Oshkosh

[tailwind]

Arrived at Oshkosh. Weathered the storm with 65 mph winds.

[LukeS]

How long are you staying?

[tailwind]

We will be here all week.

[LukeS]

Thanks for showing me your Bearhawk. Between the time spent looking at your bird and the ones at the Bearhawk booth, it was one of the most productive trips I've made to Oshkosh, and I was happy that I was able to bring my Dad along to see it all. After seeing Mark Goldberg's LSA, I think I'm sold on the Oratex system for covering. The red looks really nice in person, much better than on camera for some reason.

[Bcone1381]

Did you go to Oshkosh? Tell us what the highlight was, the top thing you learned, and the effect it had on you after you got home.

For me the highlight was the socializing at the Bearhawk picnic. A close second was the Bearhawk display allowing me to get lots of photos In order to visualize a finished product that's is years down the road.

What I Learned...., although I went to three different Gas Welding classes the "Forming Aluminum Ribs" class was my favorite. It was taught by a 70 year old guy who has been building his whole life, he had no flashy PowerPoint, or prepared lesson plan, just old school "here is how we do it" type of atmosphere. It was educational to see him use high pressure to form the lighting hole flange to prevent warping the blank (he had no warpage by torquing down the flanging die with a common socket set.) and using a lead slapper to seat the edge onto flutes that were cut into the form block.

Since I arrived home, I am looking into welding classes at the local community college.

[LukeS]

I was lucky enough to connect with "Tailwind" at Oshkosh, and it was very beneficial to see his Bearhawk (4place), and listen to him talk about details of his build. I'm was also happy to learn that he lives just a few hours away from me. I also learned that the shade of red Oratex fabric that covers Mark Goldberg's LSA is a much deeper tone of red than it appears in most video, even the video I took that day. It really looks nice, especially considering the fabric doesn't require any dope sanding or paint. It's likely the covering system I will end up using on my 4-place. I ended up buying a basic Garmin VIRB action camera from Amazon before going to Oshkosh and now I'm coming through the video to see if there are any useful stills I can pull out.

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Sorry I missed you at Oshkosh, and I didn't get a chance to see your flying airplane. See you in Rice Lake in a couple of weeks for your fly in! Chetek is the next day, so maybe I'll get lucky and see you there, too :-)

[tailwind]

Enjoyed my trip to Oshkosh. I met some great people. I would like to thank Dan who when I could not get my tiedows in came along with another option that saved my plane during the storm. I enjoyed the picnic and thank the organizers.