Required reading for anyone flying into Oshkosh

In addition to the NOTAM, here are two articles by Rick Durden that should be required reading for anyone flying into Oshkosh. Rick is very blunt and in your face about things but he makes several excellent points.

Original article

An updated reminder for this year

If you're flying into OSH, please first print out and read the NOTAM then read the two articles.

Oshkosh countdown

In a couple of days, I depart for Oshkosh. I'm going via aluminum tube vs. the Arrow this year. Not nearly as exciting but way more cost effective given a Left Coast departure.











My camping gear is packed into a huge 18"x36" duffel bag with some room to spare. New REI backpacking tent and sleeping pad included. Life in the North-40 should be dry and comfortable.

One very cool thing is that I should be able to arrive at Oshkosh the right way, in a Cessna Skylane. Well, ok, "the right way" is in a certain '71 Piper Arrow but I'll take a Cessna 182 arrival vs. bus/van/car any day. I lucked out as a friend is planning to pick me up in Chicago and we'll then fly to Oshkosh. How cool is that? Definitely the next best thing to actually flying there in my own plane.

Blue Angel ride

My brother sent me this today: http://www.terwilligerproductions.com/flyingfullcircle/ Absolutely an awesome experience...I'm seriously jealous! :-)

California burning

Just found this over at Pilots of America. Some amazing pictures of the recent fire fighting activity in California: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/californias_continuing_fires.html

Camera upgrade

A couple months back, my Cannon SD100 died. I may have dropped it or it was in my backpack and slid off the wing of the airplane to the ground...I really don't remember. What I do know is that I tried taking an in flight picture of an MD-80 landing on a parallel runway but the viewfinder was all messed up. Seeing as I was the acting safety pilot, the camera quickly went back into the flight bag. After I got home, the camera would take pictures like this:



Eventually, they started to look like this:


Nice, eh? Cool effects and pretty colors aside, either way, not good and tend to get in the way of cool things like airplanes...oh, and family, the dog, etc. Wait, the dog *is* family. The cat too :-)

What to do...what to do?

I've always wanted to get back into photography but never made the leap to a digital SLR camera. I asked a bunch of friends, the ones that take awesome pictures, for recommendations, what they like, dislike, etc. A couple weeks ago, a flight instructor friend and I headed to the Golden West EAA fly-in where I was able to borrow his Nikon D80. Wow, what a difference and extremely easy to use. Some of the results:

Relentless

F-18 demonstration

Hawker Sea Fury

Nice looking T6

In short, I was sold and wound up buying the D80 from my friend. Now it's time to learn as much as I can and experiment by taking lots of photos. At least it's digital so mistakes are free, right? :-) All that stuff from my high school photography classes is coming back to me. Mr. Schwerin would be well pleased.

I'm now set in the camera department for my upcoming trips to Oshkosh and down the East Coast.