July 24 – 31, 2006
Article by Steen Staff
Sunday, July 23 – Set-Up Day
Looking forward to a great show!
Sunday was a very pleasant day for setup, which went very smoothly. We are set up much like last year, in the same location (we’re between the main entrance gate and Paul’s park, or the south end of the same row that the large Cirrus display is at.) We have branched out with several new product lines this year, including Piloti Flying Shoes and ColorEyes HDL-3C, and we think they’re going to be hot sellers. We’ll see!
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- Ahhh, the fun of setup day. Actually, it’s not that bad when you have done it as many times as we have. It’s just a collection of small jobs (kind of like building an airplane…)
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- Mike Jones hoists the banner over the tent.
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- The basic setup is just about done. The plane will arrive soon and we’ll be ready for another exciting week of Oshkosh… we can’t wait!
Monday, July 24
A busy start to a great week!
Monday… opening day is finally here! We could tell from the start… it’s going to be a VERY busy week. We had a LOT of folks come by to see all the new stuff. The new products, especially the shoes and sunglasses, drew a lot of interest. Towards the end of the day, we heard that weather was coming in… the 70mph winds and 2 inch hail we were warned could happen never materialized, though we did get a decent bit of rain… which didn’t manage to stop the Beach Boys concert in the evening. All in all, a good day… looking forward to more!
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- The Steen tent is open and ready for business.
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- This family was interested in our line of high-quality flying sunglasses right as the show started.
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- We think John’s idea for a rack to show off the Piloti Flying Shoes is pretty innovative. John is full of cool ideas like this.
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- Interest in the sunglasses and shoes has been high ever since the gates opened.
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- The Little Toot biplane gang stops in for a chat.
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- Cheryl answers questions about the Skybolt.
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- A customer inspects the engine compartment of the Yellowbird.
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- It was a busy day!
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- These folks came all the way from Japan… there are many International visitors at Oshkosh.
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- We have more products than ever with us this year… lots of new books, videos, shirts, hats, sunglasses and shoes.
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- More folks checking out the display.
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- This Skybolt was built by Jim Grist. It is featured in the book “Flying: Just Plane Fun” which is available here in our secure Online Store.
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- This is a nice Skybolt.
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- Steve Jones’ nice Skybolt is here again this year.
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- Pete Clinton brought another beautiful Skybolt.
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- Jim Simmons and his wife flew their Skybolt in.
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- This Great Lakes is the nicest we’ve ever seen. It’s a factory-built plane, and just had a $200,000 restoration.
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- This plane could be a real contender for a top award this year.
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- This bipe has an interesting paint scheme.
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- The IAC area has all sorts of acro planes.
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- Patty Wagstaff’s plane was on display.
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- Jim and Jeanne Taylor man the IAC building.
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- Sean Tucker’s plane is on display.
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- Wheeee!!
Tuesday, July 25
Tuesday was another busy day. The weather is very warm and humid, but so far we’ve had no more bad rainstorms… business in the tent has been brisk, the new shoes and sunglasses have proven extremely popular.
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- A pretty Waco.
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- Every one of these Staggerwings is beautifully restored.
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- The engine of a Staggerwing.
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- A really interesting cabin Waco.
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- Nice!!
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- The Waco won the Grand Champion Antique award in 2000.
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- The Waco’s cabin… highly luxurious for it’s time.
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- A Super Stearman.
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- This Laid Swallow biplane is owned by Charlie Laird… great grandson of the original designer!
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- A Staggerwing.
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- Many 1930’s aircraft had colorful logos.
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- Tiger Moths are rare in the US… there were three of them parked together.
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- Nice!
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- This is an Australian Tiger Moth.
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- Another Moth.
Wednesday, July 26
The big story today was the arrival of the Avro Lancaster… there were over 7,000 built, yet only two fly today and only one of those is in North America. Despite being about an hour behind schedule, everyone waited around patiently to see this legendary and very rare bomber. It arrived with a B-25 off it’s wing, both in attractive RCAF colors. They only made one pass before landing, but we did get to see the massive bomb bay doors open up before engine shutdown. This plane is so expensive to operate, there is a real threat that it soon may not be able to fly anymore unless a very wealthy sponsor (or the Canadian government) decides to cover the costs. That would be a shame, as it’s a very unique and historic aircraft.
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- Airshow planes getting into position an hour before the start of the show.
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- Sean D. Tucker’s plane. This is the backup for his beloved Challenger, which was lost in April when part of the control linkage broke. Sean was officially inducted into the Caterpillar Club on Wednesday.
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- Matt Chapman shuts down his bright CAP near show center.
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- This replica Nieuport was used in the movie Flyboys.
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- This Fokker Dr.1 Triplane replica was also by the Flyboys movie display.
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- The Lancaster has four Merlin engines… it sounds like no other plane. VERY cool.
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- Even though it has four Merlins, it doesn’t sound quite like four P-51s.
Thursday, July 27
The weather is growing warmer by the day, but everyone is having a great time and the airshows are always impressive. There are many planes and it seems that the attendance is higher than in any year in recent memory.
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- The AeroShell Team is unmatched for tight formations and showmanship.
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- Steve Oliver wrings out “Sky Dancer”, his Super Chimpmunk.
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- Lots and lots of smoke.
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- The Hatz is probably the most popular type of homebuilt sport biplane.
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- The S-39 is a massive plane with a complicated system of struts. Very impressive!
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- The F-22 can pitch up faster than any other airplane we’ve ever had.
Friday, July 28
Friday was a busy day, the weather remained good (but still very hot) and a lot of folks who couldn’t take the whole week off managed to start their weekend early and go to EAA. A highlight of the day was seeing the Blue Angels. The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds don’t ever perform at Oshkosh simply because the airport is situated in such a way that they don’t have the necessary room to do so… the military has strict safety requirements for the areas they overfly during jet team aerobatic demonstrations. Still, this year the Navy sent Blue Angels Number Seven (the two-seater) which was available to see close-up in AeroShell Square, and on Friday the entire team flew in for some passes. They were actually supposed to do a few maneuvers, but they got delayed while doing air-to-air refueling beforehand and so they didn’t arrive until the last part of the NOTAM period set aside for them. The radio chatter between the Air Boss, Blue Angels leader, and other performers while we awaited their appearance included some good-natured teasing about them being on “Navy Time”… the Blues leader passed the buck on that one back to the folks in Annapolis. Finally, we saw them heading in, smoke on, coming from the east, which brought an instant halt to everything going on as everyone scrambled to get a shot as the entire squadron flew right overhead about 500 feet high. A couple more passes, including one right down the runway with number seven flying a bit farther out so they could get a group shot of them in front of the convention, and they were gone. Though we didn’t get a chance for seeing any aerobatics, everyone was still very impressed with the majesty of their great formation flying.
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- Chad Joel from Piloti Shoes chats with Aaron in the Steen tent. Interest in these shoes was very high, to say the least.
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- Dave Stone talks with a customer.
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- A Knight Twister was on display in one of the buildings at AirVenture.
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- Here’s a famous little plane… Ray Hegy’s “El Chuparosa”… flying this tiny airplane must have felt like riding in economy coach class on a cheap airline!
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- Everyone smiled and waved for their portrait with the Blues!
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- Waco Classic Aircraft had this truly beautiful Waco YMF-5C on display.
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- Ed Hamill’s plane displayed by an F-16… Ed’s “other plane”.
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- Our friend Gordon Penner gives a safety seminar in the IAC forums tent.
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- Sean D. Tucker makes a low, high-speed pass.
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- Wheeee!! While this may be work for Sean, but we bet it’s about the most fun “job” anyone could ever have!
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- A low-altitude knife-edge pass. Arguably, there is nobody who does this as well as Mr. Tucker.
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- Gene Soucy and his big, loud, slow Show Cat are a nice change from the parade of lookalike monoplanes you often see.
Saturday, July 29
We continued to stay busy on Saturday, with the Piloti shoes and ColorEyes sunglasses attracting a great deal of interest. The weather remained HOT… it is certainly cooler back home in Florida, thanks to the seabreeze… and gee, we actually thought that it might actually be cooler up north! There was a lot going on though, so our minds weren’t only on the heat. Saturday is the second day for the big Warbird airshow, and many interesting forums and demonstrations were scheduled around the AirVenture grounds.
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- Barrett fuels the Skybolt up for the flight home.
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- The Navy Legacy Flight zooms in towards show center.
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- A picturesque view of two aerobatic biplanes.
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- Jake and Jackson Everette pose for the camera.
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- A colorful Extra aerobatic plane.
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- Mike Goulian’s plane was on display at the Castrol tent.
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- Very eye-catching Waco YMF.
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- The Hatz remains a very popular design.
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- Notice how the Red Baron Squadron’s leader seems to be falling out of the loop… he really wasn’t, though.
Sunday, July 30
Sunday started with a bang — literally — as we awoke at 6:45am to the sound of intense thunder. Looking at the radar, most of Wisconsin was covered in severe thunderstorms, with many watches and warnings. Fortunately, by the time the show started, the rain had pretty much cleared out, and the cloudiness brought some much-appreciated relief from the intense heat of the past week. Barrett took the Skybolt out to head back home during the morning. He got stuck when the airport was suddenly shut down, however. Everyone was shocked to learn that the closure was due to an accident in which a Grumman Avenger ran over an RV-6 taxiing in front of it, resulting in the death of the passenger in the RV. News like this really hits home, whether or not you know anyone involved… they very well might be someone you were hangar flying with yesterday. It sounds like a simple case of the pilot of a large airplane with very poor forward visibility being unable to see a small airplane in front of him, though the NTSB will certainly figure it all out in painstaking detail. In any case, everyone’s thoughts and prayers were with all those involved in this tragic incident… the first fatal accident at Oshkosh in 15 years (except for the plane that went down during landing at the beginning of the week.)
Eventually, the airport was reopened long enough to let Barrett out, and off he went. The airshow then started, including a great demo of the C-17. Overall, it was a slow day (the last day always is) and we packed up toward the end of the day (as did everyone else.) As AirVenture 2006 drew to a close, we felt that it went very well, though the attendance was down a bit from last year, we were quite busy most of the time and it was a good show in all respects. But after a week in the heat (and occasional rain) we certainly were ready to head on home… though Sun ‘N Fun is not too far off!
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- Lovely weather to start the day with, huh? Actually, it was nice to have a break from the heat, and the rain passed by before the show got going.
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- Packing up… we love Oshkosh, but after a week of it, we’re all ready to head home!
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- The new stealth airplane…
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- Barrett takes off for home in the Skybolt. He climbed out faster than just about any other plane we saw during the week.
