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The Oshkosh Experience |
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| FTLComm - Oshkosh Wisconsin - Friday, August 29, 2003 | ||||||||||
| We did not go to the Experimental Aircraft Association
AirVenture with the plan to produce a bunch of web pages. Our purpose to explore,
to seek out new things, to go where no Shire had gone before and we wanted to enjoy
ourselves. Well that was the plan. We did enjoy ourselves but at the same time we
took 1,500 pictures and two and half hours of video tape. The experience was just
too rich not t be shared and so this is the fourth article about the event. In this series of seventy-eight pictures the idea is to give you a sense of what the whole thing was about, or at least what we saw and what we felt as we looked around. In stories to come we will deal with some of the remarkable highlights, we will tell you stories that were told to us and we hope that from this you will know more about aviation and about what drives people to want so much to slip the bounds of earth, defy gravity and climb above the tree tops and into the clouds above. To say that the Oshkosh event is big is like saying its gets dark at night. The figures for this year's convention are staggering with more than 770,000 people having been there it is no wonder that we did little more than sample what was happening. We spent three days on the site and could not have endured more. The heat, bad food and simple overload of gravity and things to see and remember meant that three days were more than enough for this year. But, another year we will know more about what we want to see and do and we will be better prepared with equipment and shoes. The picture at the top of the page did not happen. On Wednesday morning we encountered these three who were out promoting their part of the show and when I snapped their picture they immediately stopped and posed for me to do it right. Earlier I had taken the image of the Sprit of St. Louis sitting in AeroShell Square and so it just seemed right to put the two images together. Oshkosh is not about the past and it is not about the future it is about the timeless quest for humans to venture, to try to reach the beyond. It really is that idealistic. This year the hundredth anniversary of powered flight is important and all the other milestones that have come along from Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic, Yeager breaking the sound barrier, Dick Rutan circling the earth in a light plane without refueling, John Glenn orbiting the planet, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldran stepping on to the surface of the moon and the frontiers are many and the quest continues. The reality is that aviation is still in its infancy and we who have seen aircraft go from war to war, up and down, faster and faster know full well that this is the very beginning. The pictures in this set are not in sequence but are organised by theme and nature of the experience from the three days. |
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Wittman Field From the Space Station46 kb |
Map of the EAA Convention Site88 kb |
Bus from Oshkosh to the Airport61 kb |
Aircraft camping31 kb |
EAA Membership Registration78 kb |
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Diane from Florida60 kb |
Beriev Be - 10354 kb |
Beriev Be - 103 Over Float Base43 kb |
Aerocat40 kb |
What a show56 kb |
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Thursday morning Boeing 30750 kb |
Air Race Participants69 kb |
Long Ezes and Variants in AirVenture Cup47 kb |
Airbus A300-600ST Beluga33 kb |
FAA DC-335 kb |
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Buy One or Make Your Own51 kb |
The Boss' Bus88 kb |
Picture of a pretty girl and a goofy hat79 kb |
Bus to the Float Base51 kb |
Checking the numbers58 kb |
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That's him!36 kb |
Looks like this guy's feet hurt62 kb |
Try to get a picture and someone's in front of you47 kb |
Time for another hundred pictures45 kb |
There He is Again71 kb |
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I'm from Iowa69 kb |
Canon Clicking, Sony in the Bag67 kb |
Cessna Mock Up of New Maverick61 kb |
NASA display58 kb |
Wash your hands58 kb |
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Bad Food67 kb |
Another bad meal63 kb |
Hot Tim44 kb |
GEM60 kb |
Boeing 30725 kb |
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Aeroshell Square40 kb |
NASA's Active Aeroelastic Wing F/A-1841 kb |
Helmet Bag in hand54 kb |
Wheels for the day41 kb |
Cessna Caravan53 kb |
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| The image below is a QuickTime Virtual Reality Panorama, if you do not see the image download Quicktime, it is free and easy to install, since this was made with the most recent version even if you have QuickTime installed it will not run unless it is the latest version. | ||||||||||
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Citation37 kb |
Hot, damn hot!41 kb |
Showing Off40 kb |
Getting the picture44 kb |
Pratt & Whitney Canada62 kb |
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Market Place72 kb |
Col. Richard Graham68 kb |
Oklahoma Folks58 kb |
The Wright Flier60 kb |
The Market55 kb |
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Vietnam Made wood models63 kb |
Oh Not again51 kb |
Vintage oddities67 kb |
P 51 and bullets31 kb |
Anybody want to buy a plane50 kb |
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Holy Smoke54 kb |
The airshow62 kb |
Faces in the crowd36 kb |
Vought Corsair23 kb |
An Aerobatic Pilot's wife34 kb |
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Sun glasses43 kb |
Patty Wagstaff28 kb |
Patty Wagstaff30 kb |
"Yes dear, its just the air conditioner in the background."27 kb |
Wow32 kb |
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Imagining26 kb |
A family that watches together67 kb |
Melt Down56 kb |
Shower47 kb |
Long-eze Taxi31 kb |
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T-28s38 kb |
Iron Anny35 kb |
A Tutor for sale52 kb |
A new project42 kb |
The International booth35 kb |
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The Spirit of St. Louis33 kb |
Film Crew at work41 kb |
Ultra lights25 kb |
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| References: | ||||||||||
| AirVenture map http://www.airventure.org/2003/generalinfo/images/grounds_map2003.jpg airVenture photo gallery http://www.airventure.org/2003/gallery/ Sr-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales and Legends http://www.habu.org/habus/graham/sr71stl.html Col. Richard Graham http://www.habu.org/habus/graham/graham-bio.html |
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