Check out more Oshkosh photos in the gallery.

EAA Video: Airventure 2010

Time to get psyched for Oshkosh, “The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration.” Be there or be square!

EAA Video: Around the World on 100 hp

This is one of the most inspirational videos I’ve seen in a while. Mike Blyth and James Pitman, a pair of South Africans — along with their team at The Airplane Factory — have designed, built, and flown a developmental prototype Experimental Light-Sport Aircraft (E-LSA) called the “D6 Sling” across the Atlantic to Oshkosh, and are continuing around the world. See more photos and video at Around the World Expedition 2009.

Airventure 2009

My humble photos just don’t do it justice compared to this gorgeous video by Slick Hutto from YouTube. Watch it in HD and full screen if you can.

• WhiteKnightTwo. I’d been waiting to see this thing in person since it was first unveiled last summer. It’s such a unique aircraft with such a fantastic mission — commercial human spaceflight — that it was easily the highlight of the show for me. As far as I’m concerned, Pete Siebold (chief test pilot at Scaled) has the best job in the world.
• Burt Rutan and Virgin Galactic. If you’re in the aviation business, I guess you either love Burt Rutan or hate him, but there were very few of the latter at his presentation on Tuesday. Mr. Rutan’s name will almost certainly be remembered with the other great pioneers of flight.
• A Sea of Van’s Aircraft. This was my first Oshkosh experience where I really felt that building an airplane was within my reach. I’m sure I’d meandered through the RV’s in past years, but I don’t think I really knew what I was looking at. This year, I was awestruck by the waves of Van’s aircraft that have been built and flown to Oshkosh. The ball is rolling. I will build an airplane.
• Sheet Metal Workshop. I’d taken a SportAir workshop earlier this year, but I really wanted Dad to have the same experience, because I thought it would be great if we could work on an airplane together. We both learned a lot, although our finished product left a little to be desired. They didn’t kick me out of EAA after seeing my (lack of) riveting skills, though, so maybe there is hope for us after all.
• Airbus A380. The largest airliner in the world is impressive to see, even if (like me) you’re not easily impressed by airliners anymore. And the way those test pilots maneuvered that beast through its flight regime — especially the slow end — was enough to wow any crowd.
• AeroShell Aerobatic Team. I don’t know what it is about these guys — whether it’s the deafening roar of the T-6 Texans, the flashy red-and-white paint jobs, or the smooth harmonious formation aerobatics — but the AeroShell team is one of my favorite acts to watch. I don’t think you’ll ever find me slamming an Extra 300 around in a competition, but the easy grace of the AeroShell boys is something I’d like to aspire to.

Well, it was a refreshing few days in Mecca, and my aviation batteries are definitely recharged. Now it’s time to buckle down and make some of these dreams a reality.

Check out the rest of my Oshkosh photos on Flickr.

EAA SportAir Workshop, Oshkosh

I’ve just completed Day One of the EAA’s Van’s RV Aircraft Assembly SportAir Workshop, held at EAA’s immaculate headquarters in Oshkosh, WI. So far, it’s been a fantastic experience, with plenty of one-on-one help available, since class size is limited to sixteen.

The morning began at 8:00am with a classroom discussion covering the building process, tools, workspace, materials and processes, peppered with lots of specific questions from the peanut gallery.

Since there just isn’t enough time in one weekend to address everything involved in building a kitplane, the focus quickly shifted to the specifics of the project du jour–a miniature wing section (provided by Van’s)–and the required skills to slam it all together before time runs out on Sunday.

After a quick break for lunch, we moved into the well-appointed shop across the hall, and began learning our new skills. Before starting the wing section, we practiced by joining two small sections of aluminum skin together, and then riveting them to a piece of angle. No prep work had been done, so we had to measure, lay out and properly space the rivets, drill, deburr, dimple, countersink, cleco, and then squeeze, buck and backrivet the stuff together.

It was great to finally get the feel for the specialty tools like the air drill (awesome), the cleco pliers, the C-frame dimpler, the deburring tools, the 2X rivet gun and sets (backriveting ROCKS), and the rivet squeezer (buy a pneumatic one!). All in all, it was a nice, no-pressure way of getting a feel for all the basics.

We then took these new skills and began to apply them to the wing section, which required a more careful reading of schematics, as well as the new skill of trimming with the aluminum shears. We got about 1/3 of the way through this mini-project when time ran out for the day, at which point my body was definitely ready to be horizontal.

Oshkosh Fisk VFR Arrival

Check out this outstanding tail-cam video of Larry Bowen’s RV-8 “Nifty” arriving at EAA AirVenture 2007 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It’s a great example of how the situation in aviation can quickly progress from “uneventful” to “exciting” in seconds.

During the week of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture airshow each July, the Oshkosh Wittman Regional Airport (OSH) becomes the busiest airport in the world.

The “Fisk VFR Arrival” to Oshkosh requires the pilot to fly over the small Wisconsin town of Ripon, then turn northeast, following a railroad track to the smaller town of Fisk, where a group of air traffic controllers are stationed on the ground with little more than binoculars and a radio. The controllers then sequence traffic over Fisk for handoff to OSH tower.

Pilots primarily just listen to ATC on the arrival, and aircraft are identified only by type and color, rather than callsigns, since this would cause too much frequency congestion.

Once in the traffic pattern, spacing between aircraft is tight — often too tight — and multiple aircraft land on the same runway almost simultaneously, on colored “dots” spaced periodically down the runway.

The female voice you hear over the intercom is actually two separate systems: the first (heard on the base leg turn) is the Monroy Aerospace Traffic-Watch ATD-200, and the second (heard in the landing flare) is the Advanced Flight Systems AOA Sport angle-of-attack annunciator.

More information on flying to Oshkosh can be found at www.airventure.org/atc/.

Oshkosh: The Spirit of Aviation

This inspirational video from the EAA website documents the EAA’s annual “Airventure” airshow at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, one of the largest aviation gatherings in the world.

RV-8 Cutaway

I missed Oshkosh this year and it’s driving me crazy. I think I need to build an airplane.

I hadn’t really looked that closely at Van’s Aircraft until recently. I think I’ve just had Lancair on the brain for too long. Being a big fan of Burt Rutan, composites just seemed the way to go.

But I’d never flown a composite aircraft until earlier this summer, when I got a checkout in a Flight Design CTSW.

It was a fun little plane, but to be honest, it just seemed a bit fragile, and with the ham-fisted way I usually land an airplane, I was afraid I’d break something sooner or later. ;)

Now don’t get me wrong, composites are cool, and I still think they represent the future of aircraft construction, but something about this RV-8 is just calling my name. Plus, with the way Van’s offers sub-kits instead of the whole hog, I can get started NOW, rather than waiting until I’m 50 — I like that idea.