Oshkosh 2004
July 27-August 2

Our first day, we wandered early through some of the buildings.  This old cockpit caught Jer's eye...let's just say it was high on the 'cool' scale from what I could tell.

He just wished that the grip was in place...

We then headed over to the warbird section to look for my brother-in-law.

These shots, and the follow on shots were mostly taken to give folks an idea of the scale from the ground level.

Corner shot looking at the RV parking lot.  Those are all  RV's in there.  The one on the front corner is solid chromalusion.

On the left side of the shot you can see one of the shuttles that is constantly going back and forth.  Getting from end to end is a lot of walking

Jer snapped this of a formation that really impressed them with their ability to do slow rolls, and never seeming to move an inch out of place.  These guys were good!

I think most ppl have seen shots of the Sikorsky S-38 by now what with all the magazine coverage.  Even cooler close up.

For whatever reason, the Land Rover display really caught Jer's eye, and he spent a lot of time watching the Rovers get stuck due to poor driving.

Masters of Disaster.  Combination racing jet-truck, jet-powered biplane, and aerobatics.  Best show of the show!  Here's the world's fastest semi lit up for its high speed pass.

When not going fast, the semi can make a lot of smoke!

Gotta love those exhaust stacks

3 planes make up the aerial part of the Masters show.  All of the pilots are skilled, but the next shot has the killer plane.

That smoke trail?  It's coming from a jet engine (no, I don't know which one) strapped underneath.  It has enough power so that the pilot can point it straight up and never stop.  Makes a helluva racket as well.  Way cool.

The third plane of the group.

I thought this was an interesting paint job.  The wings also had part of the dragon graphic on them.

I think this guy spends all his time thinking up new ideas on ways to modify his plane, because he had a number of cool ideas.  This is a collapsible handhold to make pushing the aircraft a lot simpler (w/o pushing on flight surfaces).

I'd seen people mention wing lockers on the lists, but didn't know what they meant.  Now I do.  He can get quite a bit in here.  I'm undecided how I feel about having stuff flopping around out on my wing tip if I run into any nasty turbulence.

Auxilliary power anyone?  I guess this guy invented this thing, I think he said Spruce was going to be carrying it.  Anyways, makes it very simple to hookup auxilliary power.  Just clip onto the terminals.

Here's the cover that hides the port.  Pretty slick arrangement over all.

Unfortunately, the light was flat and the colors didn't come out well, but this was a sharp looking plane.

I started looking at the different ways ppl secure their cowl pins.

Lots of variations.  I think I prefer the one's that use a cover plate to hide the whole shebang.

This guy was working on his plane almost the whole show.  Never found out what the problem was, but he had a lot of the motor torn apart trying to fix it.

Patriotic design.  I started shooting tail art when I found it.  There wasn't as much as I expected, but I do like the idea.

Tail art for the plane to the left.

I'm really hoping this guys from Arizona...

Pretty plane, but not colors I'd choose.

This guy painted his to look like a P-51.

His wife's name was Di, so you can see the connection.  No, she didn't quite look like that.

Solid red isn't my thing, but this guy does a good job with it.

I love the Wile E. Coyote shot!

I really wish this had come out better.  This plane is solid chromalusion (or that type of paint, anyways).  If you don't know what that is, it's the paint that changes color based on lighting and how you are looking at it.

Another shot

Interesting paint scheme...

This guy had a blueberry-based chromalusion.  Looked very sharp.

Similar to the plane above, but with a few differences.

This was the prettiest plane out there.  Lancair IV-P with a couple of chromalusions colors.  The stripe design really catches the eye.

Finally a shot where you can see the way the chromalusion changes.  Those color differences on the tail aren't paint differences, that's how the paint changes color.

I visited this aircraft a couple of different times, and grouped them here, which is why the lighting is different on most of them.

Look familiar?  I took a lot of shots of the prototype -10 in case I want to see how they did something.

This was on saturday, when I was scheduled for a demo ride.  Here comes Scott to swap passengers.

Screeeech...

Wingtip, in case I want to look at doing a locker

Time to go, guys!  (That's not me in there...they were running late and this was the guy that was scheduled before me)

I noticed they left the holes open on the end of the HS.  Have to look at the instructions to see if they say why.

Next group, time to go!

...and off they go!

Final shot as the group before me leaves.  I did get my demo ride and it was very nice.  The nose was a bit heavy w/ two guys up front.  I can see a toolbox in the baggage compartment in my future.  Only problem I saw during the ride was that the tunnel that runs between the seats heats up a lot, and I do mean HOT.  I spoke with Ken Krueger about it at the Van's dinner that night, and it's a problem they are aware of, but not sure how to fix.  Maybe a thermal blanket on the engine side of the firewall.  The tunnel is structural, so insulating it in the cockpit is problematic.  Makes me glad I'm looking at a liquid-cooled engine, and will be able to keep the engine compartment cooler.

Top is light blue, bottom is a dark blue.  Very pretty aeroplane.

Jer thought this was way cool.

There were a lot more shots of this thing, but they weren't much different.  Mostly they just indicated how cool he thought the subject was.  You don't want to know the # of shots he took of the Land Rovers...

I love Grumman Widgeons.  I think they are one of the prettiest planes around.  Someday I'll have a IV-P for x-country, and a Widgeon to play!

Last shot.  Different colors than I saw on any other plane.