OSH12 Tuesday 7-24-12: Living the Oshkosh Life (8 Pix)

One of the most beautiful one-of-a-kind homebuilts ever: 1970's era Polen Special

(8 pix - click any pic to enlarge)

 
 I'm definitely playing catch-up this year getting great images captured and put up for you to check out, please hang in there with this one-man-operation as I try to get a grip! I've pulled 8 images to share with you from Tuesday at Oshkosh... it was a very nice day with waaayyyyy too many things to see and do. Of course, that's one of the awesome things we love about Oshkosh!

 Anyway, a handful of pix here to see with short captions to once again remind you why you should be here OSH12 - I hope you enjoy them : )

RV formation demo that includes my cousin Bill Gunn in the red RV-4 on the left wing

The big and very wide nose of a C-17 Globemaster III on display in Phillips 66 Plaza

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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!

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OSH12 Sunday 7-22: Collings A-36 Apache Arrives (CoolPix)

(click pic for hi-res)  The beautiful Collings Foundation's A-36 Apache arriving at OSH12

 In recent years I pushed as hard as possible to put up a large number of images from each day at Oshkosh but there just isn't enough of me to go around these days - so for now I plan to scale back the OSH posts, sometimes giving you just one big pic that's definitely worth seeing. I think this CoolPix of the Collings Foundation's recently completed North American A-36 Apache is one worth seeing! 

 The A-36 is a lot like the early P-51's in that it has the razorback multi-panel canopy and higher aft fuselage behind the cockpit, as well as having the Allison engine, but it differed in a variety of ways, mostly by having dive brakes built into the wings. 500 of them were built but only three remain, with two them now airworthy. This A-36 is in nearly perfect condition after the restoration... it's was amazing seeing (and hearing) it taxi in after arriving today. I'll have more pix and info on this aircraft before long.

 And just so you know, I'm capturing a huge number of images each day, but it's just too time consuming to be able to get very many posted at the end of the day.

Lots Of Cub Yellow At Hartford Wisconsin For 'Cubs 2 OSH'

The classic lines of the 'perfect Piper Cub' at Hartford, WI for the Cubs 2 OSH gathering

(7 pix)

 I finally got all of the jagged little pieces of my life to fit together and left northern Indiana for Oshkosh 2012 this morning. But the plan this year was to stop off in Hartford Wisconsin on the way and take in some of the Cubs 2 OSH gathering. Piper Cubs from all across the country are coming together to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the airplane that's all about low and slow flying with the door open. And then Sunday, 75 of them will join together for a mass arrival at Oshkosh.

 So here's a nice little collection of pictures showing some Cubs doing what they do best on a perfectly beautiful day in southern Wisconsin. Hopefully the great weather continues and we'll see the 45 to 50 Cubs already on-site swell significantly on Saturday.

 Lastly, I wanna say that the Hartford Wisconsin airport is awesome! It's humble, has both a hard surface and grass runways, and is full of people who love to fly... you know, the way airports used to be.

Beautiful taildraggin' Cubs line up on the dry grass that's pretty much Cub Yellow too!

From back in the day when airplanes sat on their tail and were painted with COLOR!

A Cub on takeoff with a passenger in the back enjoying the ride... Cub = smiles

The versatility of the Cub style door is just hard to beat for fun flying perfection

Not all Cubs are yellow! This beautiful Clipped Wing Cub has 90hp and a pressure cowl

Another Cub arriving... this was later in the evening on a truly perfect weather day

Free Bacon! #OSH12 AirPigz Bacon Parties At #CampBacon

AirPigz Bacon Parties on Wed 7-25 & Sat 7-28 (6-8pm) at #CampBacon (map) OSH12!

 I sure hope you can stop by to chew the fat and talk airplanes at CampBacon in the EAA's Camp Scholler at Oshkosh 2012... it's the official AirPigz Bacon Parties - one on Wednesday 7-25 and the second one on Saturday 7-28, with both running from 6pm until 8pm.

 It's also where any winners of the Caption Contest or Name The Plane game need to come to consume their bacon sandwich prize for stellar avgeek performance. 

 Check out this map of the campground to see exactly where CampBacon is located, and then get yourself over there either Wednesday in the middle of the event or Saturday near the end between 6pm and 8pm to say hi and chew some fat : )

Goodyear Blimp Coming To OSH12 (With Retro OSH71 Blimp Pic)

(click pic to enlarge) Goodyear Blimp & N8407 Ford Tri-Motor (now EAA's) at Oshkosh 1971

 The Goodyear blimp will be coming to Oshkosh 2012 and that makes me very happy! I think having an airship overhead while living the avgeek life at the greatest place on Earth is both calming and exciting.  The Zeppelin NT was awesome last year and the Goodyear Blimp will be fabulous this year. Looks like it's scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, July 25th and then will be departing Saturday, July 28th.

 I did a little digging thru the AirPigz family photo album and found this nifty pic of the Goodyear Blimp 'America' from way back at the second Oshkosh in 1971. The annual EAA fly-in and convention was held at Rockford Illinois before making the move to Oshkosh in 1970. I was fortunate to make the last Rockford in 69 as an 8 year old. Then I caught the first Oshkosh in 1970, and every one after that until I finally missed one in the early 90's. This year is something like my 35th Oshkosh experience... and I can hardly wait for it to start!

 Another interesting part of that pic above is the Ford Tri-Motor... it's N8407, the 4-AT (slightly smaller than the 5-AT) that wound up being blown over in a wind storm a couple years later. It's the one that the EAA rebuilt and has at Oshkosh every year. Pretty cool seeing it way back in the day here. It's especially cool for me because my dad and I got to know Chuck LeMaster really well about a year later. Chuck flew this Tri-Motor at Oshkosh and let me take the control wheel that year when I went for the co-pilot ride! A few years later I had the amazing opportunity to travel with Chuck and his crew several times in the 5-AT N414H that he operated in the ride business thru the mid 70's. And I got to do even more of the same with them when he operated N7501V, one of only two Bushmaster 2000's built.

 So I think an old 1971 pic of N8407 and the Goodyear Blimp is a perfect way to keep our eyes on July 23rd and the start of Oshkosh 2012!

Circa 1982: My Dad's 'Breezy' Feet Following A Piper Cub!

(click pic to enlarge)  Following a Cub on a '70 Knotters' tour back in the early 80's

 With the 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub sitting on our doorstep (and some celebration and mass arrival plans scheduled to take place at Oshkosh in a few weeks) I thought now might be a good time to post this old picture I found of my dad's feet following a Piper Cub over some random hills. It's from a '70 Knotters' low-and-slow adventure trip he went on back in the early to mid 80's with a variety of older vintage aircraft and homebuilts originating out of Fort Wayne... he went on two of them back in those days on the Breezy, but I'm not sure which this is from. My guess it's the trip that went from Indiana to Kitty Hawk NC and back, but I'm just not sure. But just imagine the fun he was having following that Cub pretty closely for an extended time while bouncing along at about 80mph. It's just the kind of thing he absolutely loved to do

 A view like that of your feet was very common for both him and I back in those days. We put a lot of time on that hot rod Breezy, and took hundreds if not thousands of people for a ride on it. It had Stinson 10A wings (with flaps), Aeronca Champ tail surfaces, spring steel landing gear and a Lycoming O-290 125hp engine. It was by far the best looking and best performing Breezy I've ever seen... and it was a pure joy to fly. I miss those days. A lot.

 You can see some pix of the Breezy and even listen to a wild journey to Oshkosh I had on it in this podcast: AirPigz Podcast #4 'Breezy To Oshkosh' 300 Miles, 13 Airports And 2 Days (1982). I really miss those days... or did I already mention that?

Will OSH12 Be As Hot As OSH88? (With Concorde Video!)

 I actually posted this Mach 1 Concorde ride video on day number 1 in the life of AirPigz.com back on December 8, 2008. It was the first real piece of content that I produced for AirPigz and it's actually from an old VHS tape I shot way back in 1988. I'd do a better job with the editing here 3-1/2 years later, but it's not bad. Anyway, 1988 was a very hot and dry year, much like it's been for a large part of the country this year. So I thought it might be interesting to wonder if OSH12 will be as hot as OSH88 was. Ha! No way to know til we live it, but one thing we'll sure miss this year at Oshkosh is Concorde. What an airplane, and what an amazing opportunity it was at Oshkosh back in the 80's and 90's for us to see the airplane up so close, flying multiple times, and then for a very few fortunate ones like me (thanks dad!) getting to actually ride Concorde!

 So please check out my primitive video of the incredible ride on Concorde at Oshkosh 88, the ride where we hit Mach 1 while traveling over Lake Michigan! It's all explained in the video. I hope you check it out... I hope you enjoy it : )

 Lastly, my OSH12 Will Be The Best Oshkosh Ever post should be coming soon as well as some info on the upcoming Bacon Parties at CampBacon in the EAA campgrounds. I'm currently cramming 48 hours of work into every 24 hours that passes by so I'm a little strung out at the moment, but that stuff will be up soon. Oshkosh is coming, Oshkosh is coming!!!!!!!

Looking Forward To Reno 2012 (Sept 12-16)... And I Hope I See YOU There

(click pic for hi-res)  Rolls Royce Griffon powered P-51 'Precious Metal' at Reno 2011
 

Race permit & insurance in place... tickets are on sale now for Reno 2012: Sept. 12-16

 Back in 2008 when I was brainstorming the idea for a high-quality aviation blog that would celebrate a wide range of aviation interests, there were two specific aviation events I knew I had to attend and share with you: Oshkosh and Reno. There are many great aviation events around the U.S. (and of course around the world) but these two really stand out.

 The incredible experience of Oshkosh has always been easy for me. I became an EAA member in 1970 at the age of 9 (#57138), and since that time I've lived within a 5-1/2 hour drive (or less) of OSH... that's why I've been there over 35 years. But Reno is a lot farther away from my home in Indiana and much harder to work into the yearly plans. Yet I knew that the Reno Air Races were important and unique to the world of aviation. I HAD to be there. This was especially true since the last time I had attended Reno was in 1970 when I was just 9 years old! (I was actually there 68-70)

 So, I made the long drive to Reno and back in 2009 and 2010, and then in 2011 I was fortunate to be able to let Southwest Airlines do the driving. Unfortunately, 2011 would be a year of great tragedy at Reno. The accident on September 16, 2011 involving The Galloping Ghost that took 11 lives (10 spectators and the pilot), seriously injured many more, and brought the races to an end two days early, put the future of the event in jeopardy. But I've been a firm believer since September 16, 2011 that the tragedy wasn't the result of poor planning or unacceptable risks being taken... instead, it was the kind of freak accident that simply can't be planned for. There is always risk in this life, and sometimes it catches us no matter how prepared we are.

  In the months since the accident, the Reno Air Racing Association (RARA) has been diligent in seeking to make any changes deemed necessary to insure maximum safety for all involved, and they have worked with all the required authorities... best of all, they have been successful in securing the permits and insurance to make the Reno Air Races a reality for 2012. I think this is great news. It's the right answer. It's the right response to what happened on September 16, 2011.

(click pic to enlarge)  Multiple championship P-51 'Strega' up close at Reno 2011
 

 You can be sure I'll be doing everything in my power to be at the world's greatest air race at Stead Field in Reno Nevada this September 12-16 - But I want YOU to be there too! Maybe you're one of the thousands of people who's always been interested or wanted to go to Reno, but for whatever reason you've never made it... or you've been before but not for several years. This is your year. The event needs your support. Air racing needs your support. Please do whatever you can to make plans to be at the 2012 Reno Air Races. This non-profit event has endured significant financial hardship, and for the races to face the future successfully, they need our support, and they need it now.

Please, meet me in Reno this September!

CoolPix: Stearman Beauty In The Early Morning (OSH11)

(click pic for hi-res)

Words aren't really needed here... it's just an opportunity to soak in the shapes, colors, textures, and overall beauty of a classic aircraft in the early morning sun and dew. (be sure to click the pic for the hi-res version)

Enjoy.