Well it's time to make the annual trip to Oshkosh, WI for the mother of all fly-in events. I was fortunate to have company for the ride up this year by way of Tom Thompson. We talked about all sorts of airplane stuff. I was also looking forward to meeting my friends, Victor and Ilse whom I met at the Van's gathering last year.

I was somewhat concerned about the state of the campsite, though, since Oshkosh had received double the previous record rainfall during the three weeks leading up to the event. Fortunately, our Chapter 9 campsite was nice and dry. Here's Tom and my tents after we got them setup.

The new tower at Wittman Field is quite snappy. I believe last year was the first year for the new tower. Although this one is unquestionably more moderrn, I kinda miss the old one.

Someone had an A-4 parked in the warbirds section. I remember greasing the wheel bearings on one of these during my Navy Aircraft Structural Mechanic training in Millington, TN..

Ahh, the F-4. One of the most efficient fuel-into-noise conversions I'm aware of. :-)

Here is what a lot of Camp Scholler looked like. This wasn't the worst of it. Most of the big RVs (the recreational vehicle kind...not the aircraft kind) were diverted to the nearby K-Mart parking lot.

My friend, Jim Buxton, brought his daughter, Jocelyn, for the first time. Here they are next to his award winning glider in the "Little Wings Big Dreams" exhibit at the EAA Museum.

Here's a close-up of the glider. Jim actually set another world record just this year with a discus-launch glider of foam and fiberglass construction. That one's going in the AMA museum.

I caught this image of a bunch of T-28s during one of the air shows. Nice formation.

I forget what kind of assistance dog this was, but she was tuckered out. Good dog.

On the way over to the warbirds area, one of the guys in an orange vest asked the crowd to wait while this P-51 taxied by.

Although the other F-4 pictured above is very cool, this Vaught F-4U Corsair definitely wins.

There were a bunch of B-17s there (I think eight of them). They made several formation passes during the airshow.

Holy crap, someone's firebombing that guy on the taxiway! OK, not really...he was just queueing up for the next airshow performance while the air power show was going on. Gotta love the combination of gasoline and dynamite. :-) After they had previously set off a smaller explosion, a P-51 flew through the resulting smoke ring. Wish I'd have gotten a shot of that.

Scott brought his eldest son, Isaac, up to Oshkosh for the first time this year. Isaac is seven, and I think he had a good time. Another photo is here.

This shot shows how, even on a soggy year, the area at OSH is just covered by airplanes. BTW, that's a C-17 in the background.

I was happy that my friends Ilse and Victor stopped by the campsite on a couple occasions to talk. We also went out to dinner one evening. They're moving right along on their RV-7A and were spending all kinds of cash buying avionics this year. You may recall that Denmark is below sea level? They're pretty sure their RV-7A is the only one constructed below sea level. Funny. Unfortunately, they won't be coming back next year. Hopefully Kerin and I can visit them some time in the Netherlands. Until then, I'll just keep up with their progress on their website. Here is another pic of the three of us.