Sunday, July 29, 2007
A GREAT TIME, BUT SADLY A TRAGEDY TOO
It looks like we are going to end up with a total of 15 ‘Birds here at the Bluebird Rally / EAA AIRVENTURE 2007 and some of the folks are talking about possibly doing this again in future years, but for myself I believe that this will be my one and only time coming to Oshkosh. Don’t get me wrong this has been a great time with almost too much to see and too many things to do, but with my energy level decreasing each years after 30 years of my transplant, I will mark this great event as a check on my list of things that I want to do.
Having a lot of old friends and new ones too around to chat and have fun with has greatly enhanced this experience and as we have experienced at all of the other Bluebird rallies that we have had in the past few years, there has been non mercy on each other, in our comments about each other, after all what are friends for......NO MERCY!!
As you will see by all of the photos in my album, the variety of aircraft that are on display here are some of the best in the world, especially the old aircraft and they are still flying, the B-25 “Billy Mitchell” bomber that was painted in the Doolittle Raiders colors and markings from WWII that flew in today while we were just sitting on the flightline, was very impressive, especially because the Doolittle Raiders trained at the old Columbia Army Airfield, which is now Columbia Airport in Columbia, SC and also my Mom and Dad both helped to build the B-25 during the war at Offutt Field in the Martin Bomber Plant near Omaha, Nebraska, plus I got to work on one of them when I was in Technical School while I was stationed at Shepherd Air Force base in Wichita falls, Texas, seeing it fly overhead and make a landing right in front of us was quite the site to see.
The only aircraft that I didn’t see that would have made this show complete was a C-124 GLOBEMASTER, that would be very impressive if anybody would have tried to restore one of those, that was the type of aircraft that I worked on when I was in the Air Force while I was stationed at Hill AFB, Utah, it would take a lot of $$$$ to keep one of those planes flying as everything else on display here at Oshkosh is still airworthy.
Well, some of the folks have already started to leave here at Oshkosh, as they have other stops to make to visit with other friends and relatives, before they get back home, we ended up with 15 'Birds total including a new 'Bird owner out on their first trip, that had parked just by chance behind us and we invited him and his family over to the fold to park with us last night, so as Shane puts it, we have FRESH MEAT ON THE BLOCK, to hopefully help answer his questions. There has been an estimated 9600 camping units here at the campground and it has been very orderly around here and very peaceful at night.
Saturday was the WWII reenactment with simulated bombing runs and explosions, that put quite the scare into Barbara Vaughn as they went of right in front of here and she was not expecting it, while she and Cliff sat on the flightline watching the display, she was quite shook up by that, as the fighters and bombers did mock battles in the sky overhead, I watched it all from the campground, located a mile or so away and the sound was still very loud out here.
Watching those planes fly overhead was quite the site, I didn’t try to photograph any of them as they were too far up in the sky to get a good shot, and my tremors would have just blurred a telephoto shot.
The AIRVENTURE 2007 ended Sunday afternoon, but some of us will stay here until Monday in order to let the biggest part of the crowd leave, before we head out on our journeys. One of the final fly overs was a new F-22 RAPTOR that showed what it could do, which is phenomenal to say the least and then he teamed up with a P-51 for some close maneuver, two beautiful planes.
Sadly on Friday there was a tragic death of one of the P-51 MUSTANG pilots that was involved in a collision with another P-51 after they had just completed an aerial demonstration with a group of other P-51's, but the Airshow continued as it will today and tomorrow. My friend Larry Dill was there and captured some photos of the planes as the performed a mock race and then the crash, that I have put in the trip album.
We are fortunate that we have only had one evening of bad weather and the worst of it went completely around Oshkosh, so the grounds here are still fairly dry with only a few muddy spots and the temperature and humidity have dropped considerably for these last days with daytime temperatures in the mid 80's and at night it drops down into the upper 50's to the low 60's.
On Monday I will leave here and head to Fisherman’s Corner US Army Corps Of Engineers campground at Hampton, ILL. To visit with family and friends and attend some motorcycle flat track races too.
Having a lot of old friends and new ones too around to chat and have fun with has greatly enhanced this experience and as we have experienced at all of the other Bluebird rallies that we have had in the past few years, there has been non mercy on each other, in our comments about each other, after all what are friends for......NO MERCY!!
As you will see by all of the photos in my album, the variety of aircraft that are on display here are some of the best in the world, especially the old aircraft and they are still flying, the B-25 “Billy Mitchell” bomber that was painted in the Doolittle Raiders colors and markings from WWII that flew in today while we were just sitting on the flightline, was very impressive, especially because the Doolittle Raiders trained at the old Columbia Army Airfield, which is now Columbia Airport in Columbia, SC and also my Mom and Dad both helped to build the B-25 during the war at Offutt Field in the Martin Bomber Plant near Omaha, Nebraska, plus I got to work on one of them when I was in Technical School while I was stationed at Shepherd Air Force base in Wichita falls, Texas, seeing it fly overhead and make a landing right in front of us was quite the site to see.
The only aircraft that I didn’t see that would have made this show complete was a C-124 GLOBEMASTER, that would be very impressive if anybody would have tried to restore one of those, that was the type of aircraft that I worked on when I was in the Air Force while I was stationed at Hill AFB, Utah, it would take a lot of $$$$ to keep one of those planes flying as everything else on display here at Oshkosh is still airworthy.
Well, some of the folks have already started to leave here at Oshkosh, as they have other stops to make to visit with other friends and relatives, before they get back home, we ended up with 15 'Birds total including a new 'Bird owner out on their first trip, that had parked just by chance behind us and we invited him and his family over to the fold to park with us last night, so as Shane puts it, we have FRESH MEAT ON THE BLOCK, to hopefully help answer his questions. There has been an estimated 9600 camping units here at the campground and it has been very orderly around here and very peaceful at night.
Saturday was the WWII reenactment with simulated bombing runs and explosions, that put quite the scare into Barbara Vaughn as they went of right in front of here and she was not expecting it, while she and Cliff sat on the flightline watching the display, she was quite shook up by that, as the fighters and bombers did mock battles in the sky overhead, I watched it all from the campground, located a mile or so away and the sound was still very loud out here.
Watching those planes fly overhead was quite the site, I didn’t try to photograph any of them as they were too far up in the sky to get a good shot, and my tremors would have just blurred a telephoto shot.
The AIRVENTURE 2007 ended Sunday afternoon, but some of us will stay here until Monday in order to let the biggest part of the crowd leave, before we head out on our journeys. One of the final fly overs was a new F-22 RAPTOR that showed what it could do, which is phenomenal to say the least and then he teamed up with a P-51 for some close maneuver, two beautiful planes.
Sadly on Friday there was a tragic death of one of the P-51 MUSTANG pilots that was involved in a collision with another P-51 after they had just completed an aerial demonstration with a group of other P-51's, but the Airshow continued as it will today and tomorrow. My friend Larry Dill was there and captured some photos of the planes as the performed a mock race and then the crash, that I have put in the trip album.
We are fortunate that we have only had one evening of bad weather and the worst of it went completely around Oshkosh, so the grounds here are still fairly dry with only a few muddy spots and the temperature and humidity have dropped considerably for these last days with daytime temperatures in the mid 80's and at night it drops down into the upper 50's to the low 60's.
On Monday I will leave here and head to Fisherman’s Corner US Army Corps Of Engineers campground at Hampton, ILL. To visit with family and friends and attend some motorcycle flat track races too.
# posted by John Finn & Buddy & Cally Cat @ 10:57 PM 
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