My First Landing At Oshkosh Was In A Citabria In 1974... At Age 13 (8 Pix)

Here was the Oshkosh 74 campsite with the Citabria in the North 40

3-seat Citabria?

 With OSH14 being just weeks away now, I got to thinking about the first time I made a landing at Oshkosh. I guess I dream about the past since once again I won't be flying into Oshkosh... it'll all be ground-bound again this time around. Nothing wrong with driving in, but of course it's always better to be able to fly in. While things are indeed better for me now than most of the last 5 years, I still seem to have crazy strong headwinds in my life. No matter what direction I go, strong winds are on my nose. It gets tiring, the fuel burn is high, and the ground covered is greatly reduced. Oh well, this is my life.

 Back to that first OSH landing. It was Oshkosh 1974, I was just 13 years old, and I made a nice wheel landing on runway 27. If I remember correctly there was a little light rain at the time, and I know the tail was riding just a little lower than on most of my wheel landings. More on that in a minute. I was in the front seat of our still-smells-new 7KCAB Citabria, which we had picked up at the Bellanca factory in northwest Wisconsin earlier in the year. My dad had taught me early on to fly the Citabria out of the Elgin Illinois airport. The north/south runway there was very narrow and there always seemed to be a crosswind. And I learned in the winter. It was a perfect place to learn to fly a taildragger! By Oshkosh time, still 13, I was quite proficient with the airplane and felt comfortable flying it in various conditions.

 This trip to Oshkosh was a bit unusual. My dad was in the back seat for our flight from Elgin to Oshkosh, which was about an hour and a half long. But today, he was really in the middle seat. My dad had a habit of bending rules whenever it suited him, and for this trip, our Citabria was a 3-seater. My sorta girlfriend/neighbor Cindy, who was also 13, was riding in the baggage compartment along with a small tent and some basic Oshkosh supplies. I think we were still within the CG limits since she was probably only about 80 pounds, but I'm guessing the lack of a seat and seatbelt made this trip a little on the outside of the FAR's.

 Me at 13 with my sorta girlfriend/neighbor (Cindy) in the donut tent at Oshkosh 1974

 Since we had left Elgin with quite a bit of fuel onboard, and with Cindy in the baggage compartment, the airplane definitely was heavier on the tail. If I had been really thinking I would have added 5 mph to the approach speed to compensate, but I didn't. No worries tho, the tail was just a little low as I squeaked the mains on the nice big and very wide runway 27 at Oshkosh.

 I should probably mention that the view from the baggage area in a Citabria is fantastic. The large rear windows extend all the way to the back so Cindy had a great view for the ride. However, the trip back home a few days later was pretty bumpy and she wound up tossing her cookies. It wasn't a big mess tho and we continued on with her feeling better after the upchucking. She was a great friend back in those days and a real trooper for being willing to sit in the back seat of our 3-seat Citabria!

 Below are more pix I found from that Oshkosh 74 trip. There's some pretty cool stuff to see. And of course by now you should now that OSH14 will be the best Oshkosh ever... because the best Oshkosh ever is the one you are at right now! (previous best OSH ever posts: OSH09 / OSH10 / OSH11 / OSH12 / OSH13)

Oshkosh 1974 the day we arrived when I made my first landing at Wittman Field

First year for the War Aircraft Replicas (W.A.R.) and the VW powered FW190

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Poll: Awesome Or Ugly? The 1960's Era 'Dyke Delta' Homebuilt

Dave Williams' beautifully built Dyke Delta at Oshkosh 2010

 I can still remember being somewhere in the EAA campground at Oshkosh in about 1970 or 1971 and hearing John Dyke talking to someone about his Jetsons-like Dyke Delta. Even as a 10 year old I knew this airplane was something very special. I assumed then that the Dyke Delta would be built in large numbers because of its incredible look, its 3-1/2 place cabin, and the relatively high cruise speed of 170mph+ on 180hp. But for whatever reason, this high-performance flying machine never really caught on with homebuilders... only 50 or so have been built from the plans (no kits were available) despite the fact that the prototype for the JD-2 Delta has accumulated over 2,000 hours of flying time since its first flight in 1966.

Dave Williams' Dyke Delta in flight  (photo: eaa.org)
 

 Maybe the look was just too far into the future for people? I don't think that's it, but I did figure that the Dyke Delta is a perfect subject for an Awesome or Ugly poll. As I mentioned in the last AorU poll, every unusual design I've picked so far is one I personally think is awesome. That continues here with the Dyke Delta, which I think is one of the coolest collection of thoughts to ever wind up sitting on the flightline at Oshkosh. You avgeeks in the AirPigz camp usually agree with me, so let's find out again... please answer the poll question below: is the Dyke Delta awesome or ugly??

read more about John Dyke and his Delta in this EAA experimenter article from 2009

Like this post? Tell your friends... use the 'share' or 'email' article links below - thanx : )

The Boomerang (Burt's Favorite Creation) And The Oregon Aero Custom Interior (12 Pix)

(click pic for hi-res)  The Boomerang: nearly ready to fly at Mojave in 1996
 

OregonAero.com

Burt’s favorite creation:

 When world-famous aircraft designer Burt Rutan completed the Boomerang in 1996, the design looked wildly unusual, even for one from a designer who was well known for shattering conventional thought. But while aircraft from Burt like the VariViggen (his first design) and the Long-EZ (his most popular) and SpaceShipOne (his most widely known) were all very different than what we used to seeing, they all were at least symmetrical designs... meaning, if you cut them in half down the middle, the left and right sides had the same shape. But with the Boomerang, even deciding where the middle was might leave you confused!  And once you decided where you were going make that cut, you sure weren’t going to get a left and a right that looked anything alike.

 Interestingly, it was a desire to create a design that ‘flew’ symmetrically that gave the Boomerang such an unusual look. Burt wanted to create an efficient twin engine aircraft that flew nearly as well with an engine out as it did with both running, and would do so regardless of which engine was no longer running. Traditional twin-engine aircraft with an engine on each wing can be very difficult to fly safely on just one engine. Push/pull centerline thrust designs had addressed this in the past, but mounting an engine on either end of the passenger cabin doesn’t create the most comfortable environment to spend 3 to 6 hours. So, using his out-of-the-box creativity and strong engineering skills, Burt designed one of the most unusual airplanes we’ve ever seen. In the process he created his own personal favorite aircraft, and one that accomplished his very safe flying qualities on one engine goal.

One of the world's most unusual airplanes: Burt Rutan's Boomerang

 The Boomerang is built largely of carbon fiber and is pressurized to 4.6 psi. The engines are Lycoming TIO-360’s with the one on the main fuselage making 210hp and the one on the boom making 200hp. It carries about 170 gallons of fuel which gives the potential for economy cruise at 24,000 feet of 240 mph for up to 10 hours making a range of about 2,400 miles! There are five seats total, with the three seats in the back providing excellent stretch-out leg room.

 Restoration:

 Burt flew the Boomerang for several years as his personal aircraft, but some heart surgeries in 2002 changed his ability to fly and the Boomerang was parked. When Burt retired from Scaled Composites in 2010 he was looking for something good to do with the Boomerang, a way for its existence to have an impact on the future. Putting it in a museum would have some affect on the future, but if the airplane was restored to flying condition (from having sat parked for several years) its impact could be far greater. That’s where Tres Clements comes into the picture. Tres is an engineer at Scaled Composites who just happened to be in the right place at the right time to answer ’yes’ to Burt when he asked if Tres wanted the Boomerang. By becoming the leader of a group of people to restore the Boomerang and then fly it as well, Tres could give Burt’s favorite baby the care it needed while helping the world stay in contact with one of the most interesting aircraft ever built.

The Boomerang during restoration by Tres Clements and crew at Mojave
 

 Interior by Oregon Aero:

 You might already know that the Boomerang was a big hit at Oshkosh 2011 when Tres brought it out from California for its first public exposure in over 10 years. Thousands of people looked the airplane over closely with the opportunity to walk right up to it and even see inside with the unique cockpit windshield plug door being open along with the right side fold-down step/door open much of the time as well. If you happened to be there, then like me, you probably noticed that while the outside of the Boomerang was nicely painted and looked great for a 15 year old prototype, the inside looked like an experimental spaceship that didn’t care if you were comfortable or not. This is where Oregon Aero from Scappoose, Oregon comes into the picture. In late 2011, Tres flew the Boomerang up to Scappoose to have Oregon Aero install a complete custom-built interior system in the Boomerang… for the first time since its completion in 1996, the Boomerang was going to be a complete aircraft. (see Boomerang pix before the interior installation at the bottom of this post)

The Boomerang at OSH11 attracting attention before the week had even started
 

 Oregon Aero was started in 1989 by Mike Dennis and his wife Jude to help people fly pain-free by engineering and manufacturing comfortable, safer and quieter products that meet a wide range of customer needs. What started with just one product designed to make headsets more comfortable has grown into a company that offers various headset and helmet comfort products, as well as being a premier supplier of enhanced-comfort and improved-safety seat cushions and seating systems. And, as is shown by the stunning custom work accomplished on the Boomerang, Oregon Aero is an expert at producing interiors for production aircraft, or even one-of-a-kind homebuilts. They’ve reached a level of expertise that they are a significant supplier of enhanced-comfort/low-fatigue ejection seat cushions for U.S. military aircraft like the F-22 Raptor. They are also a supplier of helmet liners, ear seals, and microphone covers for military aircraft, including the F-22.

 Customers wanting an Oregon Aero interior can bring their aircraft to their facilities on the Scappoose Industrial Airpark (KSPB) just north of Portland, or for many interior projects you can ship your interior to them for upgrade. They have customers from all across the country who get seat upgrades or entire interior upgrades without ever having their airplane leave home. And their facilities and staff are up to the challenge of handling whatever aircraft interior need you have. They do work on small aircraft like Cubs and RV-12’s, all the way thru to cabin-class twins.

(click pic for hi-res)  Gorgeous interior by Oregon Aero in the one-of-a-kind Boomerang

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CoolPix: Beautiful Berkut At OSH13... (Remember What Summer Is Like?)

(click pic for hi-res)  Summer, a beautiful Berkut, and Oshkosh 2013. Perfection!

 For those of us who live where winter is wintery, it's been a very wintery winter! In northern Indiana where I live, we've had bitter cold and loads of snow for weeks on end, and it's snowing again this evening. However, the forecast is for above freezing temps for the next several days as winter finally gives us a bit of a break. That gets me thinking about summer, and when I think of summer, I think of OSHKOSH!

 I captured this image of James Redmon's gorgeous Berkut late in the week on Friday when the flightline was showing signs of clearing out, but the extra wide angle lens shows an Oshkosh that's full of life, beautiful clouds and lots of sunshine.

 Ultimately this is another one of my attempts to get you to make plans to be at Oshkosh this summer to experience the world's most amazing collection of aircraft... antiques, classics, ultralights, warbirds, extreme aerobatic, and everything in between. And then there's special attention on the airplanes that have been built by individuals who have the drive and dedication to build an airplane with their own hands. Mix it all up with well over 100,000 of the nicest people on earth and you have the best week of the year, year after year!

Oshkosh 2014: July 28 - August 3

Before Brown Arch, The Blue Arch At Oshkosh 1971 - Nostalgic Picture!

(click pic to enlarge) The humble blue arch at the flightline entrance from Oshkosh 1971

 This pic from my old picture album is what I remember the main gate to the flightline at Oshkosh looking like back in the really old days. 1971 was the second year for Oshkosh (before that the event was in Rockford, IL) and for the first many years of the week-long fly-in and convention, access to the flightline was restricted to keep the general public away from the airplanes. That's why an 'entrance' was needed there in the first place. In this CoolPix image from a post back in 2010 you can see a neat old picture of Ray Hegy's El Chuparosa homebuilt and that flightline fence. Those were some great old days!  

 The blue entrance in the pic above looks to be in the spot just south of where the brown arch is these days, which means it's a current motorized vehicle access point to the flightline. But in 1971 this was the big entrance! After the main entrance moved a few feet north sometime later to the current brown arch spot, it served as the restricted access entry point for many more years... but when the access restriction was lifted, the brown arch became a symbol of the past. Today it's a memorial to the legacy of the event.

 I was I had a lot more of the pictures that my dad and I took back in the early days of Oshkosh, but most of them were lost in some water damage years ago. I was only 10 years old when this picture was taken, but it was already my third trip to an EAA convention. Oshkosh 2014 will be getting me pretty close to my 40th convention! I still get just as excited as I did when I was a kid : )

 If you haven't been to Oshkosh in a while (or ever), then I'd like to suggest that now is a great time to start making plans to make it happen. It's the greatest aviation event in the world, and you should be there!

 Oshkosh 2014

AirPigz #CampBacon Gets Some Love From AOPA And Av8rdan : )

Me with fresh bacon at an OSH13 bacon party at #CampBacon!  (photo: Ron Klutts)

 Avgeeks and social media seem to go together very well... kinda like how bacon and mmmm go together! In the five years since I started AirPigz I've found that connecting with people who love aviation is pretty easy and has led to lots of great friendships. That same kind of friendly spirit spills over into those of us who make up some of the new media that use the internet to educate and entertain about the wide world of flying. A good example of that is how @Av8rdan (Dan Pimentel) has just posted a story about AirPigz #CampBacon (at Oshkosh) on the AOPA Opinion Leaders blog page.

 Since I've not done a very good job of showing what the bacon parties look like at #CampBacon during OSH, it's great to see Dan doing that for me. Special thanks to fellow #CampBaconer Ron Klutts (@Captain_Ron) for sharing a few of his pix from one one of the bacon parties this year... I've included one of them here showing me with a fresh pan of crunch pig. And a big thanx goes out to my friend @larryoverstreet for helping me plan and pull #CampBacon together these last several years... I'm looking forward to many more : )

 So please go checkout the #CampBacon post on the AOPA blog, and then make some plans right now to stop by at one of the AirPigz bacon parties (most likely Tuesday and Saturday evening at OSH14) to chew the fat avgeek style!

(check out future Opinion Leader posts by going to aopa.org and then hover over the "News & Video" tab at the far left of the nav bar... Opinion Leaders is then found under the "Videos & Blogs" heading)

Video: Sean D. Tucker - The Man, Living With Passion

 I've watched Sean Tucker fly airshows since the early 80's but it's only been recently that I've really been paying attention. I got a little disinterested back in old days when it seemed that he was on a path that wouldn't be ending well... and I learned in a presentation he did at Oshkosh on Sunday evening before the big week started that Bob Hoover felt much the same way back in those days. But Bob was a friend of Sean's and he made his feelings known, and it seemed to be a wake-up call to Sean to integrate a realistic level of margin into his routines.

 Sean has proven in these last 15 years that you can have the safety margins needed and still put on a world-class extreme airshow that'll leave the audience just as impressed as they were in the old days. I like that, I like that a lot. I also learned in that presentation that there's a lot of depth, passion, discipline and all around kindness in Sean Tucker. And I think this recently uploaded video does a great job of sharing all that.

 At 61 years of age, Sean D. Tucker appears to be at the top of his game.

Sean D. Tucker Named Young Eagles Honorary Chairman

 (click pic to enlarge)  Video screenshot of Sean D. Tucker 'Living With Passion'

Video Proof Of Why Oshkosh Is The World's Greatest Aviation Event!

 This 4 minute 11 second video gives you just a small slice of what took place at Oshkosh 2013, and yet the avgeekery seen in this just-released FlyWithEAA video is crazy huge. Try to imagine the other 95% that you aren't seeing here. Oshkosh is simply incredible.

 If you've been making excuses of why you shouldn't or can't be there, stop it. Stop it now. It's time to get serious about OSH14. You've got 10 months to get your plans in place, which translates to: there are no excuses. Rich or poor, near or far, there's always a way to make this trip work out if the desire is truly there. If you need help or have questions, send me an email. I'm here to help any way I can.

See you in Oshkosh... the World's Greatest Aviation Event!

(check out AirPigz OSH13 posts) 

 Video screenshot: one of about a million awesome Oshkosh 2013 moments!

EAA Founder Paul H. Poberezny: September 14, 1921 ~ August 22, 2013

EAA founder Paul Poberezny passed away August 22, 2013 at the age of 91

 Experimental Aircraft Association founder Paul H. Poberezny passed away on Thursday August 22, 2013 at Evergreen Retirement Village in Oshkosh, Wisconsin after battling cancer.

 His life-long dedication to sport flying and to the knowledge and encouragement to build your own airplane will live on through the work of the EAA, and the through the world's greatest aviation event known as Oshkosh.

 If you love Oshkosh as I do, then you ultimately have Paul to thank for it. His vision and leadership skills brought the EAA from a small group of homebuilt airplane enthusiasts in his garage in Hales Corners (Wisconsin) to a worldwide organization that has fostered sport flying like none other.

 Oshkosh, the annual fly-in and convention for the members of the EAA reflects the common-sense spirit of Paul with a focus on great aviation fellowship and personal responsibility.

 My prayers go out to the family and friends of Paul Poberezny after his passing.

OSH13: Rutan Catbird... Wide Angle In The Evening Sun (4 Pix)

(click pic to enlarge)  From the late 80's, Burt Rutan's Model 81 Catbird at OSH13

 Two years ago at OSH11 we saw the return of both the Catbird and the Boomerang, two of Burt Rutan's designs from back in the day that had their sights set on possibly re-inventing general aviation. Both airplanes were restored to flying status by people who work at Scaled Composites, giving these fabulous airplanes the chance to fly again and the world the chance to see more of Burt's unique work up close once again. You can check out my post from OSH11 that includes some Catbird pix and a link to more info on this 3-surface flying machine. But this post is really all about experiencing the unique shape of the one-of-a-kind Catbird with a wide-angle lens and a gorgeous evening sun.

 Being out on the flightline at Oshkosh in the evening is one of my favorite things to do. It's time that more effectively puts the focus on the airplanes. It's quiet with not a lot of people (or in the late evening maybe no one else at all) and the airplanes somehow speak more clearly to me. When I saw the Catbird parked near the brown arch with the low evening sun I knew some great pix were to soon follow. Be sure to click these pix to enlarge them, and enjoy one of the world's most unique airplanes in a way you've probably never seen it before.