July 25 thru 29 OSHKOSH!

One reason to come to this region is that we are within a days drive of one of our favorite things to do on these  trips - Go to the Oshkosh airshow. It is a one week extravaganza of anything involving airplanes and the people who pilot them. It starts off with the fly ins. Massive quantities of Cessnas, Pipers, etc. coming in en mass one after another. To experience  Airventure you've really got to take a week sometime and come out. To get a better taste see this site;
http://www.airventure.org/live/
In it you'll find recordings of the tower as they carefully guide 12,000 (yes twelve thousand) airplanes to the ground. You'll also find that there is so much to do, that even if you have no intrest in airplanes, there is always something interesting to go watch, see or listen to.
This years theme was a salute to the greatest generation in the air. It featured lots of war birds, and many interviews and meet and greats with the remaining Tuskegee Airmen, the Doolittle Raiders, a number of airshows with many Classic airplanes from the time, and a re-enactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor, with the Commerative air force's Tora!Tora! Tora! show. Since we arrived mid-week, the show was all ready rolling. Our first night we went to a "Theater in the Woods" presentation of the Tuskegee Airmen, The Raiders, and Dutch Van Kirk the navigator and the only survivor of the Enola Gay.

The theater is designed so even if you can't sit close, you can see on a live TV Screen. The facility  can hold a couple of thousand people. This is where Liz and I first met the Tuskegee Airmen a few years back. They simply filed into the theater and sat down in the row ahead of us. They turned around as the program was presented,and talked with us. Liz particularly admired Bev Dupree, and hoped to get an autograph this time. It happened on our last full day there, and you'll see Liz and Bev talking, and him signing a Warbirds of America decal.

We also listened with fascination to Dutch Van Kirk, the navigator on the B29, Enola Gay. It is amazing how these men both our fathers age, are so vital today.  There were probably 15 Tuskegee Airmen there, all moving like men in their 70's. Bev is in his mid 90's. Dutch is 91. He did forum's in Warbird Ally, did the meet and greats, and gave navigation lessons. Liz and I met up with him, and got his book autographed, although we had to wait for a minute while he and his wife ate ice cream sandwiches, it was in the 80's.
Oshkosh usually honors significant anniversaries, This year a well respected kit maker "Van" was being honored with a fly in of anyone who assembled one of his RV aircraft. There were lots of them, but they did not stand out as a group, because of the customization that the owners had done on them. The Piper Cub on the other hand, another honoree this year, was resplendent in it's distinctive yellow color. This one was originally built in '43 and just had it's first post restoration flight 7/7/12.

Every afternoon there is a 3 hr airshow, with some of the performers we saw in Portsmouth at the start of this trip. There are always some who come especially to Oshkosh, notably the Red Bull guys. Like the people who enjoy this beverage,these performers are seemingly jazzed on caffeine, and looking for anything that hasn't been done before. This helicopter is an example, spending nearly all of his time flying upside down, or getting into or out of nearly impossible situations. From listening to others talk about his performance we learned that this  is accomplished by using special rotors, etc. that allow the ship to fly inverted. The problem is these rotors impart the same degree of instability to these craft upside down or right side up! It's  significant challenge to get them to fly at all.

It seems that despite our best efforts to see this show in it's entirety, we always stumble upon something "new", only to discover that it's been there for several years. This year we heard someone describe the Encampment, so decided to look into it at the corner of the warbird area. It is a recreation of what a remote air base in Europe or Asia might have looked like to our airmen. They had WWII tents, cots, every other type of gear, all with airmen in period uniform, (even the USO girls) camped out. We talked to one fellow who said EAA used to ask them to close up this living museum, and go to other camping facilities on the grounds, but they now encourage them to stay all night, so it "feels" like a real camp.

A few of you may recall to Miracle on the Hudson flight of USAIR a few years back. Ever since the summer after that Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, and Jeff Stiles have been fixtures at EAA.  Jeff tells the story this way. He is from WI, so had been to Airventure in the past. The first summer when they were invited was Sully's first exposure to it. They gave talks, did the meet and greats, and were in a whirlwind. At a Young Eagles (a group enabling kids to fly a plane early, and then get their pilots license) auction to raise money for this program, Jeff thought of the pair of shoes he had on while wading thru the plane to make sure everybody was out. He was going to put them on EBay, but thought this cause sounded worthy. He put them in the auction, and the bidding started. As it calmed down a bit he sweetened the pot with his flight jacket, after awhile when the bidding plateaued again, Airbus' chairman said that Airbus would match the winning bid. They raised $80,000, and Jeff was immediaty approached by Harrison Ford (the actor) the current President of the Young Eagles to assume the presidency. He accepted, and Sully joins him as he can.
 They did numerous talks thru the week, and Liz found that Sully had a new book out on people who exhibit leadership in their daily lives. Since leadership is a class I teach, Liz bought me the book for my birthday, and Sully was gracious enough to talk with me about leadership for a few minutes and sign it! While Sully was talking a jet wound up, and took off drowning him out. Sully paused, identified the plane, an F8 and said "that is the sound of Freedom." One other reason we like to come here is the reminder of what our country can do when challenged by two enemies in battle. Seeing the legacy of these planes, each designed,built, then flown in a VERY short time, makes us grateful to our parents generation, & extremely mindful of our choices when selecting leaders now. We've received a tremendous gift, the ability to live free - we shouldn't let it slip away!