Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Day 17 Summary

Oshkosh, baby. We made the pilgrimage, and it was well worth it.

The first thing that captures you on the bus ride in the massive number of planes parked there for the show:


Here's the oft-seen view of the front gate:



First stop was the AOPA tent and a view of the Commander Sweepstakes plane that I will be willing:



Nice panel. Also, AOPA favored me with a couple of new hats. I think they knew that my current one is showing signs of flying in the summer. 'nuf said about that hat.

Bombers, bombers, warplanes everywhere!





Plus, of course, even more homebuilts than you could count:


The IFR Pilot particularly like the paint job on this one. Simple yet elegant. Not unlike the IFR Pilot....




One of big attractions of the day was the arrival of SpaceShip One and White Knight. They did a couple of flybys and then landed to a rousing ovation from the crowd. Getting pictures wasn't easy:




We did some shopping. The Dadster bought a welder of all things. The IFR Pilot picked up a couple items for the plane, including a long-desired vertical card compass. Saw a bunch of electronic flight bags on tablet PCs. When I win the lottery and scrap lawyering to become a freight dog, I'm all over one of those puppies!

Also saw this nifty little portable tiedown, which appears to be much easier to insert into the ground than the typical screw-ins.


The Dadster says he can whip these up himself, though from steel not aluminium. Always conscious of weight and balance considerations, the IFR Pilot requested that he swiss cheese them with lightening holes!

Waiting for the bus back to the hotel, we caught part of the airshow, which commenced with some warbird formation flights:





All in all, a good time was had by all.

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