It's day 4 in Oshkosh, and the fair weather continues to hold out, despite the bad weather forecast! I am no longer surprised to expect Thunderstorms in the afternoon, but I am amazed by the number of aircraft already departing Oshksoh. The stampede to depart began early yesterday morning, and it continued throughout this morning and later on in the evening. I’m sure that the weather forecast has played a part in instigating these early departures, but it nevertheless greatly surprises me. I expected that AirVenture would build up to a climax towards this coming weekend. So far that has not proven the case, however, and there are many empty camping spots dotting the North 40.
Today we ventured to the EAA museum. It’s a modern building located to the west of the main exhibition grounds, and is home to amazing aircraft, replicas and shows throughout the day. Entrance is free for EAA members, and there’s a small nature park surrounding the museum that is in stark contrast to the runways and paved parking areas that cover the rest of the grounds. The museum is pretty amazing, with dozens of different exhibits and attractions. Burt Rutan, the well-known experimental aircraft designer, is shown with a number of his aircraft designs, including the famous Voyager aircraft. The Voyager remains the only aircraft to travel around the world without refuelling, and there’s a replica of the fuselage in the museum. I can’t believe that two pilots were able to fit into the cramped cockpit, much less remain there for hours of flying! The aircraft is extremely light, relying heavily on composite material, and in construction can be seen as similar to the White Knight 2, which is the world’s first all-composite aircraft.
After viewing the museum’s other attractions, including several flight simulators and a fully restored Dehavilland Mosquito, we proceeded to the vendor areas which we had not yet explored. Hundreds of aviation vendors are present, and many pilots wait until Oshkosh to make their purchases. Nevertheless, we found the vendor exhibits on the whole rather useless and boring. The only part that interested me was the electronics; the glass cockpits available nowadays are truly amazing, and there were also nearly a dozen fully-equipped flight simulators.
Time passes extremely quickly, and by the time we departed the museum, most of the day had already gone. We returned shortly to the exhibition grounds and walked through some of the vendor exhibits before returning to the North 40. Everyone in our group prefers to watch the airshow from under our the oak trees near our aircraft. We have discovered a great pantry at the Hilton hotel, while I’ve also found that the internet works manageably well in the afternoon, when most of the pilots are occupied at the exhibition grounds! It’s an extremely memorable experience, sitting in our lawn chairs under a clear Wisconsin sky, watching the airshow from a distance while warbirds and stunt planes take off from the runway in front of us in order to prepare for their performances. As my Dad wryly commented, we’re living a very “rough” camping lifestyle!
We once again went to the Hilton tonight for the buffet. The Flyin theatre tonight was featuring a movie about Vietnam called Bat 21 which we didn’t care to watch, and instead we went to the warbirds section during the evening sunset and shot some wonderful pictures. I’ll try to upload them to my Album once I manage to get a better Internet connection. Enjoying every minute of Oshkosh; it finally is beginning to feel like summer weather once again... for a while it still felt like a rainy November on the west coast! Good night for now from Oshkosh!
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