Better Late Than Never - Caption Contest #16 Winner Finally Revealed!

 Twitter follower @SirHogarth has burst onto the AirPigz scene in a big way recently.  First he brings his beautiful RV-6 over to my area and we go for a ride and make a little video about it, and then just a few days later he wins Caption Contest #16!

 And I'm glad this caption won too since it's a pretty creative mix of this pretty unique pic with some interesting aviation terminology.  Great job!

 I'm several days late getting this winning post put up cuz I was heavily distracted by my sleep depriving trip to Sun-n-Fun.  I covered over 2,700 miles in just 5 days and had a fantastic time soaking up aviation in Florida.

 Due to fatigue and lack of time, we'll skip the Caption Contest this week, but you can expect another fun chance to earn $20 AirPigz funny money coming up Monday, May 4. 2009. 

Sun-n-Fun 2009 And My Encounter With The Sbach 342

A little slice of Sun-n-Fun 09... and the Sbach 342 that I got to ride in!

 I did the math and have determined that I've slept an average of 4.25 hours a night in the preceding four days! Why? Sun-n-Fun of course!

 Too bad a lot of  those hours awake were spent 'ground bound' on I-75 covering the 1,150 miles between my house and Lakeland Linder Regional Airport!  But if you're an airplane nut like me, lots of white-line-fever and not much sleep is a pretty good trade for seeing so much aviation in one place. Plus, now more than ever is the time to be supporting any aviation event.

 I hadn't been to Sun-n-Fun since the early 80's when I had the incredible opportunity to travel there (and back) in the very rare 1936 Stinson Model A Tri-Motor.  So I was curious to see what the event was like now in 2009, and in the midst of "this economy" as so may are prone to call it.

 I'm really glad I made the trip, it was very well worth the time spent and the lack of slumber.  Especially when you make sure to dig in a bit and take in the details. If you only go to see the biggest or mostest of something, you really miss the heart and soul of events like this.

 It's the things you learn, the people you meet, or maybe even the best picture you ever took that make the experience extra special.  Even unforgettable.

 I don't know what the attendance numbers look like for 2009 compared to previous years, but I sure saw a lot of very happy people covering the grounds the time that I was there. There was a ton of cool things to see and do which translates to: if you weren't there, you should have been.

 It was especially cool to meet up with lots of people from twitter. It was like going to the event with a big pile of friends, even tho we'd never actually met before. I've never experienced an event like that before, with a lot of people to continually interact with.  I liked it.  More on that later as well as several posts with SNF details.

 My SNF highlight came from meeting Kevin Eldredge from www.sloair.com. He's is the U.S. distributor for the Sbach 300 and 342 airplanes, and he's also known for flying around in circles (really fast!) in 'Relentless', his awesome Nemesis NXT.  As for the Sbach 342, it pretty much drained my saliva glands the first time I saw it at OSH 08.

 It wasn't just the meeting him that was cool tho... it was the 15 minute rocket ride I got in the Sbach 342 that was out-of-this-world!  I'll have much more about that to come before long, including a bit of video, but right now I've got 1,150 miles of white-line-fever that's calling me back home. 

Getting To Know The AarrrrV-6 (RV-6)

Check out Dave's blog at PapaGolfChronicles.com

 Saturday April 18 was an absolutely perfect day for flying in the Midwest... about 70 degrees, light winds and a beautiful blue sky with a light mix of wispy high clouds to take the sharp edges of all that sweet sunshine.  It was a great day to be alive!

 It just couldn't have worked out any better that Dave Gamble (twitter: @SirHogarth) was meeting me at the Warsaw, Indiana airport (ASW) with his Van's RV-6 to give me a ride in one of the most popular homebuilts designs ever.

 This was also a great chance to try putting together an AirPigz video of the experience as well.     Dave made the trip from the Columbus, Ohio area and arrived right about 10am.  The airplane looked great, just like it did in the pics I'd seen of it.  I've always been a big fan of the RV-6, but this was my first chance to actually go flying in one.

 I didn't have very many of the video details figured out in advance, which worked really well to keep things loose and relaxed.  Because of this, Dave and I had a great convo about RV-6's in general as well of lots of info on his specific airplane.

 The video is about 15 minutes of getting to know Dave and his wonderful airplane.  And you'll get to see why it's called an AarrrrrV-6!

Line Up Now For Caption Contest #16 - Ends Tuesday 4-21-09 At 9PM EDT

 The line forms here for Caption Contest #16... so get out your wacky cap and have some fun thinking up a cool caption, or three.  I don't have an obvious direction to go with this one, but it just seems that there must be some great roads to go down with this pic.

 Here's a big thanx to everyone who has played the game since we started back in December.  I appreciate your participation and creativity.  And remember that the winner of the poll that runs right after the game will get a  nifty $20 AirPigz funny money.

 The Rules:

1) Max of 3 submissions per person

2) Submissions go in 'comments'

3) Game ends Tuesday at 9pm EDT

4) Keep it clean!

 Then, Anyone who wants to cast their vote will be able to after the poll goes up around an hour after the 9pm Tuesday submission deadline.

 We'll vote for 24 hours, til 9pm EDT on Wednesday. Then the winner will be posted Thursday morning. So c'mon, hop on board and have some fun.  Just be careful, that first step can be a real doozy!

Stunning HD Highlights: Red Bull Abu Dhabi!

RedBullAirRace.com for more!

Aluminum Overcast Forecast For Oshkosh 2009 - Airbus A380!

Airbus A380 Photo: Airbus

 It's not just a big deal, it's about 1,200,000 lbs gross weight of a BIG DEAL that the Airbus A380 will be at Oshkosh 2009!  This is definitely the kind of overcast we like to see in an Oshkosh forecast!  

 The airplane is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, July 28 and provide an air demo.  Then it'll be on display in AeroShell square where we can get up close and personal.  Departure is planned for Friday, July 31st. 

 Take a minute to check out this awesome 360 view of the A380 flight deck below.  You can mouse around the big honkin' front office of the world's largest airliner!

 There's no doubt that seeing the A380 fly at Oshkosh, and having it on display where we can walk right up to it is gonna be an extremely special treat.  Hmmm, now if we could just get the 787 there too : )

Click the pic for an unbelievable 360 view of the A380 flightdeck!

Awesome HD Video: Paul Bonhomme Demos Abu Dhabi Red Bull Course - Must See!

 Wow!  What a great ride on this vid with a fab multi view of the Red Bull Air Race season-opening track at Abu Dhabi.  A must see!  (I really like watching the ailerons deflect thru the run, I'm weird like that)

 The qualifying day is Friday April 17th, and the races take place on Saturday the 18th.  We're wishing everyone well, and hoping for a great start to the 2009 season... Godspeed Red Bull Air Racers!

Caption Contest #15 Has A Winner!

 Congrats go out for a second week in a row to AirPigz twitter follower @MontanaOne for winning another Caption Contest!  I tried for 15 minutes to find a video of the old Alka Seltzer commercial that made that line popular back in the 70's but I couldn't find it. 

 I found a new ad from 2006, but it's nowhere near as good as the old original.  Well anyway, another Caption Contest has run its course and we can start thinking about the next one.  But first, I'm feeling kinda stuffed... might be the right time for a little plop, plop, fizz, fizz : )

A History Video On Autogiros And Helicopters - Very Interesting

Alaska Airlines And Hannah Hamberg Get It Done Right!

The beautiful 'Spirit of Alaska' from the 'Paint the Plane' contest

 

16 year old designer of the artwork Hannah Hamberg putting on the finishing touch!

 

Lots of kids (and Hannah) at Sitka, Alaska on April 9th enjoying the unveiling ceremony

  I have a passion for airplanes, graphic design, and for people who do the right thing.  So, I've pretty much got a wild triple play going on with the "Spirit of Alaska" graphics on one of Alaska Airlines 737-400's.

 This beautiful airplane is the result of the "Paint The Plane" contest that the airline sponsored to help celebrate Alaska's 50th year as a state.  The winner of the extensive design contest was chosen on January 3, 2009, the 50th anniversary for Alaska statehood.

 And, as I covered in an earlier post, the winner was Hannah Hamberg, a 16 year old from Sitka.  In my opinion, her design, and the theme of "We're All Pulling Together" is absolutely fantastic!  What a breath of fresh air in a world that seems to get more polluted everyday... and I'm not talking ecology here.

 The "Spirit of Alaska" stands in stark contrast (IMHO) to the tacky and inappropriate marketing campaign done by Southwest and their Sports Illustrated tie-in.  At a critical time in our culture, Southwest chose to do wrong, while Alaska Airlines has clearly chosen to stand for goodness and has truly done what is right.

 Plus, from a graphics quality point of view, Hannah's work is a billion times better than the work(?) of the big city people that put together the SI graphics.  Too bad the national news media won't give the 'good' project the kind of coverage it deserves.

 Oh well, the people who are really doing good don't do it for 'show', they do it cuz it's the right thing to do.  My respect goes to Hannah Hamberg and to Alaska Airlines for doing such a great job.  You guys rock!