At Air Venture #2
At Oshkosh, WI
Every afternoon the tower shut down the
airport for incoming and outgoing air traffic for the airshow.
Every day it was a tremendous show - it’s really
something you have to see, it can’t be described. The
very best of stunt pilots and airmanship was displayed.
Airshow Time
We saw aerobatic smoke and cloud
intermingled on a regular basis.
Two Waco biplanes with jet engines - they
put on quite a show!
The warbirds were a huge part of the show
at Oshkosh, with a lot of emphasis and credit given to the
pilots who sacrificed the time and sometimes lives for our
country during war times. There were hundreds of restored
old warbirds on display and flying in the shows. It made
us proud of our countrymen and I found it an emotional
experience hearing the stories and seeing what these airplanes
and pilots went through in defense of our country.
A simulated bombing run.
It was not possible to capture all the
airplanes performing at once. At one time my wife counted
over 70 in the skies above us all at once.
Notice all the clouds. Some days
the airshow was delayed until after a rain shower. It
rained every day, but not long enough to ruin the day, and
always cleared up enough that they eventually had the airshow,
even though it was sometimes a little later than originally
announced.
Every night, while we slept in our tent,
it rained, sometimes really pouring. But our tent was
waterproof, and we never had a leak, although the high humidity
caused everything to feel damp, by the end of the week.
We packed most everything damp when we left to come home.
How many pounds do you suppose that added to our gross?
A simulated bombing run, with
pyrotechnics between the runways.
My wife was a really good sport about
this whole trip, but she thought she had seen enough aerobatics
and airplanes so here she sits in the pink shirt and white hat
in front of the homebuliders tent reading a book - with all
this great airplane stuff going on -- go figure.
Watching the airshow in front of the
homebuilders’ hospitality tent.
On two different days they asked
homebuilders to do a fly-by in their airplane while the
announcer described it. I was asked to participate as one
of seventeen who flew. I understand there were over 800
homebuilts on the field.
During our preflight briefing one pilot
asked if we should land between the runways, if we had a
problem during the fly-by. The coordinator said that
would not be a good idea, as there were pyrotechnics set up
there for the simulated bombing to take place later in the day.
( See two pictures up.)
I considered it an honor to fly in the
show. It was the only time during the six days we were
there that I took my airplane up for a flight. There was
so much to see and do that we still didn’t see it all.
My moment of glory
The day before we left the fields were
getting emply, because most people left on Sunday. Monday
morning we planned to leave very early and were prepared to,
but the weather kept us grounded until almost noon. I
kept in constant touch with the weather service and managed to
be second in line when they finally released us to leave.
But by the time I was barely off the runway it seemed, many
planes were passing us above and on either side. Air
control was releasing planes as fast as they could, as we were
all anxious to be on our way.
Actually, there were a lot more of us
still there than we thought. As we taxied onto the
runway, we could see planes coming from everywhere headed for
the taxiway. We realized how fortunate we were to be
number two.
Follow this link to the next page
The field was practically deserted by
Monday morning.
(Our plane and tent, one of the few
left.)
