Month: July 2006

Sometimes you get a winner, and sometimes you get a loser

While I was away at Oshkosh, I got two emails from users of my Waypoint Generators. The first was from a loser:

Wow,

What a disappointment. Even though I have donated before, I see that you require a donation now for the waypoint generator. I made another donation (see below) and when I am halfway though the waypoint generation process, I get redirected back to the paypal screen. I have a trip to Canada in the morning and I guess I won’t be using Copilot…

First of all, everything he says is a total lie. I have never required a donation, and I never will. There is nothing that will “redirect…back to the paypal screen” other than user stupidity. Second of all, if you think you’re going to get me scrambling to help you, neither your lies nor your generous $1.00 donation (of which Paypal takes $0.33 in fees) is really going to do it. I wrote to him back and said that I was refunding his $1.00, but only on the condition that he never use any free software or free web services ever again, because the thousands of people who provide free software and free web services don’t need his kind of abuse.

The second email I got was much more welcome. It was from a man who had a commercial product on display at Oshkosh that is using my waypoint generator’s waypoints in it. He had some small suggestions for improvements, and he also offered to provide some improved data for South Africa. He is located in South Africa, so unfortunately he wasn’t at Oshkosh himself. I got the name of the company representing him on Thursday, but I never got to their booth on Friday, which is too bad. It sure is nice to see people using and appreciating what I do.

Wrapping up, taking stock

Mark is preparing our last Oshkosh 2006 breakfast (if the propane holds
out) and then we’re going to start packing. It’s been a great Oshkosh and
the weather has been unbelievable. But last night it hit me all the things
I did in 2003 when I only had 3 full days versus this year when I had 5.

In 2003 I walked through all the ‘special’ airplane parking and camping
areas like warbirds, homebuilt, vintage and amphib. I also went down to
the seaplane base. But on the other side of the coin, this year I saw full
airshows, spent more time sitting in airplanes and talking to their sales
people, and more time in the constantly changing display in Aeroshell
Square.

One of the reasons for the difference is that last time I was on the North
40, where the highly efficient shuttle bus dumps you out right at the
warbird parking. It’s easy to get sucked into walking through there taking
pictures, and then before you know it you’ve walked the entire length of
the airfield in various parking areas. By contrast the Camp Scholler
shuttle is horribly inefficient and most days we skipped it and walked in.
And the gate you get to from here is right by the vendor exhibits and
Aeroshell Square.

I’m not complaining, but i’m even more determined to fly in next time.

What a scorcher!

It’s been incredibly hot and sunny today. We both conked out pretty early
and came back to the camp. I think we’re pretty air-showed out and we’re
skipping it today.

Earlier today I grabbed the scooter and headed back into the exhibits. I
bought a Halo ultralight headset, talked to a TSA official about whether
the alien registration rule applies if you’re adding a float rating to an
existing private license (he said it doesn’t – hooray!), and went over to
kit builder’s row to sit in a murphy rebel and a glastar sportsman 2+2.
The sportsman is a tight fit but the murphy isn’t bad. I think there less
room between the seats on the sportsman than some of the LSAs we looked at
-I’m spoiled by the Lance obviously.

The headset has a 30 day moneyback guarantee so obviously I need to get out
in the lance real soon now to see if it works. I really wanted a second
anr for my passengers, but I was convinced by the demo that this will not
only be as quiet as an anr, but also so light you can forget you’re wearing
it. It irks me to pay $350 for what looks like $35 worth of stuff, but I
guess you pay for knowing how to assemble it. I hope it’s not as fragile
as it looks.

As I write this, there are a bunch of t-33s, dehavilland vampyres and
tweety birds, and they are circling over us back in the campsite, which is
unusual. I think they scared the helicopters doing rides over here,
because after what looked to us like close encounters, they suddenly
stopped flying.

Oh so tired

The amount of walking and standing this event requires is really starting
to take its toll. I’m actually turning down a chance to have a second trip
around the museum in favour of this very comfortable chair on pioneer
terrace.

Last night’s rec.aviation part at jay and mary hoenek’s campsite was a lot
of fun. John O from pinckneyville was there, but not his new bride. Jay
is a really nice guy and so is Montblack. Montblack actually drove us back
to our campsite since the show trams stop working at 8pm and it would have
been a few mile hike. I swear i’m turning into an old geezer though – at
one point Montblack and I were trading medical horror stories.

Tonight is the seaplane pilots association corn roast. It’s a famous
event, and I really got my money’s worth last time.

After mark gets back from his helicopter ride, i’m going to try to convince
him to come ride the trams today rather than walking. I’m exhausted and
even my new oregon aero insoles can’t stop my feet and knees hurting.

The f-22 raptors arrive in a few hours. Patty wagstaff headlines today’s
airshow – i’m looking forward to that. At last night’s party several
people had patty stories, and we all agreed we liked her better as a
brunette.