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#1
07-27-2019, 04:31 PM
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OT: any pilots / aircraft owners / airplane geeks?
have been interested in planes my entire life. my earliest childhood memory is sitting on the hood of my dad's car watching DC-3s / DC-4s start up at the local airport.
got to check off a bucket-list item last week and attended the 2019 EAA Oshkosh Airventure fly-in last week. was fortunate to travel in appropriate style and sit right-seat in my buddy's 1978 Mooney M-20J. to make the experience even better, we arrived as part of a large formation with 66 other Mooneys. the caravan was organized in 3 sections, each with multiple 3-plane elements. spacing was pretty tight, about 25 feet between aircraft at times. once at Oshkosh, everyone tent camped next to their aircraft. the venue is ridiculously large...total attendance was 500,000+ and 11,000 aircraft were on-site. even using the shuttle buses and trams provided, we ended up walking 23 miles in 2.5 days. aircraft were displayed in various areas, home-builts, vintage, WWII era, Russian-built, seaplanes, etc. etc... in addition to the planes, there were endless acres of vendor displays, seminars, simulators, souvenir merchandise... at 0600 each day, a flight of T-6 Texans would buzz the camping areas at 200 feet with their radial engines making a hellacious noise, so there was never a need to set an alarm to get up. around 3 pm, flight demonstrations would begin...there was something for everyone. biplanes (one with a jet engine!), warbirds, skydivers, even an aerobatic helicopter. the crowd favorite seemed to be a F-22 Raptor that would make low-level passes over the runway and then light the afterburners and do a vertical climb that was ground-shaking and ear-shattering. anyways, if you have even a minor interest in aviation, the fly-in is something you should consider attending. photo shows the Mooney group taxiing to the active in Madison, WI...a Piper Warrior pilot that was requesting take-off clearance was informed he was number two after the 'flight of 66'...his response was 'aw crap'...produced a few laughs. 
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#3
07-27-2019, 04:53 PM
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Thanks for sharing. I've been interested in aviation since I was a small kid. There were a few farms close to ours that had grass strips. It was very cool to watch crop dusters doing their thing.
One of the fields that we rented from NYS in Marcy was on the flight path for Griffiss AFB. Depending on the time of year there would be flights of B-52's overhead on a pretty consistent basis as they took off.
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#4
07-27-2019, 05:11 PM
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Very nice story. Oshkosh has been on my list for decades. Ive flown with lots of friends over the years. Never have taken the time to get a pilot’s license as I think it’s an all consuming hobby to be safe.
Someday I’ll make it.
__________________
Life is short-enjoy every day.
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#5
07-27-2019, 05:17 PM
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Oshkosh the epitome of ‘airshows’. Never been but they got it all. From homebuilts to military iron. Another for those interested in aviation are the air races in Reno..
__________________
Chisholm's Custom Wheels Qui Si Parla Campagnolo
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#7
07-27-2019, 05:32 PM
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I got a private license in 1967 and a couple of my favorite rental planes were Mooneys. The first was a Ranger and the second was a Super 21. They both offered better-than-average performance compared to other planes using the same Lycoming engines. OTOH they were a bit more cramped because the extra speed came from better streamlining.
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#8
07-27-2019, 05:35 PM
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skyrider worked his way up to a commercial - multi engine - instrument rating but then changed direction
BK
__________________
HED Wheel afficianado Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter.
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#11
07-27-2019, 06:19 PM
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forgot to mention that the aircraft that garnered a ton of attention was the XP-82 (aka 'twin Mustang')...while it looks like two P-51s that were spliced together, it only shares five common parts. even the canopies are different...
the gentleman that re-constructed it spent 10 years and $10M getting it air-worthy. he sourced parts from all over the world and had to fabricate many that were unobtainable. sadly, we had to leave before it did a flight demo...
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#12
07-27-2019, 06:20 PM
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Quote:
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#13
07-27-2019, 06:27 PM
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#15
07-27-2019, 06:36 PM
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And in front of one of my favorite all time prop planes-a P-51-oops missed the other half of the plane in the photo
__________________
Life is short-enjoy every day. Last edited by gasman; 07-27-2019 at 07:10 PM.
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