Oshkosh

My wife and her brother, sister-in-law and I headed over to the annual EAA Convention at Oshkosh WI this past Wednesday. I've been there a couple times in the past, but the last time was over 10 years ago, so it seemed new. I shot a number of pictures of the event, a few of them are here.

The human gyro almost made me sick just watching it, but he enjoyed it and was none the worse for wear!

The highlights of EAA for me were:

1. The F22 Raptor arrival was very cool--lots of sound and vapor trails off the wings as they loaded them up on turns. There are a number of cool videos out off that link including some from the airshow where they go from slow flight to vertical climb.
   
2. The Harriers were impressive and loud. I saw them 10+ years ago and the sense was that "hover trick" was just that, a trick. I got some good video of them, but there are a lot of good videos out on YouTube off the link so worth taking a look at.
   
3. X-Plane the flight simulator. Looks like this is the product of pretty much a single dedicated computer / airplane geek that has produced some great scenery and what looks like a whiz-bang simulator. They had a demo set up with 3 big screens that made you believe that the era of the home flight simulator is REALLY here!
4. The Cirrus Planes and new small jet. These are the guys that put the parachute on the airplane and their planes are BEAUTIFUL, large enough that a guy like me could feel comfortable in them, and fast. They are also expensive and flying is still one of those things that takes a lot of time that I don't have.
   

It is just GREAT to see innovation like Cirrus alive and kicking in the aircraft industry again after the Republicans managed to get enough tort reform so apparently John Edwards can't sue everyone back to the Wrights just because some pilot screws up and crashes anymore . Sadly though, the post Enron Age of Sarbannes Oxley has driven these kinds of companies to be private rather than public, so those of us willing to invest can't take part in the aviation dream as investors and have a chance to move both it and our wealth along at a greater rate (or lose our shirts, but that is what investment has always been about! Risk and POTENTIAL reward)

Well, it was 3 days of aircraft heaven anyway, it won't be 10+ years before I return again!