Warbird Information Exchange

Reenactors. In the course of my (mostly behind the scenes) museum/historic site volunteer efforts I've been around the Civil War reenactor crowd a bit, and have to say this: it goes against the balance of probability that you'll see too many 20 year olds who are interested in history and/or have disposable income sufficiently to do that deal. So whenever I see older guys portraying what should be younger personnel, I look upon them as living exhibits and focus on the uniforms and accouterments. It is my experience that reenactors do a wonderful job of showing very accurate uniforms and accouterments - which looks suspiciously expensive. And I'd rather see it moving about on human bodies as intended, than on static mannequins.

Every once in a while you see kids in such garb, usually sons of reenactor families, and it is truly wonderful to see.

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

Our family visited Oshkosh yesterday. Now Wisconsinites, it is just a little over an hour away for us.
First thing on the agenda was to stop at the airport in nearby Appleton where I had made online reservations to ride Fifi on the 9AM flight.

I would like to say that this event was well organized and well handled by all of the CAF members and the flight was beyond any expectations. I purposely left cameras behind and declined ear plugs as I wanted to really enjoy the entire experience and I certainly did. They got permission to overfly Oshkosh and the pilot banked enough so that we could view a lot of what was below. We flew down to Fond Du Lac & then nearly up to Green Bay before returning. Flight ran a little longer than the advertised 30 minutes, something that a consumer always likes. Can't say enough positive about the experience. Consider a ride when she is near you next year.

Hot and humid at times later in the day, but the walk around Oshkosh was worth the effort. One unusual find was a Beech Stagger Wing with the Jacobs converted to fuel injection. Supposed to be the only one around. The aerial demonstrations were great as always, notably the Goodyear Blimp, F-35 and AirBus (did I get that right?)

WIXers attending OSH Thursday are invited to an informal gathering at the S.O.S. Bros. Beer Tent, around 7:00-ish. There is no cookout this year, but food is available to order at the beer tent.

Prosit!

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Hey Col. - just glancing at the webcam

1) I see the F-86 is back over on the ramp with T-28's & L-39's (not sure why they're parking stuff across on the other side - I noticed when the CWH came in with the Lancaster & B-25 that they were parked over there as well)

2) The F-100 is parked across from the 2 Mosquito's (haven't seen F-4 yet)

3) The PB4Y is parked facing north at the end of the T-6/T-34 area just to the right of white & blue tent that's almost all the way out to the east/west runway

Mike

A government agency apparently declared that a large area at the NE end of the diagonal runway was off limits for parking this year. Flight line Ops people have been scrambling to minimize the fallout. We are at 380 Warbirds registered; some 50 ahead of last year and on par with 2010 - 2013.

WB airshow today showcases the war in Europe. Mosquito slated to fly but Lanc wasn't on the preliminary list. The "Hun" was listed in yesterday's show but was late due to a mechanical. Should fly Fri & Sat WX permitting.

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Chris

Lanc is warming up to fly now as part of WB show

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Chris

I'll be there tonight Dan, will you have a giant neon light in the tent showing us where to go?

Actually I won't be able to join y'all tonight, so don't anybody go pull a Party Wagstaff without your chaperon.

Try looking for the motorcycle with a sidecar in army paint. Belongs to one of the group. I suppose you could always do the "WIX" bodypaint thing...

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

I always like to read about folks' first impressions of Oshkosh. Any chance we can get a report on your visit?

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Fantastic pictures, thank you for taking the time to post them all

Yeah, the point-n-click and I have pretty much cornered the market on one-man-band and cardboard sign pics.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Many years of attending Oshkosh, this was a memorable one for me. Seeing and hearing 18 merlins: the lancaster, mosquito and three 4 ship formations of mustangs over show central at the same time was awesome.

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Always looking for P-51D parts.

It was awesome, and definitely overwhelming. I know I'm definitely going to go back again next year, and I will be going with a much better plan on how I want to see things and pace myself. Next time I will definitely go more than two days!

Monday was a learning experience because I tried to do and see everything- I learned pretty quickly that you need to pace yourself! I walked all the way down the entire flight line and just wore myself out trying to see everything. I would see something taxying and think, "I have to see that!" and then I would see something flying and think the same, and I ran myself ragged trying to keep up and see it all at once.

Tuesday, I had a much better plan. Spent the whole morning wandering slowly through the warbird area, sat through the "Warbirds in Review" presentation on the Mosquito and watched a lot of the early morning warbird activity from over there. After lunch, I wandered over towards vintage, napped under the trees and took a casual stroll through that area. On the way back, I pulled up a spot on the flight line and watched most of the airshow from down near the warbird area. Closed out the day with another stroll through the warbird area and Boeing plaza.

There was a lot I wish I would have done differently or had more time to do this time around, but I learned a lot and saw more than I could have imagined. Just an incredible experience. I think next time I would spend Monday morning just sitting on the flightline and watching arrivals. I would also make more of an effort to be closer to show center during the airshow and pick a different area of the show to walk through and see well each day. I would also try to get over the EAA Museum next time, as I didn't have time to do that this time around.

The biggest reasons I had never gone before were the likely cost and what I imagined the crowds to be like. It was honestly a lot more affordable than I thought and I never had a problem with the crowds or traffic. Everything is so spread out that even if there are a lot of people there, you just don't notice it so much other than around the main plaza area.

It was a great couple days! I will hopefully be able to go through photos and post a few sometime early next week.

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Matt

I saw that "Sierra Sue II" flew in the airshow portion yesterday (complete with the bombs still slung under the wings), which is quite something/highly unusual when you consider that the debuting highly authentic warbirds brought to Oshkosh to be entered for judging always typically just sit static all week (maybe going up for a photoshoot, but not ever flying in any of the airshow portions). Pretty cool of Paul Ehlen to do that! He's been flying that aircraft every opportunity he gets, it seems. Its been to a number of different aviation events already this year (displayed and flying), and he took it on a cross country trip out to Montana and North Dakota and back to the Twin Cities a couple weeks ago. Its been great to see the lighting bolts finally added to the aircraft too - for those that didn't see, those final markings were hand painted (like the rest of the nose art was last year) while the aircraft was on display at Oshkosh this week, and done in the way they would have been originally - quickly masked-out and brush painted, without a lot of fuss over absolute perfection - the lightning bolts were also the last markings added to the aircraft when in Theatre as well, being applied after the nose art was.

Below two photos from the Aircorps Aviation Facebook page:

Sierra Sue did fly the racetrack pattern yesterday - I had the same thought. Sorry but I haven't had time to upload yesterday yet. Here's a few from earlier on...

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Chris