catmandu
Well Known Member
World's Greatest Aviation Celebration®.
Airventure.
Better Than Sex (No).
For years, as so many have, I said, “I should go to Oshkosh.” I read the tales of joy, the tales of woe, the tales of arrival and departure terror, friends met, friends lost.
This year, prodded by the 30th Anniversary of the RV-6, was my year, finally, but almost whimsically. We came home from the “big family summer vacation” last Friday, and then I was able to recover from all things that pile up during vacation, and flew my purchased RV-6A to KOSH and stayed in Home Built Camping for three nights.
The arrival Sunday around lunch time, thanks to a low overcast, was a non event: I did not see a soul between the Chicago lakefront and the downwind to runway 27. The departure today, ahead of the rain, well, that was fun!
People more literary than I have waxed poetic about just what Oshkosh is, but wow. Just wow. It is that, all that, and more.
And to be honest, all I did of note was socialize and watch airplanes fly, hardly scratched the surface of what to see. Sure, I attended a few forums and workshops, visited a few vendors to solve problems for my plane (and myself, what a massage that chair gives, really sorry if I snored), but all that was quite secondary.
As a new guy, to both Oshkosh and the RV community, I got together with not so old friends, met face to face for the first time with online acquaintances, and introduced myself to folks I had never heard of. Every single one of you I would be glad to call a neighbor, a friend, an in law. Well, except Rosie, he’s a little too high strung
.
Truth be told, as a lifelong aviation enthusiast, and blessed to be part of some elite company in the world of aviation (thanks for those genes, Dad!) I was in awe of what I saw on the flight line. By the completeness of what I saw. Planes admired, planes flown, planes targeted (in many different ways).
Planes admired were the most numerous; I could not help but think about not being able to ever see them fly again, the mighty Phantom most significantly this year.
Too many good moments to pick a best one, but waking up just before the sun rises in order to get a shower and a cup of coffee, watching, and, more significantly, listening to the Dawn Patrol take off just beyond the sea of aircraft in Home Built Camping is hard to beat:
I’ll be back, thank you very much.
Airventure.
Better Than Sex (No).
For years, as so many have, I said, “I should go to Oshkosh.” I read the tales of joy, the tales of woe, the tales of arrival and departure terror, friends met, friends lost.
This year, prodded by the 30th Anniversary of the RV-6, was my year, finally, but almost whimsically. We came home from the “big family summer vacation” last Friday, and then I was able to recover from all things that pile up during vacation, and flew my purchased RV-6A to KOSH and stayed in Home Built Camping for three nights.
The arrival Sunday around lunch time, thanks to a low overcast, was a non event: I did not see a soul between the Chicago lakefront and the downwind to runway 27. The departure today, ahead of the rain, well, that was fun!
People more literary than I have waxed poetic about just what Oshkosh is, but wow. Just wow. It is that, all that, and more.
And to be honest, all I did of note was socialize and watch airplanes fly, hardly scratched the surface of what to see. Sure, I attended a few forums and workshops, visited a few vendors to solve problems for my plane (and myself, what a massage that chair gives, really sorry if I snored), but all that was quite secondary.
As a new guy, to both Oshkosh and the RV community, I got together with not so old friends, met face to face for the first time with online acquaintances, and introduced myself to folks I had never heard of. Every single one of you I would be glad to call a neighbor, a friend, an in law. Well, except Rosie, he’s a little too high strung
.Truth be told, as a lifelong aviation enthusiast, and blessed to be part of some elite company in the world of aviation (thanks for those genes, Dad!) I was in awe of what I saw on the flight line. By the completeness of what I saw. Planes admired, planes flown, planes targeted (in many different ways).
Planes admired were the most numerous; I could not help but think about not being able to ever see them fly again, the mighty Phantom most significantly this year.
Too many good moments to pick a best one, but waking up just before the sun rises in order to get a shower and a cup of coffee, watching, and, more significantly, listening to the Dawn Patrol take off just beyond the sea of aircraft in Home Built Camping is hard to beat:
I’ll be back, thank you very much.
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