#Osh14 Part – 1: The Pilgrimage

Did you catch it?

Screen Shot 2014-07-28 at 6.31.56 AMI hope you were able to tune in last night to our LIVE BROADCAST on simpleflight.net, on location at EAA Airventure world headquarters, here in Oshkosh, Wisconsin!

We had a fantastic time chatting about all things #avgeek, from our upcoming Oshkosh Odyssey, to the evolution of CRM, to the fabled “Looming Pilot Shortage”. We especially touched on a subject dear to our hearts: some of the fantastic pilots and fellow pilot-bloggers we’ve met over the years that truly bring the magic to all things aviation.

If you missed it, the podcast will soon be available on iTunes. In the meantime, there are plenty of great podcasts by Al and Marc at:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/simple-flight-radio-show-archive/id551513897?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Podcast2

OSH 14, Part 1—A PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA

7/27/14

We made it!

. . . to the front door of the most amazing weeklong airshow in the world. Officially, the name is “EAA Airventure,” a weeklong av-fest thrown by the Experimental Aircraft Association.

But of course, everyone knows it simply as, Oshkosh.

…05:30

Despite having gone to bed at 01:30 local, I find myself wide awake, 4 hours later.

I know today’s adventure will be a marathon—just like the entire week—but my anticipation of things to come at my very first day at Oshkosh is palpable. I can almost hear the iconic tune, Also Sprach Zarathustra, better known as the theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey, booming in my head:

Baaaaa – Daaaa – Daaaaaaaaaaaa . . .DA – DUM! (Dum dum dum dum dum dum…)

2001_una_odisea_en_el_espacio_8(Trivial addendum: Also Sprach Zarathustra was composed by Richard Strauss in 1896—the year my grandma Laura was born—and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel of the same name!)

While Bunny and I had driven up from KORD after our blast of a time at our “There I Wuz!” book signing party at Aviation Universe, the rest of Team Aux had flown in only minutes after the end of our Simpleflight podcast.

Cap’n David—of “Cap’n Dillon’s Ecstatic Adventure” fame—was late arriving at KOSH in his Cessna 310, due to delays diverting around thunderstorms (and, I suspect, due to his late departure from KIWA trying to rouse his 12 y.o. son Jackson out of bed.) Therefore, he and FO John “Otto Pilot” K., my cameraman for the week, had to divert into KFDL, leaving you-know-who to race 40 minutes down the road, to schlep them back to our rental home.

So, here I sit, trying to pry my eyes the rest of the way open, sipping on Bunny’s fantastic, patented gourmet coffee, contemplating the day’s adventure . . .

Oshkosh, Day 1, 7/28—An EAA Salute to Founder PAUL H. POBEREZNY . . .

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Must-do’s on the agenda:

Screen Shot 2014-07-28 at 7.38.36 AM—Catch the arrival of the world’s only flying XT752 “Fairey Gannett,” An old sub chaser with double-folding wings. Pilot Harry promised an interview for us, and we’re chomping at the bit to hear his, and his machine’s, amazing story.

—Enjoy the afternoon airshow, by some of the biggest names in the business.

1376340202000-XXX-amelia-earhart-A—Catch up with Amelia Rose Earhart, fresh off her round-the-world re-creation flight of the legendary aviatrix of the same name, for an interview for Jean Denis Marcellin (http://planesimplesolutions.com)’s People of the Sky Facebook page.

—Kenny Loggins concert (Can you imagine this place, loaded with thousands of avgeeks, rocking out to his theme to Top Gun? Good Lord, I’m gonna have a heart attack!)

—Listening slack-jawwed to stories by sourdough (old timer) Alaskan bush pilots in the Theatre in the Woods (this one’s dear to my heart!)

—P-38 & P-40 Warbird review!

One very important item not to be found on any official EAA agenda is my own personal pilgrimage: to track down an old buddy of mine, Captain John R. Senior, father of one of my best friends, John Jr.

John Sr. is a retired 747 cap’n with TWA, and he and his fellow old-timers (don’t tell him I called him that!) will be holding court at his campsite. This type of visit is a “Pilgrimage to Mecca” that all younger pilots should take, to hear and share war stories from those that have come before them . . .

Without a human at its heart, an airplane is just a pretty hunk of metal sitting dead and dormant on a piece of tarmac. It’s the pilots—the people that man the ship—that are the true engines that propel it, the wings that give it lift. The demigod that breathes life into an otherwise dead body.

Without a pilot at the controls, there would be no adventure.

And that, my friends, is the TRUE HEART of what OSHKOSH is all about:

Generations of pilots, real people that have manned every aerial adventure ever taken, coming together in kindred fellowship.

Grandfather_and_grandson-1

Stay Avgeeky, my fiends.

Be sure to keep up with us here at Osh by tuning into our Capnaux Facebook and Twitter feeds!

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/CapnAux

TWITTER: @capnaux

Hashtag for all things Oshkosh 2014: #OSH14