Flying & Fish

Steve, Nathan and the kids went to "See All You Can See" day this morning, hitting the flight line, the booths, the fly market, the giant Airbus, everything they could get to. I went to the store to pick up a couple of necessary items, then took three loads of laundry to the laundromat, which is where I am typing this part of the blog entry. They have free wireless access here, and I knew that ahead of time, so I brought my laptop and here I sit waiting for my laundry to dry, in air conditioning, eating an Almond Snickers candy bar, on the computer deleting tons of spam emails and catching up on this. Ahhh. ;)

When I got back, I hit the flight line with Steve, Nathan and the kids, and we took a look at a crosswind simulator and a couple of light sport airplanes. The Falcon LS has an actual Lycoming engine in it, a good useful load, steerable nosewheel, toe brakes, plenty of fuel, and is basically like a real airplane and not a toy. Finally. We need to wait about one generation and make sure the company will still be in business and any bugs will be worked out, but the light sport planes are heading in the right direction. The Lightning is also in the running-I flew that with AE last year or so, and I liked the feel and maneuverability of it.

This evening we went to the sea plane base for their annual fish fry, and man was that good. We got to watch a lot of the sea planes take off and land, and one guy who hopped out of his plane onto the dock, ran along it, then hopped back into the plane as it kept floating past. Instead of a "fly by", we called it a "float by". I always love the ambiance out there, particularly since we go out as the sun is going down. It's just a very peaceful, quiet, relaxing place to be at the little lake in the woods.

While we were there, Jim flew the Mustang for his first time at Oshkosh, and he had a blast. Today's warbird show was really busy-there were like 18 fighters. We watched them from a distance, but I couldn't get any pictures from the sea plane base. I'm still glad Dave brought my camera to me, because I've been using it all day. :)

Tonight we have a couple of extra visitors sleeping at our campsite. A pair of F-15 Eagles flew in today, did a demo for the crowd, landed and were parked in AeroShell Square. They wandered over to warbirds, where Zac put them in the P-51. They were invited over to our campsite, and they took Zac up on it and arrived driving the F-15 tug, which made us all laugh. They were looking for a place to sleep at Camp Scholler here, so Nathan told them to pitch their tent here, and that's what they've done. They're here around the camp fire enjoying the company. What I find funny is that they're talking about what they'd give to fly the Mustang and what that would mean, while they fly around in F-15s, which the rest of us would love to take for a spin. :) They're very nice guys and I've enjoyed their company.

We've had several people stay with us who were here for their first time, and they all had the same reaction. Amazement. And a strong desire to stay longer than originally planned. :) Some of them have watched the videos or looked at pictures or heard all about it for decades, and still were surprised when they actually got here. It's kind of like the Grand Canyon. It's beautiful in photos-and knocks your socks off in person. I don't know if Oshkosh knocks your socks off-that seems a little much-but it's certainly...grand. Of course that only works if you like airplanes, don't mind roughing it a bit here and there, have someone to enjoy it with, and are in the mood. ;)