Into Oshkosh at Age 17

Jay Honeck

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jay Honeck
Well, my son departed for Oshkosh this morning in our "new" (to us) 1948 Ercoupe. He's 17, earned his ticket last fall, and has a grand total of around 70 hours.

At 1:45 PM, three hours later, he called me to say "Guess where I am?" Yep, he was all set up in the "Vintage" area, with his tent, cooler, chair, and cold pop all ready for the show to start! Of course, that won't happen until next Monday, but with his limited experience we figured that doing the FISK approach might be a *bit* much for him -- so arriving this early solves everything rather neatly.

And what an adventure! This is his 18th consecutive AirVenture (not counting in vitro!) so he's almost literally grown up on Wittman Field, and he knows every inch of the place like the back of his hand. Amazingly, we realized that this is his first time away from home truly by himself -- and what a way to do it, flying an aircraft solo into the biggest aviation "happening" on earth!

Man, I wish I could be there with him. Trouble is, in an Ercoupe you can *either* bring a passenger, *or* you can bring camping gear -- but not both! This truly was the ONLY way to get the 'Coupe to OSH this year -- but Mary, Becca, and I will join him Sunday, when we fly the Pathfinder in after our fly-in pool party.

And with his extra 180 pounds of useful load in the Pathfinder we'll be able to arrive with a cooler full of cold beverages, instead of nearly dying of thirst while setting up the tent in the North 40...

:goofy:
 
Quite an adventure for a 17 year old. Good on him. Have fun. Wish I could be there.
 
Wow, that sounds amazing. It must be great for him to be there and all the people stopping by to see the plane,... and realizing he is there by himself!

Someday I'll fly, train, drive,.. bike,. or walk to OSH. :rolleyes: But it's going to be a while.....
 
Someday I'll fly, train, drive,.. bike,. or walk to OSH. :rolleyes: But it's going to be a while.....


Well Rob maybe we can start planning the trip for next year. We can take my Warrior, I've been there 3 times, twice with Ed G in the Mooney and once in the Warrior.
We'll talk about it later
Dave G.:blueplane:
 
Wow, that's just COOL Jay. Care to adopt me?

Well, um, actually, er... no.

:goofy:

What's amazing is that my entire investment for that plane is LESS than what I paid for a motorcycle -- in 1988! If you're looking for inexpensive fun flying, you simply can't beat an Ercoupe.
 
Very cool! I wish I was 17 again and could do that!

Me, too.

Man, when I was 17 I was just happy to be sneaking smokes and stealing my dad's booze on Saturday night. Driving a car was a big deal, and I never dreamed of being able to fly a plane -- although I always wanted to learn to fly. (It didn't happen for me until I was 35; Mary didn't learn to fly until she was 37.)

I'm just glad we've been able to give Joe the chance to do this sort of thing at a young age. Our non-flying friends think it's crazy to let a teenager fly an airplane, but I honestly feel better flying with Joe than driving a car...

In a few weeks he goes off to college (ROTC), so this will be his last hurrah for a long while.
 
Jay, that is incredibly awesome for your whole family. You must be beaming with pride for raising such a fine young man.
 
How cool! :yes: He sounds like a really neat young man. And a fortunate one at that.

He left Iowa just in time...weather isn't as kind to travelers today.
 
Thats a great adventure. And a fun plane to fly or so I've heard. There is an old Ercoupe sitting in a f farmer's field near me. I have ruminated about buying it and seeing what could be done with it. Worse comes to worse I guess I could part it out.
 
There's a fuselage of one on Skippack pike on your way to N10 as well,... on the left right before a big church after you turn off of 363,.. maybe between the two you could rebuild one ;) Wasn't Andrew thinking of building a plane? :D
 
How cool! :yes: He sounds like a really neat young man. And a fortunate one at that.

He left Iowa just in time...weather isn't as kind to travelers today.

Yep, that's why he left yesterday and not today. The prog charts couldn't have gotten any better for yesterday -- or much worse for the next couple of days.

Hopefully all this crud will be gone by the weekend. We're planning to fly up on Sunday...
 
There's a fuselage of one on Skippack pike on your way to N10 as well,... on the left right before a big church after you turn off of 363,.. maybe between the two you could rebuild one ;) Wasn't Andrew thinking of building a plane? :D

In the aircraft market we've got right now, buying a project just doesn't make sense. There are plenty of beautiful flying machines on the market right now, cheap, cheap, cheap.

Our Ercoupe has a great panel, low-time engine, new glass, new brakes, new nose strut, nice interior, and it cost less than a motorcycle! Hell, it's even got a working (formerly IFR certified) in-panel GPS!

If you've EVER wanted to buy an airplane, do it now. Prices are as low as I've ever seen.
 
Jay, that is just too cool! You can color me GREEN with envy!
 
an IFR ercoupe, now that would be awesome!
 
I had about 94 hours on a 6 month old license when I first flew the trusty old 150 to the Show. Of course, I had less fair and more fat than a youth of 17. Huge kudos to both the Padwan learner and immediate ancestors. Considering the travails most teenagers get themselves into, having a 17 year old who can accomplish such things speaks volumes.
 
I had about 94 hours on a 6 month old license when I first flew the trusty old 150 to the Show. Of course, I had less fair and more fat than a youth of 17. Huge kudos to both the Padwan learner and immediate ancestors. Considering the travails most teenagers get themselves into, having a 17 year old who can accomplish such things speaks volumes.

Thanks -- but I'm not counting THOSE chickens just yet...

Heck, right now as I'm typing this, Joe could be sitting in the Vintage section at OSH, hanging out with the "Tequila-for-breakfast" crowd, smoking cigars and talkin' trash...

:goofy:
 
Perhaps, but he did get the ticket and fly himself to the show successfully. That's really good for 17. Obviously the Force is with him.
 
University of Iowa (of course!), and Army ROTC.

He wants to fly helicopters, and no one has more of them than the US Army!

Sounds like he's off to a great start. A credit to young folks everywhere. As for the heli job in the Army, get it in writing up front. No flight school, no sign.
 
Good deal. I rented a C172SP and flew into Airventure when I was 17 shortly after my check ride. It was a good experience.
 
Perhaps, but he did get the ticket and fly himself to the show successfully. That's really good for 17. Obviously the Force is with him.

I know -- I'm just joshing.

Mary and I are very, very proud of him. God knows he's miles beyond anything I did at age 17...

:cheerswine:
 
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