A little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to appear on an online radio
show hosted by a couple of fellow pilots, friends, and great ambassadors
to aviation - Al Waterloo (@Al_H2Oloo) and Marc Epner (@mepner). A bit of background on how I
ended up in Marc's dining room talking into a microphone for a few
hours...
Marc is the president of Leading Edge Flying Club, a collection of great
people and great aircraft that I joined a few years ago. Marc is
really the driving force behind a lot of the great camaraderie that us
members share - monthly breakfasts, flyouts, or just good ole hangar
flying. Al is a relatively new member to the club and brings a vast
array of aviation experiences coupled with a great passion for flying
(check out his website at SimpleFlight.net for further detail and you
will quickly understand what I'm talking about). Both of these guys
have recently taken to the airwaves of ethanolive.com from 8pm til 10pm on Sunday nights to talk flying and do what they can to make aviation better.
My journey to the radio show was through my experiences with SparkReel
over the last several months. For those who don't know, SparkReel is
the brainchild of Matt Gibbs (my brother-in-law) and Adam Hirsen.
SparkReel is a developing social media forum that enables users to share videos from
mobile devices to a targeted group through a very easy-to-use interface.
My use of SparkReel began when I started a group titled "Flying" and
began uploading some of my aviation-related experiences. Adam is a
pilot as well and he jumped into the mix with his own great
contributions quickly thereafter.
At one of our recent Leading Edge breakfast meetings, I noticed that Al
was pretty versed in recording aviation-related experiences on his phone
(he filmed and used iMovie to create a cool video from a recent $100
hamburger trip that he showed to the group). I reached out to him
afterwards and he jumped at the opportunity to add his own experiences.
Check out his contributions at www.SparkReel.com/g/flying - incredible.
Over the course of the past few months, Adam, Al and myself have been
sharing / commenting on each others' videos and really kickstarting some
great aviation dialogue that ultimately led to an appearance on the
radio show.
We decided to congregate at the L'Edge - Leading Edge's room on the
second floor of Hangar 5 at KPWK. What a great place to see an aviation
community in action; besides us, three other members stopped by (two who weren't even there to fly) and a lot of great flying talk was had by
all. Conversation naturally evolved over time into many of the areas Al and Marc
wanted to address during the show, which put to rest any anxiety I had
about what I would say. After continuing our planning at Ram over some
quality pilot food, we headed to Marc's house to set up our 'studio' for
the big show.
A few technical difficulties prevented us from going live and
interacting with listeners, but that was just a blip in an otherwise
amazing experience - we recorded the show and it is available on
SimpleFlight or as a podcast through iTunes.
Marc and Al come from different professional backgrounds and have built
their flying experiences through different avenues, but I think this
makes the quality of their product that much greater. United by a
common passion for aviation, they both know what is going on in flying
today and recognize a need to change it, to better it and to get more
people involved.
I was a bit nervous when it finally came time to talking and had to be
told a few times to hold the mic closer to my mouth (I was actively
trying to avoid deafening any listeners), but felt like I really settled
in over the course of the recording and that we all really engaged in a
great dialogue. Adam did a fantastic job clearly spelling out the
mission of SparkReel and then bridging the gap to its potential to
aviation. These SparkReel guys know what they want for their project
and know how to communicate it. I'm sold.
Overall, we touched on many possibilities for the Flying group at
SparkReel; the ability to unite like-minded pilots in a community (see
above for how it has brought Adam, Al and myself together); providing a
means for non-pilots to get a glimpse of the world we pilots are lucky
enough to see out the front of an aircraft; and opening doors to new
forms of aviation instruction (including dispelling some of the many
flying myths pilots carry around - see Marc's video of flying an SR-22
into KORD) and inspiration.
I came away from the whole experience feeling very excited about the
future. Marc and Al seem to really be connecting and actively thinking
of ways to better aviation. With their backgrounds and commitment, I'm
confident that they will be able to put those ideas to action.
SparkReel has been my doorway to social media and I have very high
expectations for the future given all that Matt and Adam have done to
bring it to where it is now. So, to link all of this together, here's
to hoping the Flying group can really grow and become something where
all types of pilots are motivated to share their experiences.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Debrief: Oshkosh - 2012
Well, another Oshkosh is in the books. This year, my dad and I made the trek up on Friday, July 27th, and the experience was nothing shy of incredible. Since it was just the two of us and he is usually up for anything, I set our departure time aggressively at around 5:15 AM. After an essential stop at Starbucks, we jumped on I-294 North at around 5:40 (so yeah, we were running a bit behind, but I normally account for this when setting aggressive departure times) with nothing but blue skies to our north.
We've been going to Oshkosh for many, many years now and like all good traditions, we've groomed a number of specific habits like our standard pre-airshow stopover at the Lomira, WI McDonalds. It's a great place to get in one last pitstop and grab a healthy (cough, cough) bite to eat to load up on the essential nutrients only a McD's breakfast can offer. As you proceed north from Lomira, you pass through Fond Du Lac, which serves as a reliever airport for Oshkosh during the week of AirVenture and in good years is packed with aircraft / tents - a great primer for the excitement to come. We use it as a barometer for how crowded (and great, of course) Oshkosh will be. At this point in the trip, we normally start looking to the skies for aircraft departing from OSH (normally at least a steady stream). However, the ceiling dropped quite a bit - I would estimate to the 800 - 1000 feet AGL range. Not to worry, about 5 miles out of OSH, we emerged on the other end of the cloud cover and ceilings were instantly up to the VFR levels we sought.
We pulled into the lot about 8:45 - our earliest arrival to date - and were rewarded with a great parking spot. I have to commend the people behind the scenes at Oshkosh for continually upgrading and improving the entry procedures - we were inside the gates about five minutes after leaving the car!
My dad has his own little tradition of going directly to the Ford tent and picking up whatever free swag is available. This year, to his dismay it was a straw hat (in comparison to the P-51-inspired hat last year, I believe) - I don't think he was too bummed, though, as he rocked his new hat all day. While he was passing through the different Ford stations, I noticed the open canopy of an F-4 Phantom out at the end of Phillips 66 Square (the main display area) and it suddenly dawned on me that we might have the opportunity of seeing startup and departure! Such a rare opportunity as the lives of these beasts as drones for the USAF are in the final chapter.
Well, I couldn't see my dad anywhere and all I could think of was missing one of the highlights of the day because of that free hat! All ended well as I located him and double-timed it over to grab a front row seat to the preflight, startup, and taxi of the Phabulous Phantom!
After watching the F-4 light the burners and disappear into the clouds, we made our way down to the warbirds area to walk amongst the countless legendary aircraft (we've really developed a standard pattern to our tour of the grounds). Before getting to the meat of the display, I noticed a tent with the Gauntlet Warbirds emblem (my tailwheel / acro flight school) and saw my instructor, Vess, inside. We talked airplanes and Oshkosh with Vess for a while and then made our way down to the P-51 world. It was great to finally run into someone I know at Oshkosh - I think that was a first in our 20 years going here!
Amongst so many others, there were tons of Mustangs on the grounds this year, as well as three P-40's and a Wildcat! The jet representation was incredible as well, two A-4 Skyhawks! After walking the warbird grounds, we took our standard break out by Rwy 9/27 to watch some departures. It was actually pretty quiet - probably due to the low ceilings and the showers popping up around the local area (normally our 9/27 viewing gives an perspective on OSH ops like no other).
With the low frequency of traffic on 9/27, we decided to stake out a good spot along 18/36 for the afternoon show and evening departures. Every year we've gone, we've chosen a spot near the north end of 18/36 in between the homebuilts and warbirds. This year, I wanted to mix it up and we hiked all of the way past Phillips 66 square to the vintage aircraft area. What a great idea! It was much less crowded, we were seated among the throngs of legendary Piper Cubs, Staggerwings and other classics and there were still plenty of food options. Based upon the quality of the experience for the rest of the day, I think we found a new permanent viewing spot (especially since 36 was the traffic flow with winds out of the north) and look forward to sharing the spot with all of you next year!
Normally the afternoon flying activities commence with a showcase of sorts (a new type of plane, a specific genre such as seaplanes...etc.) which is followed by a good amount of acro, concluded with the warbirds spectacular. I would say that this year, we sort of lucked out. We had four Navy (P-3C, E/A-18G, T-39 [pictured below], and E-2C) and two USAF (T-38's) aircraft drop in after a departure of a B-25 and B-29. With the B-25 and B-29 orbiting the field at about 2,500 ft, things got a bit interesting.
The P-3C was cleared to land on 36 and was on short final when an RV-8 was cleared to depart.
My personal opinion was that the RV should have been held short of the runway as there just wasn't enough time to get rolling. The Orion crew realized this and smartly pulled up for a go-around. About 20 seconds later, the RV was in the air, with the P-3C over the RV, and the B-25 / B-29 formation on top. Not much room since all entities needed to break to the east to avoid the 9/27 traffic (if only I had a lens . Being in the middle of this aircraft sandwich, I thought the P-3 crew did a great job of keeping away from everyone (especially as the RV was seemingly unaware and did a normal climb out and turn almost inside of the Orion). All was good and everyone got down safely.
That bit of action was followed by not one, but two F/A-18C Tac demo's. Seriously, the first Hornet launched and did his demo, and the second launched promptly thereafter to repeat the same maneuvers. For an avid enthusiast like myself, that was totally awesome!
We breezed through the acro displays - all of which I have a much higher appreciation for after my own foray into acro flying. Hats off to John Mohr with his Stearman display - wow, he was good - highlights being the low-level spin recovery and square loop.
Team Aeroshell in their T-6 Texans also put on a really good display...
The warbird spectacular was just as advertised. Tora, Tora, Tora kicked it off with a very organized display, followed by the trainer fly-overs and B-25 strafing runs. After that, the B-25's set up for an orbit to the south while we were treated with some great navy fighter and P-51 action. Great to see so many aircraft kept in amazing shape. Our only complaint (and not much of one) was our seating position with respect to the location of the pyro and the winds. While visually appealing, we were downwind of all of the smoke and missed out on a few of the viewing opportunities - not much, though.
The airboss did a great job of managing all of the different things going on at once, while keeping the crowd engaged with constant action - bring a scanner when you go to Oshkosh, by the way, and you will be treated to ATC artwork in progress. After the fighters, the B-25 bombers were brought back in, accompanied by two C-47's and the B-29.
Surprisingly, no B-17 action (in past years, we've seen up to three airborne at once), but there was still plenty of other action of course. A few quick runs accompanied by pyro (including the wall-of-fire for the B-29) and the bombers and cargo aircraft were recovered to 36 and 9/27. At this point, the A-10 was brought in for three quick fly-bys - all of which were awesome - before joining up with Steve Hinton (legendary warbird pilot) for the Heritage Flight with the P-38 (Glacier Girl).
They did a fantastic job, but were pulled from the airspace before the standard Heritage Flight solo passes were completed. No worries, as a really tight missing man formation of T-28's was brought in right thereafter to close out the show.
My dad and I stayed for about an hour and a half after close of the show watching some of the evening activity on Rwy 36. There seemed to be a pent up demand to leave the airport following the weather from the morning, which was a great treat to us. In a testament to the environment at Oshkosh, I was on my way back from the facilities when I spotted someone who had sat down right next to my dad (note that there was about 40 yards between us and the nearest people on both sides). At any other place, this would be pretty awkward, but this guy was awesome. He was in the process of building his own RV-10, an avid pilot, and had been at the airshow for a full week up to that point. Awesome, awesome and awesome. We watched planes for a bit and then he had to leave - because his buddy just landed in his RV-7 to pick him up to fly him back to Burlington, WI - for a flight the next day back home to Colorado from Milwaukee. A few of the aircraft we saw...
Once he left, we packed it in as well and started the trek home - with a quick stop for dinner - where else then at the Lomira McD's! Oshkosh, we will see you next year!
We've been going to Oshkosh for many, many years now and like all good traditions, we've groomed a number of specific habits like our standard pre-airshow stopover at the Lomira, WI McDonalds. It's a great place to get in one last pitstop and grab a healthy (cough, cough) bite to eat to load up on the essential nutrients only a McD's breakfast can offer. As you proceed north from Lomira, you pass through Fond Du Lac, which serves as a reliever airport for Oshkosh during the week of AirVenture and in good years is packed with aircraft / tents - a great primer for the excitement to come. We use it as a barometer for how crowded (and great, of course) Oshkosh will be. At this point in the trip, we normally start looking to the skies for aircraft departing from OSH (normally at least a steady stream). However, the ceiling dropped quite a bit - I would estimate to the 800 - 1000 feet AGL range. Not to worry, about 5 miles out of OSH, we emerged on the other end of the cloud cover and ceilings were instantly up to the VFR levels we sought.
We pulled into the lot about 8:45 - our earliest arrival to date - and were rewarded with a great parking spot. I have to commend the people behind the scenes at Oshkosh for continually upgrading and improving the entry procedures - we were inside the gates about five minutes after leaving the car!
My dad has his own little tradition of going directly to the Ford tent and picking up whatever free swag is available. This year, to his dismay it was a straw hat (in comparison to the P-51-inspired hat last year, I believe) - I don't think he was too bummed, though, as he rocked his new hat all day. While he was passing through the different Ford stations, I noticed the open canopy of an F-4 Phantom out at the end of Phillips 66 Square (the main display area) and it suddenly dawned on me that we might have the opportunity of seeing startup and departure! Such a rare opportunity as the lives of these beasts as drones for the USAF are in the final chapter.
Well, I couldn't see my dad anywhere and all I could think of was missing one of the highlights of the day because of that free hat! All ended well as I located him and double-timed it over to grab a front row seat to the preflight, startup, and taxi of the Phabulous Phantom!
After watching the F-4 light the burners and disappear into the clouds, we made our way down to the warbirds area to walk amongst the countless legendary aircraft (we've really developed a standard pattern to our tour of the grounds). Before getting to the meat of the display, I noticed a tent with the Gauntlet Warbirds emblem (my tailwheel / acro flight school) and saw my instructor, Vess, inside. We talked airplanes and Oshkosh with Vess for a while and then made our way down to the P-51 world. It was great to finally run into someone I know at Oshkosh - I think that was a first in our 20 years going here!
Amongst so many others, there were tons of Mustangs on the grounds this year, as well as three P-40's and a Wildcat! The jet representation was incredible as well, two A-4 Skyhawks! After walking the warbird grounds, we took our standard break out by Rwy 9/27 to watch some departures. It was actually pretty quiet - probably due to the low ceilings and the showers popping up around the local area (normally our 9/27 viewing gives an perspective on OSH ops like no other).
With the low frequency of traffic on 9/27, we decided to stake out a good spot along 18/36 for the afternoon show and evening departures. Every year we've gone, we've chosen a spot near the north end of 18/36 in between the homebuilts and warbirds. This year, I wanted to mix it up and we hiked all of the way past Phillips 66 square to the vintage aircraft area. What a great idea! It was much less crowded, we were seated among the throngs of legendary Piper Cubs, Staggerwings and other classics and there were still plenty of food options. Based upon the quality of the experience for the rest of the day, I think we found a new permanent viewing spot (especially since 36 was the traffic flow with winds out of the north) and look forward to sharing the spot with all of you next year!
Normally the afternoon flying activities commence with a showcase of sorts (a new type of plane, a specific genre such as seaplanes...etc.) which is followed by a good amount of acro, concluded with the warbirds spectacular. I would say that this year, we sort of lucked out. We had four Navy (P-3C, E/A-18G, T-39 [pictured below], and E-2C) and two USAF (T-38's) aircraft drop in after a departure of a B-25 and B-29. With the B-25 and B-29 orbiting the field at about 2,500 ft, things got a bit interesting.
The P-3C was cleared to land on 36 and was on short final when an RV-8 was cleared to depart.
My personal opinion was that the RV should have been held short of the runway as there just wasn't enough time to get rolling. The Orion crew realized this and smartly pulled up for a go-around. About 20 seconds later, the RV was in the air, with the P-3C over the RV, and the B-25 / B-29 formation on top. Not much room since all entities needed to break to the east to avoid the 9/27 traffic (if only I had a lens . Being in the middle of this aircraft sandwich, I thought the P-3 crew did a great job of keeping away from everyone (especially as the RV was seemingly unaware and did a normal climb out and turn almost inside of the Orion). All was good and everyone got down safely.
That bit of action was followed by not one, but two F/A-18C Tac demo's. Seriously, the first Hornet launched and did his demo, and the second launched promptly thereafter to repeat the same maneuvers. For an avid enthusiast like myself, that was totally awesome!
We breezed through the acro displays - all of which I have a much higher appreciation for after my own foray into acro flying. Hats off to John Mohr with his Stearman display - wow, he was good - highlights being the low-level spin recovery and square loop.
Team Aeroshell in their T-6 Texans also put on a really good display...
The warbird spectacular was just as advertised. Tora, Tora, Tora kicked it off with a very organized display, followed by the trainer fly-overs and B-25 strafing runs. After that, the B-25's set up for an orbit to the south while we were treated with some great navy fighter and P-51 action. Great to see so many aircraft kept in amazing shape. Our only complaint (and not much of one) was our seating position with respect to the location of the pyro and the winds. While visually appealing, we were downwind of all of the smoke and missed out on a few of the viewing opportunities - not much, though.
The airboss did a great job of managing all of the different things going on at once, while keeping the crowd engaged with constant action - bring a scanner when you go to Oshkosh, by the way, and you will be treated to ATC artwork in progress. After the fighters, the B-25 bombers were brought back in, accompanied by two C-47's and the B-29.
Surprisingly, no B-17 action (in past years, we've seen up to three airborne at once), but there was still plenty of other action of course. A few quick runs accompanied by pyro (including the wall-of-fire for the B-29) and the bombers and cargo aircraft were recovered to 36 and 9/27. At this point, the A-10 was brought in for three quick fly-bys - all of which were awesome - before joining up with Steve Hinton (legendary warbird pilot) for the Heritage Flight with the P-38 (Glacier Girl).
They did a fantastic job, but were pulled from the airspace before the standard Heritage Flight solo passes were completed. No worries, as a really tight missing man formation of T-28's was brought in right thereafter to close out the show.
My dad and I stayed for about an hour and a half after close of the show watching some of the evening activity on Rwy 36. There seemed to be a pent up demand to leave the airport following the weather from the morning, which was a great treat to us. In a testament to the environment at Oshkosh, I was on my way back from the facilities when I spotted someone who had sat down right next to my dad (note that there was about 40 yards between us and the nearest people on both sides). At any other place, this would be pretty awkward, but this guy was awesome. He was in the process of building his own RV-10, an avid pilot, and had been at the airshow for a full week up to that point. Awesome, awesome and awesome. We watched planes for a bit and then he had to leave - because his buddy just landed in his RV-7 to pick him up to fly him back to Burlington, WI - for a flight the next day back home to Colorado from Milwaukee. A few of the aircraft we saw...
Once he left, we packed it in as well and started the trek home - with a quick stop for dinner - where else then at the Lomira McD's! Oshkosh, we will see you next year!
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