It has been a big kick. This was the second time that I have participated. The event is organized into a morning and afternoon shift, which gives you a chance to work one shift and then spend the other touring the EAA event. The afternoon shift ends just before the daily airshow at 3:30PM, so everyone gets to see that too. I should note that we get into the event "for free", so that is a huge benefit.
We are flying 1/2A planes, both the Bratco SkyBaby (with Norvel 061's) --donated by SIG---- and Cox PT19's and Hyper Vipers- last two donated by Estes/Cox. When it gets windy the Skybaby and the Hyper Viper are the prefered planes. All give the kids big smiles. The AMA was taking names of kids, with the possibility of sending them followup info on the AMA. It should be noted that these kids come with parents who are already aviation inclined. I talked to several parents, who frequently started off by saying "I use to fly those 1/2 A planes as a kid...". We even gave "taste" flights to the parents. Yesterday (Friday) we put 445 flights in. At one point in the afternoon, a CL demo was given which included PA, Old Time, and sort-of-combat. One mown circle is available after 3:30 for any CL flying.
I would like to express my appreciations to Jim Krueger who with his niece Julie and nephew Steve Krueger organized and arranged all the shifts, flightline passes, and camping permits as well as interfacing with the EAA. They commuted daily from the Milwaukee area to Oshkosh--not to mentiion all the preparation trips. Also a tip of the hat to Art Johnson, who coming off recent heart surgery in June, still managed to be the Chief of maintenance (as well as all the indians too!) for the entire week. By now, there isn't any fix that Art doesn't know in order to get these badly abused planes back in the air!
If I have inadvertently left anyone off, please feel free to add names.
Jim Krueger is already looking for volunteers for next year, so if you have an interest in the EAA event, and would like to participate in the CL event, give a thought for next year. I am not sure what the preferred contact arrangement is, so I hope that we can get an e-mail address to add to this post.
Alan
