The
past week has gone quite well. I ended last week passing my checkride
for my pilot's license, and as a reward I spent three days at EAA
AirVenture in OshKosh, Wisconsin earlier this week. AirVenture was
absolutely incredible. The most lasting impression I have from the
event is "so many planes!" Everywhere you looked there were planes,
homebuilts, warbirds, classics, and regular plain-joe ga planes were
sitting around, on display, and flying in and out of the airport. It
was incredible to see so many incredible and beautiful aircraft all in
one location.
The AirVenture site explained how it was possible to be overwhelmed,
and I verified that to be true on Monday when I showed up. It was so
huge and there was so much to see that if I didn't slow down and make a
plan, I would spin in circles so fast I'd explode. We showed up in the
early afternoon on Monday so there wasn't much to do but settle down on
the flight line to watch the afternoon airshow, which left me that
evening to go through the program and make my plan for the next two
days.
Watching White Knight fly in with SpaceShipOne attached to its belly
was a great experience. I only regret not stopping in Mojave when I
passed through there the day of the actual X-Prize-winning space
launch. The airshow "proper" was also incredible. Just hours of
non-stop shows of beautiful warbirds, incredible flying by the best
aerobatic pilots in the country. It's much more impressive to watch
good aerobatic flying as a pilot, of course, because now I know what it
takes to maintain perfect circle loops, constant altitude and straight
ground track over the runway during rolls, etc.
The exhibits from various companies was good to see. Not a whole lot
new, but I took a demo flight in a Lancair ES and discovered what a joy
it is to fly. The Cessna 152 I was flying was fun to fly of course, but
it pales in comparison to a real nice performance aircraft. I
discovered another two-seater personal jet offering, called the
ViperJet. This is a kitplane however, not a certificated offering like
the ATG Javelin.
I attended a talk by Sean Tucker where he mostly focused on the
Stars of Tomorrow program he is working on. Watching beautiful
aerobatic flight is quite inspiring, and hearing Sean and the kids in
the Stars of Tomorrow program discuss their inspiration was also
inspiring. I attended another talk on Composites 101 where I learned
the basics of composites and laying up composites for aircraft
construction. After that talk was an actual hands on workshop in which
I'd be able to actually do a layup, but I passed on that because I
didn't want to miss the Eclipse jet flight demonstration.
The Eclipse demonstration was a bit anti-climactic, but that was
actually the point. Watching the warbirds, both the old piston warbirds
and the new jets do low passes down the runway was very enjoyable but
the sound of the engines really added to the impact. The Eclipse, on
the other hand, was almost whisper quiet. It's hardly any louder than
the tiny little 100 hp piston engine on my 152. That made is less
impressive on a gut level to watch, but of course very impressive on a
practical level when considering the complexities of sending jets into
small airports in communities which value their quiet enjoyment.
I also attended a good talk about buying an airplane, which helped
me bring my thoughts back to reality in terms of what kind of plane I
should buy in the relatively short term. While the Columbia 400 and the
Lancair Propjet and other new light high powered composite new aircraft
are really beautiful and great planes, I need to balance my desire for
the best and the fastest with my budget and my flying skill. I should
stick with a cheaper, slower plane until I increase my skill level.
I leave in three days.