Oshkosh Visit
This is the first Newsletter after Oshkosh so I wanted to give an update on who all was there. I saw and heard of 18 members and family being there. David Talley and Brad Doppelt flew up in Ed Seurer’s Tri Pacer (a story to come…especially the flight home.) Miriam Talley had been working in Illinois so flew the rental car up to OSH. The rest of the Dopplet clan-Brad’s dad, Jody, Andrew and Ryan drove up. Bruce King flew up in his Hummel Bird and he even was asked to fly in the show. Jim McIrvin flew up in Lori’s 195, Norris and Joanne Warner flew up in the Lexus and took an extended vacation, Steve Carlson flew up in the Dodge Ram (plus he was kind enough to haul back OSH purchases from the Talley’s), Terry Winnette flew in by kerosene burner with brother Kenny, we heard Diane Weinman, John Kent, Bob Masters were about, Jimmy Tubbs was holding down the fort at the ECI tent. So of course Miriam and David were there bugging him about Franklin parts…smile!!! At the awards ceremony our own Jim McIrvin won the Young Eagles Field rep award for his work to promote Young Eagles in a variety of settings. Also at the awards ceremony this year’s newsletter award STAYED IN TEXAS….YAAAY! Congrats to EAA Chapter 168 in Dallas.

Of course there were the 100th anniversary of flight exhibits and events happening. The Wright Brothers Pavilion had “The” Wright Flyer that will fly at Kill Devil Hill. They also had mock up simulators so that we all could try to fly the Wright Flyer in the lying down position and complete with hip controls and pitch bar. Needless to say, this girl did not get too far in the simulator and I did not see any successful flights in my line. (ED NOTE: That hip control bar couldn’t handle her hips! I guess things were a shakin’! ?) The Wright brothers just went up a notch in my esteem of them.

Of course a big hit was the prototype RV-10. She was beautiful. They had a mock up we could sit in. Guess what, 4 real adults could very comfortably sit in this plane. At the Van’s forum we learned that 15 kits were purchased before the show even started, by the third day over 70 kits were sold. I think they have another winner.

We spent hours looking at, and drooling over, the new instrument technologies such as Blue Mountain Avionics and the FADEC system. We were educated about the new satellite WAS system. My head was spinning. It was a mental relief to look at the old planes with their basic instruments. As always there was too much to see and experience, but at the end of the week we headed over to the Vette Sea Plane base for a relaxing morning listening to the water lapping along the bank. There is something magical about a plane on floats. It’s mesmerizing to watch them pre-pare for flight, glide out and finally take off. Once again an exhilarating trip….we were pooped and ready for a vacation when we got home.
Miriam Talley