Catch the bus from the dorms to OSH with 10,000 other folks. Wander around OSH. Talk to people. Run into people I know. Walk up and down the flight line. Look at 23.5 bazillion aircraft. Look at 2 bazillion vendors, and ask a lot of questions regarding the stability of the EFIS units. See 12 different demos of drills that can drill through ANYTHING. Eat lunch with Lee Devlin, Wayne Hicks, Art Armani and Nick Ugolini. Watch Lee take a 10 minute $10 test ride of a Segway vehicle. Decide not to spend any money on anything whatsoever. Talk to the guys at the Navaid booth about a slight "wiggle" in the servo, and how to get rid of it.
Try to find the Polyfiber people to complain about their "Top Gloss" topcoat paint, which SUCKS BIG TIME!!! DO NOT USE THIS PAINT!!! Couldn't find them, so will have to complain via email/phone.
Hide under DC-3 in rain shower during airshow. DC-3 for sale for $159K - how can that be? After having seen S&F 5 times, Wayne's jaw was becoming green from dragging on the grass at the scale difference between S&F and OSH.
Walk 6 miles up the flight line from the end of 180 to the "Explorer Post" near the north 40 to get to the CSA weenie roast at 530 PM. See zillions of canard drivers there, and shoot the breeze. Eat a couple of chili dogs (if ever you feel that your cholesterol level is getting below your lower limit, OSH and the Airventure Cup Race are the places to be - they'll get your levels right back up there lickety split). Talk to a guy (sorry, don't remember his name) who's building a HIGHLY modified COZY MKIV - wider, longer, flaps, "starship" type swept canard with pivots, retracts, etc.
At 7 PM, walk over to pavilion 7 for the Race Awards. Everyone received a very nice plaque with their speed (incorrect though it may be) on it, and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers in each category won a trophy. Since I came in 4th, only 35 mph behind 3rd place in my category :-), I didn't get a trophy. Lots of hoots and hollers both for the top finishers as well as the bottom, and nice applause for all.
Next, a raffle for donated prizes - everyone gets something. Frank Pullano just wanted to win a T-shirt, as all his clean clothes weren't, but he was extremely frustrated at seeing all around him get "T-shirts", while all he received was Steve Wright's "Nose-Lift". Poor Frank.... :-). I won an Infinity stick grip, but since I've already got working grips, I don't know yet what I'll do with it.
We gave all the race crew, especially Eric Whyte, the chairman, a standing ovation for the tremendous work they did in organizing and running the race, while keeping ~100 unruly pilots in line and under control. Excellent, excellent job.
After the ceremony we went back to the dorms on another amazingly crowded bus, took showers and studied the weather, as it looked as though it was supposed to start getting worse over the next few days.
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