Category: Flying

Oshkosh checklist

Only one week to Oshkosh, and I’ve barely started getting ready. I think I need to write what I need so I can strike them out as they’re done.

  • Airplane booked
  • Charts ordered and arrived
  • GPS loaded with route and car charts
  • Tent
  • Sleeping bag
  • Thermarest pad
  • Camera and batteries
  • Camp stove
  • Camp chair
  • Cooler
  • Breakfasts
  • water bottles
  • diet coke
  • beer
  • cooking and eating utensils
  • warm weather clothes
  • cold weather clothes

You’ll note that I only plan to prepare breakfasts. OshawaPilot will verify that after a day of walking around Oshkosh I’m so wiped out that I’m useless for doing just about anything around the camp, so I’m planning to eat brats on the show site.

I’m also still having camera trouble – I bought a Minolta Maxuum 7D DSLR on eBay, but it was broken so I had to send it back, and I haven’t heard anything from them since.

So…Oshkosh?

Oshkosh is surprisingly close. And the guy who had the club’s Dakota booked cancelled so I switched to it instead of the Archer I had booked, giving me a bunch more load capacity. So I guess it’s time to start getting my shit together.

The extra load capacity means I could bring another person and still have 200 pounds or more for camping gear and luggage. I’ve put out a call on the club mailing list, but no takers so far. Anybody here wanting to experience the greatest aviation show on earth? I’m currently planning to fly up on Sunday and back on Thursday morning, but I’m flexible.

What a day!

Got an piece of beta software that I’ve been waiting for for a while, but it required that I upgrade my Linux box from Ubuntu 7.10 to 8.04. The upgrade seemed to work fine, but the kernel paniced when I rebooted. It booted on “Linux.OLD”, an older kernel, but my USB keyboard didn’t work and several other things weren’t working right. I re-ran “lilo” thinking it might get the proper kernel booted, but instead it removed “Linux.OLD” from the boot menu, and now I have no way to boot it. Downloading a Live CD right now.

Went flying for the first time in a long time. The plane is badly out of rig and with full left rudder trim, still required more left rudder to center the ball. I didn’t have any destination in mind, just flew around a bit to a couple of airports I rarely visit. My third landing wasn’t too bad.

Went with Vicki to buy her a kayak. She bought a Swift Saranac 14, which is a pretty good boat, and very popular. I hope she gets lots of use out of it.

Although the menu and other buttons on the new camera don’t work, I can still take pictures with it (just can’t change the ISO, or switch to shooting in RAW, or any number of other adjustments). First picture is here.