" Gunn, Falcon Flight, Austin, TX
3 Lowell "Pfantom" LeMay, Falcon Flight, Round Rock, TX
4 Roy "Jarhead" Geer, Falcon Flight, Ft Worth, TX
Bravo Flight
1 Bill "Pappy" Turner, Blackhawks, Marengo, IL
2 Don "Taco" Pfeiffer, Blackhawks, Poplar Grove, IL
3 Gary "Condor" Sobek, SoCal Wing, Manhatten Beach, CA
4 Randy Lervold, Home Wing, Camas, WA
Charlie Flight
1 Ron "Smokey" Schreck, Palmetto Flight, Gold Hill, NC
2 Tad "Stripes" Sargent, Palmetto Flight, Davidson, NC
3 Danny "Speedy" Kight, Team RV, Anderson, SC
4 Ken "Lurch" Harrill, Palmetto Flight, Columbia, SC
Delta Flight
1 Mike "Kahuna" Stewart, Team RV, Cumming GA
2 Len "Leggs" Leggette, Palmetto Flight, Greensboro, NC
3 Jerry "Widget" Morris, Team RV, Dahlonega, GA
4 James "Chatterbox" Clark, Palmetto Flight, Columbia, SC
Echo Flight
1 Gregg "Wizz" Wilson, Cincy River Rats, Batavia, OH
2 Bud "Joker" Newhouse, Cincy River Rats, Cincinnati, OH
3 Greg "Greese" Reese, Cincy River Rats, Alexandria, KY
4 Ron "Giggles" Gieleghem, Cincy River Rats, Glendale, OH
Thanks to the team for dedication, discipline, skillfulness
exhibited at both practice and overhead AirVenture. Good show.
Thanks also to Jeff "Friday" Point who made our taxi/parking
work like a charm.
Thanks also to Lynn Turner who took care of food, drink, and
transportation needs while we practiced at Rock Falls.
And thanks to M&M Aviation at SQI for hosting us, providing
briefing areas and equipment, and fueling.
__________________
Stu McCurdy (Falcon)
RV-8, 78TX, Flying
Formation Flying, Inc (FFI)
Falcon Flight"
July 31st, 2008 1148z Home from the
show. I'm not much of a writer, so I'll just do the normal
stream of consciousness ramble type thing that I do...bad
grammar and all.
Okay, started the day driving out to the show with Van and
the Gang. Woke up to a sock being thrown at my head
(4:30am) by Joe Blank, my roomie at the dorms. Something
about me snoring... Nothing but net.
Wanna say first off here how grateful I am for the
hospitality shown by the Van's crew. Joe, Gus, Daryl,
Scott, Ken, Ken, Mike and the rest are the real deal folks.
Saw Stan 'Grumpy' Price (my CFII and good friend) on his way
to the Garmin forum - he's the guy in the third pic. Moved Flash out of its spot at
the SPOT tent to switch places with Beautiful Doll. As we were moving and fueling the planes
Doug Rozendaal
walked up (blue shirt in pic 4).
Very nice fellow - he was flying the DC-3 and
B-25 among others at the show. A few other folks walked up
and introduced themselves - always nice to meet people.
Went to the powder room one more time and strapped in to
launch for KBIE in southeast Nebraska (Ross had talked with me
on the phone and picked a waypoint that would steer me clear of
the WX south of OSH).
Got some pics of the planes paralleling the flight line on the
taxi down to the end of 36. The folks running the ground
ops are all professional and they get the job done efficiently.
Departure was painless and all business. Just like the
departure briefing. Very cool
customers...
Climbed out, heading 150* at 500'agl for 5 miles away and then
you're on your own. Climbed to 8,500, turned on George,
unpacked the Braun. Shaved. Got a macro pic of the
GPS showing the wx I was flying around. I kept hoping I
could deviate south a little sooner, but looking at the METARs
with the GPS showed low, low ceilings west of the storms and
looking at the AOPA info in the GPS I couldn't find an apt with
food close by. Nebraska it is.... You can see one photo
where I used the canopy cover to keep the sun from burning me.
I do that every so often. Few hours later I landed, got
the courtesy car and drove to Arby's. Few minutes later I
was back in the air. Nice FBO there at
KBIE.
Courtesy car's a/c worked very well.
Launched for the second leg and immediately saw a long line
of developing crud in my path. The animation feature of
the XM WX package shined here. I could, after a few frames
looping, determine it was in my best interest to deviate east
about thirty degrees for 100+nm to get through a hole in the
line (if it held). It was developing over the Dallas area
at a faster rate in the animation, so I made the call to not go
around the west end. The line wasn't moving in the
animation - just sitting in one spot turning into a thicker line.
Damn thing didn't seem to move a foot in two hours.
Turned the O2 on full and climbed from 9,500' to 15,500'.
38*F OAT. I used the canopy cover and the heat vents to make
a 'heater tent' around my legs - nice and cozy. Got
through the gap with room to spare, always had 2-3 outs and
justified the XM WX fee right here. An FYI...what you see on the screen is NOT
exactly what you have outside, but it's close. What was
most comforting was knowing I had VFR conditions all
around me. If I didn't have O2 onboard and didn't
have XM WX I would not have considered doing this for one
second. Having all that info at your fingertips changes
everything.
This was one of the most visually rewarding flights I've ever
had in my RV. These are the most amazing travelling
machines on Earth. Thanks for seeing to it that I went to
OSH. Hope
the pictures held your interest and I've put next year's event
in the calendar already (with ink).
Have satellite weather and a tracker of some kind in the
cockpit. That's my advice, at least. Knowing what is
around you and having a few dozen of your friends over your
shoulder online really raises the safety bar.
Trip up (SPOT) / Trip back / WX I was dealing with on trip back.
Man, that is one fun place.
b,
d
After I 'shot the gap' and was cruising along happily I
put the camera in movie mode for a minute. Remember, when
you watch this I'm at 15,500'. These were tall clouds <g>.
Here's the view...
July 30th, 2008 0247z Pooped again.
Dogs barkin. Quick recap. Jet Pack Man was Jet Poop
Man. Wasn't what we all expected - flew for about 20
seconds at 12 inches. I saw a helmet kinda stick out from
the crowd for a bit. Can't write comedy like this <g>.
RV-8/8A gathering at Theater In The Woods. Met some of
the folks I only knew by forum name and was very glad to have
found them (lucky accident - I was walking by). Kevin
Horton, Craig Ward, Buck and a lot more... Great folks, as
you would expect.
Walked by the Honda pavilion and saw Bud Anderson talking.
Later I was looking at a RV-8 painted up as Old Crow and....he
was standing next to it with the owner. I sheepishly asked
for a photo and they graciously accepted. Bud Anderson.
Highlight of the day!
Gave a short speech at the SPOT booth and hopefully didn't do
too bad.
Hung out with Art (RV-8) while Stu and the Gang flew over at
1130. Perfect as usual. Lunch with Rob Reece (RV-8)
and dinner with the Van's gang. Drank a beer called
'Spotted Cow' and it's love at first drink. Understand
it's local only (sad).
Hope you had a great day and wish you were here.
I launch for home sometime tomorrow afternoon weather
permitting. I'll take more pics tomorrow before I leave
and will have something online in the evening.
The dorm cafeteria has Dr. Pepper. I like this place.
Honored to be here and meeting lots of great folks.
(139) pictures from the day below (and you'll notice the
things I talked about above - look for the RV-8 gathering and
Bud Anderson!).
July 29th, 2008 0342z Boy am I
pooped - 1030pm as I sit down to type this. Walked through
the vendor buildings (packed to the gills), watched the airshow
with Danny and MJ King, watched Foreigner sing a few songs, ran
into a few folks I'd only known before in the forums and such
(very nice people), bumped into Bob Collins in Aeroshell Square
and ate dinner with Bob Reece, Daryl and Joe from Van's.
Really good food (and too much of it). Drank a beer called
'Spotted Cow', and enjoyed it quite a bit.
Jeff Point says there are now over 400 RVs on field (and he
would know). My dogs are barking bad. Lots of
walking.
Here are (144) pictures from the day. Tomorrow I'm
going to try to walk HBC and get pictures of the RVs I missed on
Sunday.
July 28th, 2008 0334z Hope you had a
great day. Pics from the last 12 or so hours below...got
(118) for you to enjoy. Also found a link to a couple of
RV drivers that got interviewed today by EAA. WX is fine
and having fun. Tomorrow I'll do the vendor shots in the
buildings. 1030pm now and I'm hitting the sack.
Jeff Point IM'd me that OSH has over 300 RVs in attendance at
this point.
Tomorrow I'll have another batch up around the
same time.
b,
d
July 27th, 2008 2225z In for the
day. My dogs are barkin. Got about a hundred photos
I'll go through after dinner. Gonna shower and go eat.
Donger need food...
July 27th, 2008 1940z Over 120 RVs
are on the field (saw Jeff Point and this is his figure - hope I
remembered right). Made a first pass trough HBC and saw
some folks I only see once a year. Stu and the gang flew
over at 1330 in a 20 ship - I got pics that I'll upload later
this afternoon/evening. I'm on the cell connection at the
Van's tent right now and I don't think I can upload the 50 or so
images I have from the morning here at the tent. The
flyover looked awesome as usual.
RVs are streaming in continuously.
Met Bill Repucci, Rob Reece, Jay Pratt, Danny and MJ, Billy,
Ricky and Debbie and a lot more of the usual suspects. The
weather is around 80 with a light wind from the west.
For an unofficial day, the Van's tent is really hopping.
There are 20-30 folks milling around as I type this.
The guys behind the booth say 'hey'.
July 27th, 2008 1140z Slept pretty
good. This is my first time staying in the dorms and I'm
liking it - the showers are better than the portable ones in HBC.
Let's see, what can I remember from the trip up yesterday?
Launched from 52F around 1130 for Gainesville (GLE) to top off
the tanks. Did that and launched for Warsaw, MO and their
$4.60 fuel. Flew at 11,500' with O2 and autopilot on.
170kts over the ground and 55*F. Two hours and change
later landed and topped off. Nice, clean airport - didn't
see a person. Kept in contact with some other planes that
were paralleling my track.
Second leg flown at 9,500' and the OAT dropped down to 48*F
at some times. 165kts GS. Turned on the heater.
About thirty minutes out of RIPON I started picking up OSH ATIS
and FISK approach. They had the holds in place (for what I
found out later was some mass Cessna / Bonanza arrivals).
Didn't affect the plan much at all by the time I got on top of
RIPON - flew straight to RIPON, flew straight to FISK, rocked my
wings and landed on 36L just like they told me. Didn't see
another plane until I was on base, and just followed him.
Big nothin burger. Arrived 5pm. Logged 5.0 - saw
lots of corn fields.
Hats off to the OSH arrival and ground crew. Very
professional and efficient.
Shutdown at Aeroshell Square and the tug pulled Flash
over to the SPOT tent (SE corner of the square). Had a
cold ice tea and steak in front of me less than an hour later.
It's 6:45am, it's 63*F outside, I'm at OSH and breakfast is
less than an hour away. Life is good.
I'll take lots of pictures today. Here's the
not-really-interesting shots from the trip up:
July 27th, 2008 0415z Got here safe and sound around 5pm. Called some friends
and met them for dinner, then a coupla beers, so not much typing
tonight. WX is fine and the fields are starting to fill.
SPOT track below. Flash is parked in the SPOT booth
- feel free to come put some fingerprints on it.
Can you tell I had the autopilot on <grin>?
July 25th, 2008 2106z See Alex D's new RV-7 panel at Stein's booth. Pic
here
July 25th, 2008 2102z
Danny King and Jay Pratt arrive safe at OSH. Just got the
call from Danny. Said it was humid and they had to deviate
around some wx. Route of flight:
here.
July 24th, 2008 2215z Oil change finished. Ready to launch for OSH sometime
Sat/Sun. Susie has the house full of her friends
while I'm gone. The boy is truly outnumbered.
July 24th, 2008 1700z
Oil change half done on
Flash.
Planned route of flight
here. Track me
here.
Danny King is packed and 'Beautiful
Doll' looks perfect. Jay and Danny launch for OSH 0600
Friday morning. WX looks good.
"Yes, the Tru Track ADI Pilot II was engaged just south of
Oshkosh and remained on until just five miles from 52F. The
Electronics International fuel computer is just wonderful. I had
a slight headwind from the west. If I was going to make the
flight non-stop, I wanted to arrive with at least one hour of
fuel on board. I flew at 8500' and pulled the fuel flow back to
7.8 GPH until the computer said that I would land with nine
gallons. I always lie to the computer and enter one gallon less
than the FOB, so the Electronics International thought I had 50
gallons when in-fact the Doll holds 51. That would leave me with
10 gallons over 52F. I burned 41 gallons for the trip which
means a normal RV-8 without extended range tanks could have done
the Shuttle One arrival to 52F with the normal fuel load of 42
gallons. The Hotel Whiskey extended range tanks were my reserve
fuel for the trip.
