Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Ronnie's 71st Adventure heading for home

 Up, Up and Away!
Looking back at Oshkosh!

 Farmland.  Each section has a farm house, a family, a cow and they are all made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same!!  Amazing!  
Sorry Breadbasket of America.  It just slipped out!

 I am so glad Jeff bought these sun screens!  The Plexiglas canopy does not stop UV rays like glass car windows.

Marvin, Kevin and Jim joined us for our flight back to the Seattle area.  Most of the time we flew in a "Loose Gaggle" but for a while we practiced formation flying.  Fun but tiring with all the concentration that is required.

 Marvin and Jim out the window.

 Wind mill farms.

 We stop in South Dakota for gas and then....

 a fly-by of Mount Rushmore..., and then,

 Devil's Tower.

 After that some rumply country and then,

 Back to Townsend, Montana for dinner and our last night in the tent.

 Oh boy!  Prime rib!!  Oh no! It's Thursday!!  Bummer!

 Still, Townsend is a nice little town.

 Threatening thunderheads as we lay our heads down for the night.  Oh boy!

 Up in the morning and a final Flight Plan.

 It is just starting to sprinkle as we open the plane and load our gear.

 Ever meticulous, Jeff goes through..., 

 the pre-flight check list.  He never rushes.

 And up, up and away into rain showers and some lumpy flying.

 But soon it clears up and crop circles appear!


 The Cascade Range has clouds covering their tops so we elect to land at Hermiston, Oregon, gas up and check the weather for flying west through the Columbia River Gorge,

 There is a high overcast ceiling but clear below.

 Our "Loose Gaggle" flies through the gorge, turns right, and heads for home.

Post trip, Jeff compiled the numbers.

What a special Adventure!!  Thank you so much, Jeff.  As we said many times during our trip...,
Perfect!

Ronnie's 71st Adventure at Oshkosh

More days of walking and gawking.
This is a "Force Model" of the Honda Jet.  I knew immediately what it was because I was a wind tunnel model builder for Boeing and Northrop, once upon a time. 

 It was like old home week looking at the model and the photos of wind tunnel testing.

 And then Honda's Asimo Robot made his debut!
 It could climb up and down stairs and kick a soccer ball; wave to the crown. Even run across the stage.  Quite remarkable.

 While walking from exhibit to exhibit the air show was going on,

 And then there was the "Yellow Ground Fog"!  Since this was the 75th Anniversary of Piper Cub...
178 of them showed up!!

 Then we took a bus to the lake to see the Float Planes and Sea Planes!!


 Sure enough, sea planes and float planes!

 Back at the air field there were lots of bicycles and...

 Port-a-pots!

 There is no way you can see everything in one week.





The most important portable showers, shaving station, and outlets for charging cell phones, tablets and lap tops!  Oh yes, there was Open Wi-Fi available!

There was a thunderstorm during our final night and now we are drying everything out and preparing to leave for home.

Ronnie's 71st Adventure Day 3

 Saturday.  Planes are arriving from all over.  This guy came in from Canada.

 Lots of RV's with interesting paint jobs.

 We kick back and watch them arrive.

We find a couple of "left over" bikes, take them to the maintenance shed, top up their tires and, since the temperature is near 100 degrees, ride to the Air Museum which is Air Conditioned!!

Whoa!

 Rutan's Space Ship One was even there!

 What a great Museum, right up there with Boeing's Museum of Flight in Seattle.

 Sunday the planes really start to arrive.  Here is a forty plane formation of RV's celebrating their 40th Anniversary!

 It is getting thick around here!!  All said, 10,000 airplanes and 750,000 people over the course of the week!!

 Yet, it doesn't seem all that crowded.  Time to sit around and talk airplanes.

And watch the sun go down!

and more!