Saturday August 2nd, Oshkosh - Red White and Blue Skies

Today the weather was perfect! We plopped our chairs on the flight line early in the morning and went strolling again. We bought our obligatory T-shirts to support the cause and prove we came. Again we found areas we had not even touched..the hangers are full of vendors with way cool gadgets for aviation.

We also found more unique planes, this jet is a kit from Sonic you can build, it has a range of 500miles and anyone can get certified to fly it....it later flew a demo during the show..I want one.

Insert Lancer pic SatOK_2014_08_02_0179

Here is a pic of the most beautiful Lancier I have ever seen...what a paint job and attention to fit and finish this guy did....I flew one of these that belonged to Don Thompson, it is like flying a Porsche, very exciting plane.

We headed back early to camp to ensure we had time to get showered and packed up since we planned to leave after the afternoon show. Turns out we had plenty of time since I forgot that my clock was still on eastern time and when we got to our flight line chairs we realized it was only 1:30PM not 2:30. Oh well, it gave us time to go find some of the famous Wisconsin cheese curds we heard so much about. They were OK, I guess you need to be from Wisconsin to crave them. They clearly save the best shows for the weekend...wow...what a performance by all.

Even some of the planes we saw earlier in the week did a more complete show. I guess weather could have played a role since you could not ask for more perfect weather at show time, low 80's clear sky and slight breeze.

The theme for the show was war birds, for over an hour straight they flew over 30 WWII planes at once, the sky was just full of WWII planes in squadron formation, if that did not put a lump in your throat nothing will. Then they started the strafing and bombing runs, they have radio transmitters in the planes that detonate the charges on the ground, it is deafening and you can feel the heat. They even do a Napame simulation they call the wall of fire, it is quite spectacular.

Unfortunately I some how hit the program button on my camera and I took 40 pictures that were over exposed....just white. Too bad there were some neat demos by the coast guard, the Osprey, Patty Wagstaff and others that I have no pics of. At least I realized and corrected it before the Tbirds show.

The Thunderbirds were amazing, lots of formation low altitude flying, beautiful.

One of the things that really makes Oshkosh special is the Jumbo-tron and the sound system. During routines the pilots, including the Tbirds, come on the PA system and talk to the crowd. The pilots look like bobble heads on the Jumbo-tron as they do tumbles and rolls, they all must have sore necks after a show.

As we packed up, left Oshkosh and headed for Sturgis, we know we left plenty to see and do for another visit some day. It really is an experience worth doing. The EAA does a great job, the grounds are spectacular and clean, if there is a paper on the ground you will see a spectator pick it up and put it in the trash, pretty cool.

One thing I did not fully appreciate is the link between EAA and our military, they are very close. The EAA even set up honor flights to take veterans to DC this week, a commercial American Airlines 757 landed during the Thursday show and again on Friday night. There are tons of veterans here, it is a very patriotic event.