Oshkosh AirVenture 2015

[hickej]

I went to Theater in the Woods to listen to Mike Melville, Burt, and Dick Rutan talk about designing and flying Burt's designs and Dick recounted a story of talking to gremlins during one of his extremely long record setting flights. I didn't see gremlins but I did have to manage my physical condition during my 13.5 hour flight on Saturday from Oshkosh to San Diego to make sure I was safe for flight (e.g. making sure I didn't fall asleep!). Now, I don't recommend flying this long for a variety of reasons but the airplane performed flawlessly and I landed around 8:00pm just after sunset at the Ramona airport in Southern California after leaving Wisconsin at 7:00am. My Waiex with the 3300 Jabiru has an extra 10 gallons of fuel and a Dynon two-axis autopilot which makes this a great cross country plane. How John Monnett got the one piece aluminum seat to be that comfortable is beyond me, but it worked great. My legs felt a little cramped at the end of the flight but my lower back, which goes out frequently, was in great shape.

KOSH -> KIFA 2.1
KIFA -> KLXN 2.7
KLXN -> KANK 2.6
KANK -> KFLG 3.4
KFLG -> KRNM 2.7

The Dynon ADS-B in showed me the way through the thunderstorms and helped me with fuel management as I decided between endurance and speed. The Dynon gave me in-flight weather with winds aloft and made it easy to decide how to optimize the trip. I saw some amazing scenery over the southern Rockies and into Flagstaff that really made my day. Beautiful untouched alpine lakes and green fields giving way to red rock formations and carved canyons - just amazing views.

I had a great time at AirVenture and saw lots of friends and made some new ones. Here are some videos that I posted to YouTube showing the Mass Taxi and the Sonex Foundation BBQ. A big thanks to Robbie and Wayne for making the BBQ happen.

Foundation BBQ
https://youtu.be/fxEDZY0C80k

Mass taxi video:
https://youtu.be/8GLOlpEn3Es

[nwawingman]

Thanks Jim for making these videos. Fantastic job! It was great seeing you again this year at Oshkosh. Wow, that is one long flight home. Very glad to hear you had a good trip home.