Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
Right now, all over the country, thousands of pilots are poring over WAC maps and sectionals, loading flight plans and scouring Airnav for cheap gas on the way to The Big One. I'm receiving daily -- even hourly -- emails from pilots all over the country, asking advice, checking availability, wondering about weather.
We're all a-twitter around here, natch. The beer has been ordered (Priority #1, of course -- two different local mircro brews, a lager and an outstanding hefeweizen) for the Pool Party, the food is in the works, and the hotel will be stuffed to the cowl flaps with pilots flying in from all over the country -- the farthest (thus far) being from Sacramento, CA! (It's hard to get much further away, although our record for distance is actually New Zealand -- two Kiwis flew Quantas to CA, picked up a couple of LongEZs, and flew in to the pool party back in 2005.)
I've got the A/C working again in the courtesy van -- just in time for the coldest July, ever (thank you, Algore) -- our daughter has the pool area looking spic & span, and we've opened up a bunch of rooms in our dorm building, to be used as over-flow if we need 'em. And it looks like we will, if the weather holds.
And, of course, we've still got to pack Atlas for our week in the North 40. We've got all of our packing lists saved on our computers, so we don't forget anything. That chore will start in earnest on Wednesday, cuz we'll need to have the big guy completely packed and ready to go by Thursday, since we won't have a minute to ourselves once the arrivals start on Friday.
This will be our 27th consecutive Oshkosh fly-in (17 driving/riding, 10 flying) and -- God help me -- I'm just like a little kid waiting for Christmas! Half of me wants it to be here NOW, dammit, while the other half wants it to never come, because then it will then be over all-too quickly.
For you guys who are coming, we can't wait to see you! For you guys who are missing OSH this year, start making plans for 2010. Something as special as OSH simply can't go on forever -- things like this never do -- so try not to miss it next year!
We're all a-twitter around here, natch. The beer has been ordered (Priority #1, of course -- two different local mircro brews, a lager and an outstanding hefeweizen) for the Pool Party, the food is in the works, and the hotel will be stuffed to the cowl flaps with pilots flying in from all over the country -- the farthest (thus far) being from Sacramento, CA! (It's hard to get much further away, although our record for distance is actually New Zealand -- two Kiwis flew Quantas to CA, picked up a couple of LongEZs, and flew in to the pool party back in 2005.)
I've got the A/C working again in the courtesy van -- just in time for the coldest July, ever (thank you, Algore) -- our daughter has the pool area looking spic & span, and we've opened up a bunch of rooms in our dorm building, to be used as over-flow if we need 'em. And it looks like we will, if the weather holds.
And, of course, we've still got to pack Atlas for our week in the North 40. We've got all of our packing lists saved on our computers, so we don't forget anything. That chore will start in earnest on Wednesday, cuz we'll need to have the big guy completely packed and ready to go by Thursday, since we won't have a minute to ourselves once the arrivals start on Friday.
This will be our 27th consecutive Oshkosh fly-in (17 driving/riding, 10 flying) and -- God help me -- I'm just like a little kid waiting for Christmas! Half of me wants it to be here NOW, dammit, while the other half wants it to never come, because then it will then be over all-too quickly.
For you guys who are coming, we can't wait to see you! For you guys who are missing OSH this year, start making plans for 2010. Something as special as OSH simply can't go on forever -- things like this never do -- so try not to miss it next year!