Sunday, August 1, 2010

Who pulled the chain?

Last day at Oshkosh. Affectionately renamed sloshkosh after the wet conditions of the start of the show which we fortunately missed.
Late Saturday had quite a few aircraft and RVs leaving. I guess people who have long distances to travel still have work on Monday. What a stupid thing work is sometimes.
When we got up I had a quick shower. I ran us out of water and blocked the waste all in one hit. Darryn had to use the campground showers.
Once underway we grabbed a coffee and some fruit (including a New Zealand export Braeburn!) and headed off to get a ride in the Trimotor. On the way over we noticed the aircraft had emptied out. About 1/4 or less remained with steady departures. I felt like it may have been a mistake planning on staying for Sunday.
Anyway. We went and payed for our Trimotor ride and jumped on board. Wow.. What an awesome experience.






The flight is basically a big circuit out over lake Winnebago, back to the south of Oshkosh town and back on a close left base for runway 18 at Oshkosh with a split are turn to land. What a delightful old machine. Enjoyed every second of it and it also gave us a good view over Oshkosh.









For a day that had started out disappointing it was going really well so far!
Next I ran into Bill Nut departing for home in his Falco. I quickly chatted with him then went through the hangars looking to see if there were any last day sales. It paid off. I bought a new lightweight traveling cover for my plane.
Next we went over to the EAA museum. There was so much aviation history in there. It was really good although I confess to skimming it a bit. Easy to do after such an aviation 'load' over the previous days.
When we got back to the flight line the airshow was underway. We were expecting a similar display but once again it had a lot of new content. A really good show. But wait. The best was yet to come.
While the show was going all the exhibitors and fly-aircraft were preparing to leave. The SECOND the show finished they were starting up and departing. We happened to be standing at in intersection of 4 taxiways. From behind us the que was stacked up two wide, to each side there was a sincle file and they all had to get down a single file taxiway then line up on the runway two wide and two deep and departed down each side of the runway in 5-10 second intervals. The activity at the intersection was the highlight of the day. There was a lady ground marshaller who was absolutely fantastic to watch. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. With no radio comms at all she sorted out the whole mess by just waving her battens but in true American fashion. It was yet another site to behold.




Actually it was totally bloody outstanding I'm really pleased we stayed to watch it.




On the walk back to the van the place was quickly becoming a ghost-town. Even the announcer went from full stream talking to "we're outta here, see ya next year"- click - silence.
All the hangars were empty and most tents ether empty or gone completely. It was like someone had flushed the place!
The RV park had about 2% of the original capacity so we decided to set heading for Milwaukee and enjoy a comfortable night in the hotel. After a nice shower and something to eat here I sit blogging.
Another full, highly enjoyable day!


More to come in a few minutes.

- Posted using BlogPresse from my iPad

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