Oshkosh Air Venture and Aviation Saturation
by Gil on Aug.04, 2014, under Flying
On Wednesday July 30 I flew from Dayton, Ohio to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin to attend the EAA AirVenture 2014. This is the biggest GA (general aviation) gathering in the world. AirVenture is a happening and my objective was first to meet my brother, Mike form Oregon, attend the COPA (Cirrus Owners and Piltos Association) Oshkosh dinner, see a lot of aviation friends and take in as much of the exhibits has I could in one and a half days. There are hundreds of vendors, hundreds of exhibits and thousands of airplanes, including lots of them that are flying. There is a airshow every day with the Air Force Thunderbirds performing on the weekend. There are large displays of new aircraft with private pavilions out doors, with vendors such as Cirrus, Cessna, Piper and many others, plus four huge hangars with hundreds of smaller booths with companies such as Avidyne, Garmin, and many many others. In addition there are the displays of restored aircraft and then a huge parking area for those that fly into Whitman field. It is a happening. Once I landed I drove a rental car the 20 minutes to Oshkosh and met Mike for lunch. We then started with the exhibits, and I started with Avidyne who had just finally achieved a major milestone and sure enough there were smiles all around. We checked out the Cirrus exhibit with lots of interest in the Jet they are working on. We also talked to the Evolution guys, with 56 flying it is a beautiful airplane, oh to be 20 years younger, I would definitely have one. We then wandered around checking out interesting aircraft such as one of Burt Rutan’s creations and also saw the new Continental (Mercedes) Diesel engine for my type airplane.
One of the most interesting airplanes that we saw was a restored British Fairy Gannet, military carrier based anti-sub, early warning and utility aircraft. Its an engineering marvel, with wings that fold twice that carry fuel, two turbine engines turning two props and in the configuration on display a crew of three. One of the two engines could be shut down when in a loitering on station mode. Its hard to design an ugly airplane buts the Brits did it with this one.
We then made a fast pass through the area with the restored classics.
We watched a little of the daily airshow then headed for the COPA Dinner. This event is put on each year by volunteers Doug and Carrie Wood and is usually sold out , this year being no exception. The COPA President, Andy Niemyer , made a few announcements, there were a couple of short presentations on safety, then Pat Waddick, Cirrus President addressed the group. The primary reason for attending is socializing with other COPA members, which was interrupted by the announcements and Carrie and Doug raffling off a huge array of items donated by suppliers this year valued at over $30,000. Thanks sponsors. In general everyone had a good time and did have time to catch up.
Day two we continued to take in exhibits and made it through the balance of the exhibit hangars. We attended the seminar for the new update that I will have done on my R‑9 avionics at the end of August. This was put on by COPA board member Trip Taylor. We also went by a special EAA project called the “one week wonder” which has a team of volunteers building a kit aircraft in one week at the show. I am particularly interested in War Birds so a good part of the after noon was spent dodging rain showers and seeing the war birds. We took in a little of the airshow then called it a day.
We had dinner with Mike’s partner Dan and Dan’s wife Judy at a local restaurant skipping a Cirrus cook out, which turned out to be the right choice since it poured rain. We were up early the next morning and Mike and I flew to Dayton, so Mike could make a short visit. It was a good show and visit with my fellow COPA members, but I had not reached aviation Saturation yet. Onward to Dayton aviation attractions. My overall impression was there wasn’t much really new, certainly some interesting things, but nothing earth shaking. Its a great gathering of aviation nuts and hopefully as the economy improves the rate of innovation will pick up.