One Week Wonderful!

August 2018 - Well, there it was — gone! EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018 came and went, and what a great gathering it was.

Many regular attendees worry about two aspects of the weather: whether it will be too hot and whether it will be too wet. But neither of those were a problem this year. It was a little rainy, especially in the days leading up to the show, but we didn’t have any days where folks were hiding in their cars or tents. We had perfect sleeping weather too, with unseasonably cool nights.

Presentations in the EAA Canada Tent were extremely well-attended, with lots of positive feedback. The events we announced last month all went off without a hitch. As expected, tickets to our Canadian Breakfast had all been given out by noon on Monday, so there were several people who were disappointed. There was one lucky couple who had driven through the night, been delayed in Chicago traffic, and arrived just as the last tickets were given out, but we did manage to find two last tickets for them.

The highlights for me this year were being able to share with family how I spend my week at Oshkosh, the great weather, the drones at the night air show, and seeing Canadian friends I haven’t seen since last AirVenture. I particularly enjoyed watching the ultralights and powered paragliders in the Fun Fly Zone.

The One Week Wonder was a great success — see the separate article about that. We have lots of pictures of the final moments. It really was down to the wire with such a complex aircraft being put together by a host of volunteers and Van’s employees in just one week. With two hours to go they were still pulling rivets on one of the wings, but they made the deadline including walking the aircraft down to the flightline with mere seconds remaining on the clock.

Like many Canadian aviators, Canadian Council member Jeff Seaborn has a father who has been steeped in aviation, specifically the homebuilt movement, for many years. Clark Seaborn put together an excellent historical overview of more than 80 years of amateur aircraft construction in his area of Calgary, Alberta. I’ve added a brief article plus a link to the 120-slide PowerPoint presentation he so painstakingly put together.

Lastly, I was able to arrive at our Oshkosh campsite in the middle of the week before the event began and was able to witness firsthand the enormous amount of work Jack, Deb, and Lorin Dueck do before the show. I thought it was worth sharing this month. Most of us are unaware of how much effort goes into preparing for the show, and tearing down afterwards. It’s worth celebrating these fine folks, so thank you Jack, Deb, Lorin, and all the other Canadian volunteers who put so much hard work into making our participation in the show a success.