All Set for Oshkosh?

July 2018 - We’re just a few days from our arrivals at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. As mentioned last month, we have lots planned: Tim Horton’s coffee, Canadian Breakfast on Wednesday, featured speaker MDRA President and General Manager Al Mahon, and a host of seminars in our Canadian tent for you to enjoy as well as the many others in the forums area. By now, if you’re flying in you should have read the 2018 AirVenture NOTAM.

The MDRA (Minister’s Delegates, Recreational Aircraft) is an organization that is delegated by the minister of transport to manage the “quality control of the whole process” for amateur aircraft builders. Mahon will be the speaker at our Canadian Breakfast. Opportunities like this don’t come too often.

Your Canadian Council representatives discussed transportation to the Canadian Breakfast. Logistically it’s very difficult to figure out how to get 250 of our members to the venue so the best advice is just to get yourselves to the bus depot by whatever means, and then walk the last 500 yards to the Pixie tent by the EAA Nature Center. There is parking facing the Nature Center for those arriving by car or by cart. We start serving at 7 a.m. and the speaker starts at 8 a.m. so make sure you arrive in time to pick up and enjoy your delicious breakfast with friends before the presentation starts.

We’ll be arriving at camp early to set everything up for a warm welcome. Hopefully it’ll be a warm and dry welcome, but hey, it is Oshkosh. We’ll take what we get and tell stories about it afterwards.

We announced the forums in the EAA Canada Tent last month, but it’s worth sharing the information again. Here is a list of the presentations and presenters.

• Flying to and From Canada: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10 a.m. presented by Ian Brown
• What’s Involved in Building Your Aircraft in Canada: Monday at 11:30 a.m. presented by Jack Dueck
• Flight Testing Your Homebuilt: Monday at 1 p.m. presented by Jeff Seaborn and Ed Lubitz
• Risk Management, Underwriters Concerns: Tuesday and Thursday at 10 a.m. presented by Global Aerospace
• Risk Management, Case Histories: Tuesday and Thursday at 11:30 presented by Jack Dueck
• Fuel Flow Tests for Your Aircraft: Tuesday 1 p.m. presented by Ed Lubitz
• Using ForeFlight in Canada: Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. presented by Ian Brown
• EAA Chapters/Flying Clubs, Learning to Fly Economically: Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m. presented by Jack Neima
• Buying and Importing an Aircraft Into Canada: Friday at 11:30 a.m. presented by Jack Dueck
• In-Floor Heating for Your Garage or Hangar 101: Saturday at 10 a.m. presented by Jack Dueck

The most important single item to remember is to swing by the Canadian tent Monday morning to join us for coffee and to pick up your tickets for the breakfast on Wednesday morning. The tickets are limited and when they are gone (typically by the end of Monday) there won’t be any more. Come and say “hello” and get your shot of Tim’s, and maybe a doughnut. Last year we were able to string out the morning coffee an extra few days, so if you don’t arrive until after Monday morning you might miss the chance to get breakfast tickets, but you might still be able to snag a coffee on us.

Thank you to our writers this month. We have never had too many articles, so if you’re planning to submit something (and please, please do) the job couldn’t be easier. Simply write your article in unformatted text, either in a text message or in a document, and email it to me here with some pictures in JPEG format. Ideally you’d send me descriptions of your pictures at the end of your article, but I’ve been known to make things up in the absence of facts! How about writing up your experience getting to Oshkosh? Our readers would love to hear from you.