"Hey, Don!" and Oshkosh 2007 Wrap-Up

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As promised, the NSFW version is at http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/FirstSoloHeyDon.mp3.

We’re back from AirVenture Oshkosh 2007 and beginning the decompression process. For this episode, I’m hauling out a song I recorded about my first solo a few months after it happened.

Many of you have heard the podcast episode about my first solo (the show notes for which are here), but there’s a funny side, too. I loaded all of the angst and energy into a song called First Solo and recorded it and gave a copy to Don Fuller, the CFI who soloed me. I don’t know why it hasn’t occurred to me before now to include the song in an episode of the podcast, but I thought about it on the drive home and decided to do it.

It’s way too long, contains too many details, and isn’t the best sound-engineering job I’ve ever done (I did all of the engineering in addition to performing all of the instrumental parts and all of the vocals except for two of the radio voices without much help in setting the levels, etc.) but it’s a fun tune and you guys might appreciate it. So I post it now for what it’s worth.

Thanks to John Crowe and Doug Parker for playing the parts of YIP tower and Don Fuller respectively.

Pod-A-Palooza 2007

Pod-A-Palooza 2007 went off without a hitch this afternoon. Members of (generally left to right) of The Flying Pilot, Uncontrolled Airspace, UltraFlight Radio, The Pilotcast, The Student Pilot Flight PodLog, The CFIcast, The Finer Points, and, of course, Airspeed, gathered in Forum No.2 to on Friday, July 27 to hangar-fly. Pictured above is the panel as Jason Miller of The Finer Points and On The Flight Line (on mandolin and lead vocals) and Pilot Kent of the Pilotcast (on backing vocals) reprise their 2006 rendition of Jason’s I Look Up In the Sky. Jason was unable to bring his primary axe (guitar) and instead made do at the last minute with a borrowed mandolin in a different key. Rare and well done!

Uncontrolled Airspace’s and Around the Field‘s Jack Hodgson and The Student Pilot Flight PodLog’s Will Hawkins get acquainted as Pilot Mike, Pilot Dan, and the others set up the audio.

Pilot Will (formerly Student Pilot Will) fires off that pose of confidence that a new private pilot certificate is known to induce.

Cole has a CFI! Kate Bernard of Airspeed Alive briefs Cole on the logistics of getting around airventure.

Thanks to all who participated and especially to The Pilotcast for engineering the gathering and setting up the time at the forums that made Pod-A-Palooza a reality! And thanks especially to the listeners who came out to meet the voices in their heads!

Cole (and Capt. Force) Goes Up!

So this is the “Honey, I flew the kid” (or at least had him flown) installment. There was this KidVenture thing over at Pioneer airport, see. And there were helicopters. Bell 47s – The kind you remember from M*A*S*H. And they were giving rides. And the EAA had covered the entire ground track with matresses and pillows. It was really safe, hon! Besides, he can’t wait to tell Jackson about it . . .

Our humble abode, Firebase Airspeed, at Camp Scholler. Decent shot from the helicopter. We’re on 13th just one street in the direction opposite the west camp store. Not that we’ve spent much time there, but it has proven relatively waterproof.

Our pilot and some of the parking lot. This is my first chopper flight and the glass bubble is just amazing. You get much more of a sense of flying than you do looking up over the dash of an airplane. Make no mistake, I remain a little skeptical of aircraft whose wings go faster than the fuselage, but this was really cool. No desire (well, no finances) to train for rotary wing myself, but I’m glad I did this. Come to think of it, I can’t wait to tell Jackson either!

Oshkosh – Thursday and a Little Friday

This morning outside the showers at Camp Scholler. Charging up Cole’s DVD player and my laptop and doing another blog post.

Cole peeks out of the left side window of Duggy – The Smile in the Sky, an EAA-operated DC-3. We later say the Liberty Parachute Team exit Duggy over the show.

How do you know it’s raining at Oshkosh? Check out the herd of fellow enthusiasts lined up instinctively under the wing of the C-5A. Lots of similar formations around the field as it spat rain on and off all day. Thunderstorms most of the night, but we stayed dry in the tent. Cole’s shoes were the only real victims.

A unique camping conveyance. Look closely . . .

Yep. This guy doesn’t mess around. It was 90+ F with little wind in the middle of the open fields of the ‘teens at Camp Scholler and this guy was looking awfully smart to me.

We’re Here! Oshkosh 2007

This is a regular blog entry. For show notes and links to audio, see the appropriate entries above and below.

We’re here! Here’s the classic shot with the tower. MVFR and showers all around, so I’m not sure how busy it actually was. Nevertheless, we saw them arriving as we made our way to the campsite.

Cole thinks that a C-5A is a darned handy thing to have around in case you need shelter in which to wait out a rain shower. And who could blame him?

Editing late at night at the campsite. There’s great wireless here! Way to go, EAA!