Tuesday in Oshkosh began with thunderstorms at about 4:00 AM. Fortunately for me, I’m in a rental house, so rain simply isn’t an issue! Not so much for the campers, but from what we could gather, it was wet, but not excessively windy, and most folks had dried out by noon.
Even though I had a light schedule for the morning, we still tried to get in early, for no other reason than to beat the road traffic that begins to build before 0800. That means an 0600 wake-up and leaving the house by 0700. That means we’re on the field well before anything opens, but I use the time to troll my information sources, like the chairmen at Homebuilt Headquarters. Looking at their registration numbers, homebuilt aircraft are down by about 10% over the same day last year. No one really has any idea why, but we all seem to feel like the pedestrian traffic around site is also a bit light. Maybe today it was light because of the morning rain and overcast.
I used the morning to visit the “building vendors,” saying hi to old friends, meeting a few new ones, and seeing what new products I could find. Look for a report sometime on the coolest set of cleco pliers I’ve ever seen…. It better be, at a price tag of $135! Even at that price, many will gotta have it.
At 1100, I had to get ready for a forum I give every year talking about my space shuttle days. Grabbed a sandwich at Porker John’s and sat down to eat in the back of my forum building. Reached into my pocket to make sure I had my thumb drive…yup! Seven minutes before my talk, I walked up front, opened my thumb drive and….there was no thumb drive in the case! Apparently when I pulled it out of the computer at my previous forum, the case came off, and the chip and USB port stayed in the machine. There was no “panic,” but there was a lot hustling to go get my backpack with my computer from our webmaster who ran with it from the office trailer. Made it just in time…. The joy of presenting!
More vendor visiting, and photographing details of F1 Rockets in the afternoon. Building an airplane to a high standard means looking at what others have done and stealing the good ideas. In this case, windshield/boot cowl transitions. Stopped in to talk with the Garmin folks, and just as I left, the rain started coming down, so I ducked into the EAA membership tent to ride it out. Met some wonderful French homebuilders who traveled to Wisconsin for the show.
The evening was spent at the Nature Center at the Van’s Aircraft banquet – probably my 20th time in attendance. Good food, good company, a wonderful speaker, and time to catch up with the Van’s royalty. Then back to the house by 2100….and I sit down to write….
And here you have it!
