Oshkosh Pix #4: Wednesday 7.27.11 - The Rain Day (14 Pix)

 There are several of Burt Rutan's unique aircraft designs all clustered together just off the edge of the main display ramp at Oshkosh. As you might expect, this collection of flying machines attracts a lot of attention thru the day. After the rain finally stopped around noon on Wednesday, I put some attention on the Rutan Model 81 Catbird.

 The Catbird was conceived and built in the late 80's by Burt as an outgrowth of a design-project by Scaled Composites (owned by Beech at the time) for a possible Bonanza replacement. The five seat cabin is unusual (imagine that) in having the pilot sit in the middle of the airplane, slightly forward and between the second and third seats. Then, the last two seats are facing aft. If I remember the idea from back in the day, this arrangement kept the biggest part of the body mass fairly close together for CG control while also putting the heads of all five people relatively close together for easy and delightful airborne chat.

 The airplane also had both a canard and an aft mounted (forward-swept) horizontal tail. To learn a boatload more about the Catbird, check out this 1988 Catbird article in Sport Aviation... it'll really give you the inside scoop. Most of the Catbird pix here are from Wednesday. The two without a big crowd around it are from Sunday, before Oshkosh started.

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Oshkosh Pix #3: Tuesday 7.26.11 - A Perfect Day (14 Pix)

 Tuesday morning started very early for me as I joined a handful of other fine folks with cameras at about 5am to get images of Warbirds at dawn. It was a perfect morning for it with still air, an excellent temperature, and some really fabulous clouds in the sky. For my first time out on a 'Dawn Patrol' I thought I got some great images. The following are some of the best ones. And, even of you aren't big into photography, I highly recommend you get up early like this sometime and experience beautiful airplanes in the light of a rising sun. It's awesome.

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Oshkosh Pix #2: Monday 7.25.11 - Let The Fun Begin! (14 Pix)

 Early Monday morning, Oshkosh 2011 officially began... the weather was great and the airplanes were definitely moving! One of the first things I caught were two Ford Tri-Motors working the airplane ride detail. It's pretty amazing to think that these airplanes are technically 80+ years old and yet they are still great flying machines for giving lots of people a view of the world's greatest aviation event from above.

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Oshkosh Pix #1: Sunday 7.24.11 - Before It Starts (14 Pix)

  Even tho Sunday is still a day before Oshkosh officially begins, there's still a ton of things to see and do. One that's always interesting to check out is the Sonex open house over on the east side of the airport at Sonex headquarters. I ran over there at 10am when things got started to see what I could find out about the Onex. As these first two pix show, the Onex is all prettied up for OSH11 with (surprise) yellow paint. I found out that the airplane is still short of 40 hors total time but that flight testing has progressed nicely.

 Initial kits components for the Onex are just beginning to ship to customers, tho the Sonex team is still finishing up the complete package. The good news however is that Onex airplanes will soon be under construction, and there's every reason to think that the follow-on components will be fully prepped soon to keep these builders moving forward. As expected, the prototype Onex was drawing a lot of attention at the open house, and I'm sure it'll be heavily gawked during the week!

 Inside one of the hangars was a second Onex aircraft still under construction, and as you can see, it's a trike version. The airplane looked pretty decent, but in my mind, there's never been a tricycle version of any airplane that looks anywhere near as nice as the taildragger version. However, the already more pleasing lines of the Onex over the Sonex translate to a good looking little airplane, even without paint.

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OSH11 Will Be The Best Oshkosh Ever! (10 Pix)

The Farmers Zeppelin NT is on site at the world's greatest aviation event: Oshkosh!

 (10 pix)

 If you've been paying attention, you'll know I typically put up a pre-Oshkosh post that claims that the current year's event will be the best Oshkosh ever... and each year I believe it's true because the best Oshkosh ever is the one you're at right NOW!

 OSH11 is no different. Even tho this is somewhere around my 34th Oshkosh experience, (just imagine all the memories I have from all that avgeekery) - the reality is that this year will have the greatest impact on me because it's here, and it's now. I hope you're either already here or will be making the trip here soon. I arrived late Friday night and spent the day today setting up my part of the #CampBacon plantation (lots of cool people are living here!) and then I went out to survey how things were looking for the official start of the event on Monday.

Under the tail of the Farmers-branded Zeppelin airship looking forward

 A big highlight for me already is seeing the Farmers Zeppelin airship from AirshipVentures already on-site and looking fantastic. As is common at Oshkosh, the weather can change pretty significantly thru the day, but the sky was pretty much perfect for these pix.

Saturday morning waking up with clouds and light rain at Camp Bacon

 The day started out with the remnant of an overnight storm still bringing us light rain. Nothing like the rains seen last year tho! It wasn't long before the rain stopped and got started setting up more of the campsite along with the sizable @larryoverstreet family and @pilot2b were setting up more of the campsite. By the end of the day, Camp Bacon was filling in with more avgeeks like @adamcanfly, @PilotConway, @DaveFlys and @PilotStu - see pic at bottom of post. Another wave of cool campers are expected to squeeze in on Sunday.

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Welcome Home Atlantis - The Shuttle Era Comes To A Successful End

 This is a long version of the Atlantis STS-135 pre-dawn landing at Kennedy Space Center this morning... the landing that brings the Space Shuttle Program to a close.  If you're short on time, bump up to the 4:30 mark for the final approach, including some fabulous views looking down the lighted runway from the pilot's seat.

 The Space Shuttle has served America very well. Even with the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, and with leadership in Washington that sometimes seems confused about why we go into space, I know I'll always look at the Shuttle as a magnificent accomplishment of the American spirit.

 Thank you to each and every of the thousands and thousands of people who have made the Shuttle Program a reality over the last 30 years. You have done amazing things and made us proud.

The Space Shuttle Program commemorative patch signifying 30 years of service

EAA Video: Elliot Seguin (Scaled Composites - Wasabi Air Racing)

 My friend Elliot Seguin had the opportunity to share his unique aviation experiences in this recent EAA Timeless Voices video. It's a long video that chronicles his journey from being around flying as a kid, to winding up working at Scaled Composites, and also racing at Reno in the Formula One class with his Wasabi Air Racing Cassutt... all this by the time he was in his mid 20's. It's a great encouragement to anyone young looking to make a way forward into aviation, and it shows that persistence is one of the most important elements of reaching your goals!

AirPigz Oshkosh Bacon Parties - Chew The Fat! #CampBacon #OSH11

AirPigz Bacon Parties - Tue, Wed, Thur (6-8pm) at #CampBacon (map) - Oshkosh 2011!

 You're officially invited to stop by #CampBacon (the Oshkosh 2011 home for AirPigz in the EAA campgrounds) for free bacon strips and good avgeek times. I've planned three delicious bacon parties with sweet sizzling swine strips! Tuesday July 26th, Wednesday July 27, and Thursday July 28th... and each day they'll run from 6pm until 8pm. Check out this map for the exact location in Camp Scholler.

 You don't have to let me know you're coming, however, if you use OSHplanner to schedule your forums and others events at Oshkosh, and you add any or all of the Bacon Parties to your schedule, I'll at least have a rough idea of how many people might be stopping by.

 And, if you've won a 'bacon sandwich at Oshkosh 2011' in either the Caption Contest or a Name The Plane game, then these bacon parties are where you claim your prize. Just show up, I'll check my winners list, and then I'll grill you up a nifty meat candy meal : )

 I may have some other surprises for you as well. Check back to this post for updates... and make plans now to stop by and chew the fat!

 I made the trip to Oshkosh (and then back home) last Sunday to meet up with @larryoverstreet so we could register for camping and mark out the site. This spot is gonna be great! It's just down the road (Lindbergh Ave) a little to the east from where I was last year. (pix by Larry)

 The campsite takes up all the space between two of the north-south roads; 48th Street and Forest Home. And it's on the south side of the east-west running Lindbergh Ave. Basically, if you're at the Big Red Barn in the EAA campground and you look south to the end of the fairly long block, you'd see the site. To make it simple tho, it's at the intersection of Lindbergh Ave and 48th street. To make it even easier, check out the big map.

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Video: RC Super Hero Flying Man... Next Up, The Flying AirPigz!

 I stumbled onto this RC Super Hero video via Jack Hodgson's Google+ page. He thought it was creepy cool! but I'm just gonna go with awesome cool! : )  I was surprised that I hadn't seen it before since it's been out for a while now. Anyway, it's very cool stuff and represents continued creative thinking coming from the RC hyperlight foam crowd. As the walk-around video below says, he weighs 3 pounds and has almost 6 pounds of thrust - that's some pretty impressive power. And I like how the prop is mounted right in the middle of his head too!

 If I can find the time later this fall, I might see if I can put one of these together and put the AirPigz pig head and Rocketeer-ish colors on him... wouldn't that make for an awesome way to deliver promo bacon!

Get more info, videos, and the plans to build at RcSuperHero.com

Plan The Perfect Oshkosh 2011 With OSHplanner.com

Click the pic to get started planning your OSH events schedule over at OSHplanner.com

 Oshkosh is without doubt the most incredible aviation event in the world... but as such, you can be sure there's a gazillion things going on during the 7 day event that are competing for your time and attention. Finding a way to filter and arrange all those events, like educational forums, interesting speakers, special presentations, movie screenings, evening programs and much more can be very difficult. But for the second year now, my friend Adam Fast (@adamcanfly)  is making available an amazing scheduling tool that will intelligently help you make the absolute most of your OSH11 experience.

 OSHplanner.com is free and easy to use. And while I could go on and on about all the cool things it does, there's really no need. Just click the link and get yourself set up right now.

 If you're planning to be at Oshkosh, even for one day, OSHplanner will help you to make the most of your time. The site is especially good at helping you resolve conflicts that often arise by helping you know when alternate times may be available for certain events. It's just an amazingly useful tool! So take of advantage of it... and when you get the chance, thank Adam for taking his passion for aviation and his power web-tech skills to make OSHplanner a reality : )