CoolPix - Misc: Fabulous Whirlybird View Of Oshkosh 2010

(click pic for hi-res)

 Oshkosh 2010 was the year I finally went for a Bell 47 ride over the grounds. I've really grown to like the sound of those impeccably maintained whirlybirds flying over the event all week long, and this year, I decided I needed to see what the view was like from one of them. Bottom line: the view is really good. (Duh!)

 My friend @adamcanfly and I had decided to walk from the campground out to where the Goodyear blimp was moored to get some pictures (which is when I got this blimp CoolPix) and that put us right on the path to the Bell 47's operating out of Pioneer Airport over by the EAA Museum. I had planned to work a ride in at some point so I could hopefully get a pic like the one above for you all to see, and that evening looked like my chance.

 As with pretty much all the images I choose for the CoolPix feature, the idea is that you click it to make it big, and then you take a moment and look closely at the details. In this one, you get a great view of much of the commercial exhibit area, and then on to the east you can see AeroShell Square. This was Thursday evening after the airshow, so the Square is a little empty looking. The C-5 that took up a boatload of the Square late in the week was still about 2 hours away at this point. You can see 5 DC-3's toward the back right in the pic, and at the far left, being towed down the taxiway is the Erickson Air Crane named Goliath. There are several other aerobatic aircraft behind the Air Crane making their way to the other side of the airport for the night, including the last airplane in the lineup, Kyle Franklin's Waco Mystery Ship. At the very top of the pic is a little view of beautiful Lake Winnebago as well.

 I was a little surprised how the route we flew gave such an awesome view of the grounds. I knew it had to be a good view, but I just didn't expect it to be this great. It was incredibly refreshing to get off the ground during the event, and getting such an amazing view at the same time, well, it was just perfect. I highly recommend you go for the ride when you can. It was an especially good experience after all the unique challenges that had been dealt with early in the week with the very wet grounds and delays getting thousands of airplanes into the event... seeing Oshkosh looking exactly like 'Oshkosh' from above was a really good thing thing to see : )