Oshkosh: Monday

Robert Coats · Robert Coats's Garage

Pics from Oshkosh, Day 1. Space Ship One and White Knight are incredible aircraft (spacecraft). Lots of cool amphibs and SLA (sport-light-aircraft) as well as a Honda VFR motorcycle:

Oshkosh Monday Pics

rattlsnak · rattlsnak's Garage

Nice.. I thought about going up, but never got organized..

Joeaksa · 07-25-2005, 09:07 PM

Take lots of photos for those of us who cannot go!

JoeA

onewhippedpuppy · 07-26-2005, 03:40 AM

I HATE YOU ALL! I had an offer from my grandfather to go, but I have finals for my summer classes this week. I really would have liked to have seen Space Ship One.

Thanks for the pics, keep posting them for those of us that are stuck at home.

304065 · 07-26-2005, 05:45 AM

Hell, I'd be happy just to get out and FLY, let alone head up to OSH.

Take a picture of the craziest homebuilt there for us. You know, the one where you look at it and say, "Somebody actually FLEW HERE in that?" There are some incredible things there.

I had a bunch of fun at the Ultralight park. These guys fly from the end of the main show until dark-- I swear, I saw some people do about 200 takeoffs and landings. My favorite guy was in a midget-scale yellow cub with a Rotax up front. He would do this mini-forward slip to a wheel landing every time! Hilarious to watch.

mb911 · mb911's Garage

Man and I am the guy that hates going and flat out refused to go this year.

SLO-BOB · 07-26-2005, 06:47 PM

I might mozy on over tomorrow with the tots. It's only an hour from me. We used to go every year but it got too crowded. Hopefully the general public has lost some interest

singpilot · 09:39 AM

It always amazes me when I realize another year has gone by. When I was based in the midwest, I used to go every year. Being on the west coast has made it tough.

My favourite year was right after we certified a DC9 airline for sports teams, and had 35 flight hours still in the training budget remaining. I got permission from the owner, rounded up all the employees (47) and we took the oldest airplane in the fleet (a 1968 vintage DC9-15RC with a cargo door and front and rear airstair doors) to the Classic parking section (over 20 years old) in the grass, just outside Paul's Forest. Pitched a tarp over the wings, and camped there. When it rained heavily one night, we all moved into the plane and cargo holds, and still had room for several more neighbors closeby. We pulled the window exits, and let our people watch the airshow from the wing.

Was the talk of the town, and I'll bet a thousand people trapsed thru that plane, front to rear. Was all steam guages, 2 navs, 2 comms, 2 xponders, B&W radar. An ex-Southern Airways, ex-Hughes Air Worst, ex-Bonanza, ex Republic, ex-Northwest Nine.

You'd think people had never seen an airliner up close. Was a blast.

304065 · 07-28-2005, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by singpilot
An ex-Southern Airways, ex-Hughes Air Worst, ex-Bonanza, ex Republic, ex-Northwest Nine.

My old man has probably polished five pairs of uniform pants to a shine in that very airframe. Do you remember the tail number?

mb911 · mb911's Garage

My bosses uncle "uncle Jim" has a t-6 a p-51 and f4u corsair that they fly at the show every year. they are pretty cool

singpilot · 07-28-2005, 09:36 PM

JC;

It was N9349, Ship number 9130 ( 9 for DC9, 1 for 10-series, and 30 for the 30th 10 series in the fleet), in the NWA line. I got it with 97,380 hours and 98,277 cycles. We flew it for 2 years, until the hours approached 100,000, the design life limit by Douglas. No one had any idea what was required to extend that. I flew it to the boneyard in Sherman, Texas. It's last flight was special. When it came down the line in Long Beach in 1967, I was an 8th grader in Ventura, washing Cessnas at Oxnard airport for rides and lessons.

Michael

304065 · 07-29-2005, 05:40 AM

Wow.

From one old census:

47016 173 DC9-15F JT8D-7B(HK3) 10/04/67 USA JET AIRLINES N194US EF-CM N8909, N9349, YL-BAA [CVTD DC9-15F(RC)]

Last registered in 1997 as N194US.

And "USA JET AIRLINES" is owned by . . . .Active Aero! I have some stories about them the next time we are both in close proximity to beer.

I bet she's still flying as a freighter out of Willow Run.

targa911S · 07-29-2005, 09:36 AM

My neighbor is there too. He's a Lanceair guy. Flew with him a few weeks ago. 300 mph in a single prop is FUN! Oshkosh and Paris are two airshows I must see before they nail my lid down.

Tim Hancock · 07-29-2005, 05:10 PM

I got back from Oshkosh Thursday around noon. Monday night a bad storm with heavy rains passed thru from about 6:00 pm till about 12:30 am. Like an idiot I took the bus from the "south 40" up to theater in the woods to hear Mike Melville speak about Spaceship 1. Unfortunately the rain did not let up and I had to walk back most of the way in a driving rain with only a tiny umbrella. Eventually an EAA staffer in a leased new Mustang convertible pulled up and offered a ride. He ended up taking me all the way to my plane even driving/sliding thru the muddy lane to the south 40. I bet Ford will wish they had not provided all those new Ford vehicles for the EAA to trash in the mud!

Many campers awoke to several inches of rain IN their tents the next morning as all the low spots flooded (fortunately my plane and tent were on high ground and I stayed dry).

Glacier Girl, the P-38 rescued from it's ice grave was there and flew daily with a F-4, F-16 and P-51 for some formation passes. It was awesome! I also got to see White Knight carrying Space ship 1 land.
The round the world solo plane was there as well, it's long wings were noticably flexing as it made a couple low passes before landing.
The coolest Ultralight I saw was an all aluminum scaled down Ryan lookalike.

All in all it was a good year, allthough a few of the controllers there were obviously Oshkosh newbies as the plane I was following in turned final on 36 while we were supposed to be turning left downwind for 18 right and left. He proceeded about half way down on final before he realized his boo boo and peeled off to rejoin the 18 downwind. The controllers never saw it and believe it or not I saw two more instances of this later that day. One of these yahoos actually land on 36 left while two RV's on final for 18 right had to pull up and go around!

The controllers every other year have done a great job and typically tell you when to turn your downwind and base then clear you to land on the right or left runway. On this day they did not and some guys were flying east to the lake before turning while others were keeping it in tight which really lent to some bad spacing when finally being told to turn base. Oh well, for once the arrival was exciting!

304065 · 08-01-2005, 08:00 AM

Hmm. Maybe they should revise the NOTAM to be more specific about the short final procedures? Like "A/C with 90 knot approach speed or greater make your base over the middle of the lake, slower A/C before the lake?"

It always amazes me that there are no midairs despite being the world's busiest airport for the period.