Aviation BS and Photo Thread

Enjoyed several days at EAA AirVenture! This was my first time going to Oshkosh and it certainly didn't disappoint. So much incredible aviation history and modern innovation on display. I'm a huge warbirds fan, and there was a large variety to enjoy. Here are some of my favorites, plus a bonus pic of the Super Guppy!

 

Hmmm ...

 

Rough weekend to be a Mig-23 pilot. Thankfully everyone in the plane and on the ground is safe.

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/th...h-what-we-know-about-jet-and-status-of-pilots

 

Eek. Look for a new "is it totaled" post in the 2nd gen section with an interesting story to tell.

 

Not seeing it. Do you have a link by chance?

 

I was just making a joke. The news link posted has a Twitter (or X?) video embedded that shows a silver 2nd gen that took some damage.

 

[today's call to State Farm]

Yes ma'am, the TW hive mind experts have declared it a total loss.

What caused the damage?

Ma'am, it was a Russian fighter jet that took it out.

A RUSSIAN FIGHTER JET TOOK IT OUT? ...

Yes ma'am, you kind of needed to be there ... their low pass kind of went wonky ... and then ...

[CLICK]

 

Which is gonna cause a whole other headache because you know it'll go to a misunderstanding, and "acts of war" usually aren't covered by insurance

 

Neither do your pictures (disappoint)! Very nice. Did you drive or fly to Oshkosh? The AirVenture experience isn't truly complete until you fly in, and not in something like a G3. The Fiske Approach is incredible for anyone who loves General Aviation. I've flown in twice with a friend who owned a V-tail Bonanza, and the trips there and back (NC to Wis) are two of the most fun things I ever did in my life. Camped next to the plane in the North 40, right next to the west end of Runway 9/27.

 

Does it have a nice off-road bumper? (just in case it's totaled)

 

Thank you. We drove up from near Greenville, SC. Definitely a long trip! I would love to fly in someday...gotta finish up that PPL! My CFI and his girlfriend flew up in a Sling LSA for the week. I've watched so many arrival/departure videos and it's so fascinating to see and hear. When we arrived, Camp Scholler was already beyond capacity so we ended up camping in an additional field EAA opened up. I usually go to Sun 'N Fun, and while that's always a good trip, it was so great to finally make it to AirVenture. Glad you had a fun time!!

 

Nah, looked pretty stock to me.

 

I heard it has a few ruski aftermarket mods...

 

I went there this weekend and saw it happen live. We were just eating some grilled food when it happened and we lost all our appetite.
also he did some of his maneuvers right above us, which made the gut feeling even worse and also that in the past the jets always flew above our house which is 10min away from the crash site.
It is almost a wonder that no one got injured.

 

Worked ground ops for one a while back. What an incredible thing the event is. The conveyor belt of incoming aircraft was a sight to see, esp when you get notices like "eat quickly; the Cessna Club of America is coming in as a 138-ship"

Always wanted to do a ride along with a few friends of mine that have flown in, but never got our calendars to align (yet).

 

Earlier this summer the family went to the Tillamook Air Meuseum and walked inside a mini guppy. It was pretty interesting to see the static display.



It was crazy to see the bulbous fuselage built around the original B377’s cockpit. I thought I grabbed photos of the inside but did not.

 

Nice shot of a warthog training in the whites over New Hampshire. Great day to be hiking.

 

Our flight up in 2008 almost turned into a marathon. We flew out on a Wednesday planning to stay until Sunday. On Wednesday morning there was a long front of T-storms and convective weather that stretched from western Missouri to offshore Maryland. We decided to fly west and try an end-run around the weather, which would have almost doubled the distance. We left KHKY (Hickory, NC) around 2 pm after waiting and hoping the front would move, but it had turned stationary. We got as far west as the Asheville area when the regional ATC called us. The controller knew our IFR plan and said he could get us through a broken section over eastern Tennessee just west of Knoxville. We dodged around storm cells for a couple of hours, never getting into any convective weather, and from 8000 feet we never lost sight of the ground. It was actually quite beautiful with all those towering clouds around us. We had several airports picked out to dive for if the weather closed in, and my friend is a very accomplished pilot, so neither of us was really worried. We refueled in Fort Wayne and it was dark when we landed in Muskegon , Michigan and stayed there overnight, as we wanted to cross Lake Michigan in daylight. We stopped again in Sheboygan and topped off our tanks, as Jay had been to AirVenture several times and knew you could get in a holding pattern and would also have to fly low and slow, which burns a lot of gas, and we didn't want to have to fall out of line to head for fuel. As luck had it, Wittman Field (KOSH) was closed due to a crash (go figure) just as we started the Fiske approach. We circled Rush Lake (one of the holding areas on the approach) about four times before the field opened again. We got vectored to Runway 18, which meant we did our downwind off to the right, just along the lake shore (Lake Winnebago), then turned left for base and another left for final and landed to the south. The second plane in front of us had failed to clear the runway as we started our turn from base to final, so the controller told Jay to tighten his turn and land on the taxiway (which was a designated runway for these circumstances, runway 18L). We were pretty heavy, as we still had quite a bit of fuel (his plane had wingtip tanks as well as the main wing tanks) and the back seats and storage area was full of camping gear, Jay already had full flaps, but gave it a little gas and tightened the turn enough to line up on 18L, and greased it in. He got a nice "Attaboy" from the controller. That put us on the far side of the airport from where we planned to camp, it took us about 15 minutes of taxiing to get to the North 40. Damn, that was fun!

 

Lordy me, these pictures were taken back in the early 90's. This was in Austin TX.










The Guppy brought in the S-64 Skytrain. My little girl met The Hulk.