Category: Flying

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.

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.

After a couple of days of walking around in the hot sun, i’ve come to a few
conclusions:
– opportunities to sit down are to be seized on and treasured, and air
conditioned ones are three times as good.
– in spite of that, 45 minutes in an air conditioned shuttle bus is not
really a good trade against 5 minutes of walking.
– the tram system inside the show grounds are quick, efficient and fun, and
the shuttle bus system within the campgrounds are none of the above.

There is some really cool stuff here and it’s really hard to resist the
temptation to try to see it all at once.

I had lunch with some of the guys from the First Of Pryor piper mailing
list. Nice to see Les again and meet Bill and … Darn I spaced on the
other guy’s name. Sorry, guy.

We’ve been here 8 hours and after checking out the local grocery stores
(the famous Piggly Wiggly just outside the airport gates is no more) and
walking down to Aeroshell Square to watch people setting up displays, I am
tired, my knees are sore and my arms feel sunburnt even though I used
sunscreen.

I’d better use the trams a lot to get around.

After all that adventure, we’re finally here. We’ve got a camping spot
with no shade, but we brought a big awning some club members bought when we
came in 2003.

We’re listening to the tower frequency, and there are a surprising number
of people who either didn’t read the notam, or their instinctual need to
read back tower instructions is too strong.