Somehow we wound up with great sleeping weather for the second night in a row, and after a good night's sleep I woke up shortly after 6am when the first P-51 departed runway 27. It was quickly followed by several more, to the point that I overheard one of my camping neighbors remark, "must be a war somewhere!". Not a bad start to the day. :)
When I finally did drag myself out of my tent, I found our Columbia neighbors packing up their campsite. They had to head home later that day, so we said our goodbyes. I offered to trade them airplanes, my C172 for their Columbia 400, and I bet if I had enough cash I could have pulled it off!
When I finally did drag myself out of my tent, I found our Columbia neighbors packing up their campsite. They had to head home later that day, so we said our goodbyes. I offered to trade them airplanes, my C172 for their Columbia 400, and I bet if I had enough cash I could have pulled it off!
It already looks emptier with their tent down!
Dave and I walked back through Warbirds to grab breakfast at the cafe, then I made a quick stop back at the tent to change into shorts and brush my teeth (now that the bathrooms were apparently working again...Dave had said everything was backed up that morning when he went. Yikes!).
Dave and I walked back through Warbirds to grab breakfast at the cafe, then I made a quick stop back at the tent to change into shorts and brush my teeth (now that the bathrooms were apparently working again...Dave had said everything was backed up that morning when he went. Yikes!).
I did take a minute to drool over this Bird Dog on the way back to meet up with Dave. I'm adding this to my wish list of airplanes...it seems like a good gateway warbird. :)
I found Dave over near a mock army camp, where he had been talking to one of the soldiers. We eventually made our way through Warbirds (and past a few P-51s getting ready to go fly), and made our way back to the center of the airshow. We had a lot more to see today!
We wandered around for a while and eventually found what I was looking for: the EAA Sweepstakes plane! Later this year they're giving away a beautiful 1937 Fairchild 24H. I had already sent in a whole pile of entries, but I figured a few more wouldn't hurt!
We wandered through some more exhibits and eventually wound up back in Boeing Plaza. There were a few guys playing bagpipes, which was pretty cool.
We also wound up being just in time to see the V-22 demonstrate how it folds up to fit on aircraft carriers. It was crazy!
And just when you thought it couldn't get any more compact, the whole wing rotated.
We had planned to spend part of the morning in the Vintage section, so the STOL planes seemed like a good place to start. This guy absolutely swept the STOL competition the day before, and no wonder...there's barely anything to this plane! The little circle on the bottom of the fuselage reads 'Helium Fill Port' as a joke. :)
We weren't even a few rows into the Vintage section and I found my C120's twin! This C140 has the exact same paint scheme as my C120...it was so cute. It made me feel a little sad that mine was back home in VA, sitting in the hangar, but I'll get it out here someday!
Hahahaha...I loved this sign. Not that I ever knew any shops or planes like that. No, of course not.
A few people were camping with their C140s. Poor Dave, I dragged him over to every single C140 I saw. And oddly enough, they were all C140s...I didn't see a single C120. That makes me want to bring my plane out here even more!
There were a few rows of C195s in Vintage Camping, too.
The Vintage area leads out to the Ultralight area and the Ultralight runway. They were constantly taking off and landing.
We also saw this sweet turbine Beaver on floats. The more I looked at the paint job, the more I liked it!
We had wandered pretty far away from the middle of the show and needed to get back to meet up with someone for lunch, so we hopped on one of the Blue trams heading back. They run these free trams all day long and you can just hop on or off wherever they stop...it's a really nice setup! We rode this one most of the way back and talked to a few of the people next to us, until I saw something worth hopping off the tram for...
...some super special Vintage planes! I don't know how I missed getting a good picture of the Vega off to the side, but this Gee Bee QED was pretty sweet, too. It was absolutely immaculate; someone was even touching up tiny specs in the paint off to the side while we walked around.
I don't know if I've ever seen a spinner this polished.
This is the same picture, zoomed in...you could see everything in the reflection!
After checking out the Vega and the Gee Bee we made our way over to one of the big exhibit hangars and eventually tracked down my buddy Mitch, from Chickasha! He had messaged me the night before and we had made plans to meet up for lunch. He had flown up from OK with a few other local pilots, and we caught up while we grabbed some food. It was pretty cool to see him again, and that's one of the cool parts of Oshkosh...getting to catch up with buddies from all over the place!
After checking out the Vega and the Gee Bee we made our way over to one of the big exhibit hangars and eventually tracked down my buddy Mitch, from Chickasha! He had messaged me the night before and we had made plans to meet up for lunch. He had flown up from OK with a few other local pilots, and we caught up while we grabbed some food. It was pretty cool to see him again, and that's one of the cool parts of Oshkosh...getting to catch up with buddies from all over the place!
After lunch Dave and I wanted to get good seats for the airshow, so we started to work our way back toward the flight line. The Republic Embraer was open for tours. As neat as it would have been to sit in the pilot seat, I passed on the tour...I've spent enough time this past year standing in line, waiting to get in airliners!
Dave and I did, however, both agree that standing in line to check out a V-22 was worth it!
The cockpit of the V-22. So much glass!
Dave in the cargo area in the back. It was a decent size, but it honestly was a bit smaller than I expected. We spent a few more minutes checking it out, then headed over to the flight line to get seats for the airshow.
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