OSH12 Monday 7-23-12: A Great Day To Go Flying! (15 Pix)

Me in the co-pilot seat flying Cory Robin's WilgaBeast on his last leg into OSH from Utah

(15 pix)

 The first day of Oshkosh 2012 was fantastic for me as I had the great opportunity to meet up with Cory Robin and his WilgaBeast early in the day down at the Portage Wisconsin airport, about 60 miles southwest of Oshkosh, and ride along on his final leg from Utah. I'm very familiar with the Polish-built Wilga as my dad had one back in the late 80's that I got to fly a fair amount, including bringing it up to OSH88, so getting a little stick time in the Wilgabeast was a ton of fun. It was a gorgeous day and the arrival process into the airport with the world's busiest tower worked great... and we got some GoPro video from out on the wing that gave an awesome view of the approach and landing on 36L. The video screenshot (2nd pic below) gives you an idea of how cool the video will be once I get it posted sometime after Oshkosh.

(click any pic below to enlarge)

The awesome view of 36L at OSH from inside the Wilgabeast - great day for flying!
 

The GoPro video camera view of the approach (camera mounted at the tie-down ring)

  The large and unusual Wilga after we parked in the Warbird area - more on that later

 Getting to arrive on opening day via the air was a really special treat for me, but you don't have to arrive from the sky to have an incredible time at Oshkosh. The following are some additional images from the first day of OSH12 without a lot of explanation... mostly they'll just show you that if you aren't at OSH12, you should be. I know it's often difficult to make the trip to Wisconsin work out from both a time and money point of view, but if you can only do one aviation event a year, this is the one to get to!

A great view of people and airplanes... that's what Oshkosh is all about!

Matt Chapman in the beautiful Embry-Riddle sponsored CAP 580

The 'Red Tail' Tuskegee Airman P-51 operated by the Commemorative Air Force

The 75th anniversary gathering of Cubs is a beautiful sight at Oshkosh 2012

A stunning 1964 Comanche 400 with polished skin and the cool 'N' number of 64400

More beautiful Cub yellow to soak in... I never get tired of it : )

An older 1938 Piper Cub with a Lenape AR-3-160 radial engine

After the airshow I was blown away by the STOL performance of the newest Highlander

This amazing wing makes the Highlander both slower and faster - more on this later

A great takeoff view of the Hummel UltraCruiser in the evening Oshkosh sun

An interesting twin powered weight-shift 'rogallo wing' ultralight