Days 7 & 8 - The Return

Checking weather and the condition of our feet and legs, we agreed Wednesday was the time to leave. A front passed through Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that we knew we could follow in the clearer air behind. After treating ourselves to the great breakfast buffet at the Hilton Hotel (where the next table over was occupied by Sully Sulllenberger and Jeff Skiles, the heroes of the Hudson water landing) we packed up Wednesday morning, got our gear to Jim Bildilli to haul back for us, said goodbye to Steve Korta (also leaving) and took off east at 1230.

The plan worked well, though the tail wind we had caught us up to the front at the Michigan-Ontario border. Discretion being the better part of flying. we landed at Port Huron, MI for the night. The FBO there loaned us a car to get to the motel and a good restaurant on the St. Clair River that flows out of the south end of Lake Huron.

If anyone wants to see the effect of the loss of manufacturing in the "Rust Belt", Port Huron, MI would be a good place to start! An "outlet mall" near our motel was about half empty with about 10 cars in the parking lot and downtown near the restaurant was a large Mopar (Chrysler) plant standing idle. Pretty depressing! And yet there was a two-man, free, evening concert being presented in the City Park of Marysville that, as Evan said, was pure Americana - older folks on lawn chairs scattered through the park listening to the music, young parents pushing their kids on the park swings, and a big American flag as a back-drop to the stage. We stopped for a moment to capture it all.

Thursday morning dawned with beautiful weather which we followed all the way to the Finger Lakes (Seneca County Airport) to refuel. From there, with the same, healthy tail wind, we were in Manchester in two hours - 2 pm!

So the Excellent AirVenture of 2010 has ended and is now a very satisfying part of our memory banks. Time to start planning for the next adventure.... Thanks for reading!

Day Six Pics

Privately Owned F4

Line of Vintage aircraft

Day Six - War Birds, Vintage Aircraft, and Crowds

Another beautiful weather day brought more planes in and huge drive-in crowds to OSH. Though the "North 40" aircraft camping area has no where near the hundreds of planes it normally has in a normal, dryer year, the good weather is bringing in large day crowds so the place has been hopping! Lots of war bird activity today with P-51's, Corsairs, B-17's, and other miitary aircraft flying. No modern jet fighters yet, only Korean war vintage stuff. We expect the heavy iron will be later in the week.

I spent the day in the War Birds and Vintage Aircraft areas marvelling at the amazing efforts, and money, people have expended to maintain these classic aircraft. In the War Birds category, besides the "usual" P-51's and Corsairs there is a PRIVATELY OWNED AND MAINTAINED F-4 jet fighter and a Harrier vertical take-off jet fighter! Just to fuel those aircraft would take all the money I have! The Vintage Aircraft included 1930's -era classics by Waco, Stinson, and the most beautifu Stagger-wing Beechcraft! One of the latter was owned by Barron Hilton. We're all grateful to those with the money to keep them flying!

Our congenial tent neighborhood has diminished as Gary, the ex-Flying Tiger captain pulled out in his Skybolt biplane headed back to Nevada, and our Cessna 172 neighbors from Wichita, KS pulled out this evening, too. They both started to leave but were held up for a while because a biz jet crashed on the main runway, 18-36. As they left, in the amazing spirit of sharing that permeates this place, we inherited left over ice, groceries, and a chair.

Looking at the weather and gauging the condition of our feet and legs, we are thinking we will leave Wednesday or Thursday. That will be a call we make after more consultation with the weather radar.

So tomorrow is uncertain but whatever we do, it will be fun!

Dick

Day Five Pics

A Sikorsky Sky Crane used to deliver the 2011 Ford Explorer.

The crowd at show center.

A line of aerobatic biplanes.

Day 5 - Trying to absorb it all!

Today was the first official day of the BIG SHOW and the weather was perfect for wandering from vendor to vendor, plane to plane, conversation to conversation. The number of planes flown in by campers is significantly less because of the long wait for the grounds to dry and the campers opting to leave their planes at surrounding airports and just drive to OSH and camp. So we are seeing tent cities with no airplanes - a major departure from past years.

We wandered separately and I found myself sort of going in circles trying to decide what to see next. There is just SO MUCH! Most of my time was spent looking at little known new aircraft lines or unusual "niche" aircraft. Examples are:
The Terrafugia - the latest attempt to create a flying car (or roadable airplane)
The IconA - A very sleek-looking pusher amphibian for two (pretty limited market)
Light sport aircraft of every shape and design - Everyone seems to be trying to get in to this new market though sales have been slow (they still cost $100K!)

The first air show was well run with one aerobatic act quickly following the last for 2 1/2 hours! The new aerobatic aircraft are so light, so over-powered, and so strongly built that the typical routine has the aircraft tumbling through the air - sideways, tail first, and every which way! The show was closed by a stunt paid for by Ford where they had a Sikorsky sky crane helicopter bring in the 2011 model of the Ford Explorer, its first public display. Edsel Ford, himself, drove it from where the sky crane left it on the runway to the show center. That stunt was followed by an outdoor concert by Chicago, music well matched to the crowd!

One interesting incident occurred when I went to get a bite of lunch at one of the concession stands and sat across from an older gentleman. As is the custom here, we immediately started talking about flying and airplanes and how we got there. I suddenly realized, as did he, that he was the same person with whom Steve had had an hour-long conversation the afternoon before! Steve had told us of that conversation as the guy WAS fascinating. We both marveled that out of 80,000 people that "rematch" had happened.

Steve struck up a conversation with yet another ex-Flying Tiger captain and even got us an invitation to a party that his group of pilots - the Beechcraft crowd -is throwing Wednesday night!

Tomorrow will be a Warbird day for me. And another air show!

Dick

Day 4 - pics

A futuristic wing tip winglet and the historic plaza in the middle of AirVenture.