Four days after arriving in Oshkosh, we’re almost ready for the show. And, quite frankly, a bit tired out before it starts! Sunday was the first day with a significant number of people combining in from the “street side” of the airport – not just vendors and workers setting up booths and exhibits, but a surprising number of family units that I sort of think were locals taking advantage of the opportunity to look at interesting airplanes without aging to pay to come through the gate. They did, however, have to put up with scads (a scientific unit of counting) of tractor trailers maneuvering on the quite narrow roads and pathways of the show grounds, mixed in with forklifts, loaders, and even a crane here and there. It takes a lot of heavy equipment to set up some outdoor displays – especially when that involves putting an airplane high up off the ground without a running motor or any airspeed.
Meanwhile, campers who have been here for a few days are getting into the groove, including hanging up their towels and laundry to dry in the sun. There a few different methods we’ve seen, including the ever-popular propeller towel bar, the simple use of a spare tent loop – and one clever clothesline stretched from a boarding step to a tail tie down. We especially like the last one because its out of the way, and there is little chance of a person walking through your laundry while looking up at the ever-present tour helicopters that pass over Homebuilt Camping once a minute.
I had a chance to do some more flying on Sunday – but only at the Redbird Simulators in the Pilot Proficiency Center. Today was training day for the cadre of instructors who will be teaching an entire afternoon of “Flying by Angle of Attack” on Wednesday, and I was part of the team that helped develop the scenarios and methods for a streamlined lesson on how to use AoA indicators. It was fun sharing the experience I have built up over many years of flying with the various systems that have become more and more available in the GA and Experimental worlds, and the enthusiasm of the instructors for the program was infectious.
We capped off the day with our annual Kitplanes contributor gathering (and barbecue) – a chance for the folks who write the stories that you read in Kitplanes pages to get together for a little fellowship and some planning of coverage for the week. It’s always great to see folks from all over the country who we only communicate with via email most of the year and catch up… and a great way to signal the start of the event!
