Andy Millin giving morning instruction in the art of the "Eagle One " pose. Talk about public service! Suitably inspired, I now go in search of what is new and different at this year's show.
The coolest nav light and strobe combo ever! No power pack and LED's that will outlast me. I gotta have these.
Yeah, a jet pack - that's the ticket! The Martin Jet Pack doesn't actually have a jet, just two ducted fan props. The good news - it runs for 30 minutes on 100LL. The bad news - it costs north of $100,000! I wonder if the sold sign is a gimmick or if someone actually bought one.
John Travolta's plane. Check out the N number. Imagine flying into the show in your own 707. (Imagine the fuel bill)
A big highlight of the show was the Velocity dinner over in the campground. Here Rich Guerra and Brett Ferrell discuss the fact that their planes are flying and that Andy must be taunted.
The weather was as good as it gets at Oskosh. We even blew off trying to go get a glimpse of John Travolta because the cookout was so much fun.
The crack cookout staff at their posts.
A big thanks to Andy and Theresa. They really worked hard to put together a great Velocity dinner and get together. At least 100 people showed up and there was plenty of food and even more collegiality among builders and fliers of our favorite aircraft.
The Velocity / Rocket Racing tents. This was a big, high tech, flashy 3 tent affair.
The Rocket Racer on display. It looks a little different with the liquid O2 tank and rocket engine. It is striking, though, how little else seems to have been changed.
The panel on the Rocket Racer is all business as is the interior. Not a lot of Donna Karan design going on in here.
Velocity was better represented by individual owners than at prior years. We saw a lot of Velocities this year and the quality of the workmanship exhibited was outstanding. Here Race 55 gets ready to take off.
Our friends Scott and Glema flew all over with us when we both had standard Velocities. Scott built a beautiful Lancair IV and finished it before my new XL. We both decided to leave the show on Saturday morning. Scott left at 10:30 and I got this shot of him departing. We then got in our rental car, drove to Milwaukee, flew to Philadelphia and drove home. We had gotten almost to Milwaukee (1 1/2 hours after leaving the show) and Scott called to gloat that they were already home in St. Catherine, just north of Niagara Falls. Way to rub it in! What's that line from Gone With The Wind......"With God as my witness, I'll never fly commercial to Oshkosh again!" Well, something like that. I REALLY want to fly in next year. I spent 20 hours in the garage this weekend and will continue to push hard. We'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment