Oshkosh 2016!

Wind, corn, and sky

A three-day 1450 mile journey across the vast cornfields of the Midwest brought us to Wittman Regional Airport at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, home of the annual weeklong Airventure airshow.






I made a platform bed for our Honda Element and we packed for a week of camping at the airport's Camp Scholler, which would be home for about 50,000 people--almost the population of Santa Fe. Our wonderful neighbors, Becky and Ted from Austin, were also here for the first time. Surrounded by giant motor homes with humming generators, we felt we were bringing the property values down a bit.

The gorgeous Sunday sunset presaged a week of superlatives.

  Several hundred pilots camped in tents next to their airplanes. 


There was something for everyone: thousands of airplanes for sure, plus balloons, buzzing powered parachutes, model aircraft and drones, flight simulators, movies at night, and even a 5K run. The hundreds of volunteers and professionals made everything work smoothly.

 

Of course, not everything was perfect.

Hundreds of forums and workshops were offered on aviation history, safety, how-to, and technical topics. I took a 2-day course in aircraft electronics and avionics that will come in very handy building an RV-7A.

But it's all about the airplanes. Aircraft on display ranged from the ancient to the latest technology, very fast and very slow, tiny and monstrous, WWI and WWII "warbirds, the practical and the weird, sleek and klunky, homebuilts and experimentals, business jets and gliders.

The enormous C-5M Galaxy cargo plane was really impressive when it taxied in.

The cargo hold is longer than the Wright Brothers' first flight. I waited an hour in line to sit in the pilot's seat.

  

The C-5 was contrasted by diminutive airplanes like this one-seat Hummel.

I guess the aptly-named Murphy Radical, designed for the backcountry, is a cargo airplane too.

One part of the airfield was dedicated to vintage aircraft dating from the early 20th century.

This 1909 Curtiss Pusher will be the oldest airplane flying when it takes to the air someday soon.

Dad learned to fly in a PT-19 in 1942

Movie star

Waco

Spartan Executive with a creative pitot tube cover

American Airlines Stinson route finder

In 1941-1942, Civil Air Patrol planes including this Stinson 10A flew coastal patrols from bases all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts looking for German submarines and were credited with possibly sinking one. They also guided rescuers to the ships that had been torpedoed.

I often thought of my dad, who flew C-47s in WWII, including the D-Day invasion. His logbook showed 1.6 hours that day but nothing else to indicate the significance. The one below was the first aircraft over Normandy during the invasion and has been restored to flying condition. 

The highlight of each day was an afternoon airshow showcasing speed, grace, and amazing aerobatics. 

Aeroshell aerobatic team T-6s

The heavy drone of two T-6 trainer formations recalled days gone by.

The "Jellybelly" Interstate Cadet lands on a truck speeding down the runway

WWII formation

B-25 takeoff

Pan Am DC-3 envies inverted pass

Sean D. Tucker had some great moves.

The well-known performer Patty Wagstaff takes off.

P-40

And who could have imagined a Waco biplane with a jet engine added?

U-2

P-51

P-51 and F4U

F-86

P-51 and F-16 in formation

F-16

F-16 slow pass and climbout

Ford Trimotor

Martin Mars, world's largest fire bomber

Not sure if the Jumbotron helped or got in the way

The Canadian Snowbirds demonstration team flew a beautiful show with up to nine aircraft in formation.

If that wasn't enough, there were two night shows with fireworks and airplanes that thought they were fireworks.

Sparks coming off an airplane is usually not a good thing, but...

Steady the camera!

Onour last day there was still so much more to see!

I squeezed through a tunnel into the nose of a B-25 to look at the famous Norden bombsight. People must have been smaller then.

British Spitfires and pilots in their 20s prevailed during the 1940 Battle of Britain. Churchill said "Never in the history of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few."

P-51s as bomber escorts turned the tide of the air war in Europe

C-46s transported supplies over the Himalayas to China in WWII

P-40s were an early mainstay in the Pacific and Europe

North American P-64 trainer, the only one flying

My dad worked at North American Aviation, so I was a big fan of their airplanes as a kid. He tested F-86s like this as well as F-100s when they came off the production line in the 1950s and 60s He might have flown this one.

Lineup of vintage fast movers

Vietnam-era A-1Ds flew from aircraft carriers.

This re-enacted WWII air base could have been what dad experienced.

On Saturday at noon it was time to head back home. Ears ringing with the rumble of radial engines, I'd had a full dose of aviation, but I'm sure it'll wear off and I'll need another soon.