AirVenture 2014 – A Time To Remember

by Jim LaMalfa

Paul Poberezny, who founded the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in 1953, belongs to the ages now, but he was honored at this year’s fly-in at Wittman Regional Airport, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, July 28 – Aug. 3, 2014, as were veterans from the Viet Nam conflict at Wednesday’s airshow. Paul was honored with a special exhibit of his prized P-64 and P-51 Mustang, “Paul I,” as well as with a special exhibit on Boeing Plaza.

The airshow, which started at 3:00 pm, featured the usual stellar aerobatic performances and the GEICO Skytypers, flying SNJ-2 warbirds. Besides their demonstration of digital skywriting, the team gave a special presentation of military air-ground attack tactics. Wednesday’s show also featured an all Viet Nam warbirds show including the Cessna L19 “Bird Dog,” three Douglas AD1 “Skyraiders,” and a demonstration by Viet Nam-era helicopters, two rescue medivac helicopters and a AH-1 Cobra gunship. The demonstration was meant to honor Viet Nam veterans from all branches of the military. It was pointed out that over 5,000 U.S. troops were saved by medivac Hueys. Additionally, and for the first time, the USAF Thunderbirds, flying F16 Falcons, performed at the airshow Friday, Saturday and Sunday. At previous fly-ins, the Canadian Snowbirds and the Italian Frecce Tricolori military teams have performed, but never a U.S. team.

2014 is the 100th anniversary of WWI, so EAA also featured replica and original WWI aircraft and a special JN4 Jenny hangar where visitors could see the aircraft without linen covering.

In addition to the Viet Nam honor flight and superb aerobatics, EAA also introduced the public to half-scale radio controlled models. One, a Clipped Wing Cub, which cost $12,000, was flown by the owner, along with a full-sized aerobatic aircraft. The point? Hollywood uses large scale models to simulate real aircraft and movie goers can’t tell the difference. Miniatures, as they are called in movie jargon, are cheaper than computer-generated imagery (CGI) effects and look more like real aircraft (see the WW I film, “Flyboys” and “The Battle of Britain”). Also flying at Wednesday’s airshow was a two-place Gee Bee racer, QED.

Many visitors to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2014 were seen queuing up to participate in the One Week Wonder project. EAA chapter members and the general public took part in the building of a Zenith CH 750 Cruzer airframe with the goal of completing the aircraft during the fly-in. Visitors could drive one rivet and got to sign the sheet metal. The aircraft taxied on Sunday.

A walk-about the AirVenture grounds with my two sons, Larry and Tony, brought us to an area west of the tower where many aviation schools were represented. I chatted with spokesmen Jon Weber from LeTourneau University, a Christian aviation school in Longview, Texas.

“Notice the tail-wheel trainer we use, a Decathlon,” said Weber. “We believe in training pilots with the traditional stick and rudder approach. After they have mastered basic flight training, we put them in a Diamante Diamond twin DA42.”

A number of light twin jets were on view at AirVenture 2014, including the first certified HondaJet, a new model of the Eclipse 550, and Cirrus Aircraft’s Vision SF50, which will be certified in 2015. Don Augustine of Eclipse Aerospace noted the new, more powerful engines.

I asked Augustine if the fanjets could handle hail.

“Walk around to the nose, and look at the engines,” he said, and I did. “Can’t see them,” I replied. “Right; the fuselage bulges around the cockpit and deflects hail.”

If a corporate jet doesn’t fit your pocketbook, consider John Monnet’s Sub-Sonex minijet. Sonex aircraft are kit built. The wing span on the Sub-Sonex single-place jet is 18 feet, it uses a PBS TJ-100 jet engine, has a gross weight of 1000 lbs, a useful load of 520 lbs, takes off in 1200 feet, and climbs at 1400 feet per minute. The Sub-Sonex cruises at 240 kts TAS and is stressed for aerobatics. Besides Cirrus and other new kids on the block, the old reliables – Cessna, Piper, Mooney (back in business), Beech, Bonanza, Bellanca and Bell – were very much in evidence at AirVenture 2014.

Many manufacturers are offering Light Sport Aircraft since the rule went into effect 10 years ago.

Cessna is offering their Skyhawk JT-A with a turbocharged diesel engine that burns Jet-A fuel.

Turbocharged diesel engines are also used in ultralight and sometimes certified light aircraft.

We chatted with a Bell Helicopter rep while eyeing Bell’s new 407GX. I asked what the scissors-like device located above and below the windscreen was for.

The rep replied: “It’s exactly that; scissors made of tungsten-carbide steel. We don’t like flying into wires, so we can cut them and save a multi-million dollar aircraft.”

Bell  makes corporate rotary wing aircraft and medivac versions with medical equipment onboard.

Enstrom Helicopter, Menominee, Michigan, was also displaying their helicopters, which are now made in three passenger versions, as military trainers and medivacs.

I talked to a rep from CAV Aerospace, a company that makes wet wings for general aviation aircraft, including Cirrus, for flying into known icing conditions.

“This is a glycol-alcohol wet wing system. We install titanium panels at the leading edge with 800 holes per square inch laser drilled. It basically protects the entire wing surface, unlike boots. We do the wing, props and windscreen. We can’t do an aftermarket on a Cirrus, but they can install the system when they lay up the composite wing. They charge about $50k for our deicing system, installed. We do after-market fits (in other aircraft). It’s basically a three-week downtime.”

Light sport aircraft (LSA) marketed by new companies other than the “old reliables” were well represented at AirVenture 2014, including the ICON A5 ESN-1, a carbon fiber amphibious two-place, high-performance aircraft.

Cirrus was well represented with its Vision Jet SF50 personal jet, all-digital 2015 SR22T Special Edition “Accelero,” and a wall-sized poster showing Red Bull racer, Mike Goulian, who flew the airshow on Wednesday.

Airshow central featured warbirds, as well as the “Flabob Express” DC-3. The venerable Douglas transport just seems to go on forever, and you can get a rebuilt one at Basler Turbo Conversions with prop-jet engines, right at Oshkosh. The storied Flabob Express is used today for EAA’s Air Academy for youth. Also on display was the Fairey Gannet, a carrier-based post WWII British aircraft featuring two four-bladed, contra-rotating  props. The Gannet was the first fighter to be designed to carry small nuclear bombs.

Just north of a B-24 Liberator, which was open for tours, sat three friendly enemies, the Commemorative Air Force B-17 “Yankee Lady,” the only flying and restored Japanese Zero, and a Vought F4U bent winged birdy, the “Corsair.”

Working our way north, we admired the beautiful silver XtremeAir XA42.The aircraft is a high-performance aerobatic composite competition machine made in Magdeburg, Germany. It is powered by a Lycoming AEIO-580-B1A six-cylinder engine, rated at 315 hp. Rate of climb is 3,212 feet per minute, and it cruises at 185 KIAS. The aircraft is rated aerobatic III unlimited, plus and minus 10gs.

The new kid on the block is the “LSA Trail,” made in Italy. It can be purchased ready to fly or as a kit for $28k. It has folding wings and seating is tandem (ala, the venerable J-3 Cub). The airframe is square steel tubing, covered with sheet aluminum.

Zenith of Mexico, Missouri, showed its kit-built aircraft, as well as featuring the “One-Week Wonder Cruzer” built on the airfield.

The Airboss  homebuilt features an all-carbon fiber, precast twin boom fuselage that should simplify homebuilding.  Boeing’s 777 is built entirely of carbon fiber and many first line U.S. Air Force fighters have empennage and other components that utilize carbon fiber.

WWI fighters were plentiful at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh and that included a British-built Sopwith Camel (N6184), maintained by Kingston Aviation on the Thames. The Kingston Aviation Centenary Project is a celebration of the colorful history of the Sopwith Airplane Company.

Interview circle at the north end of Wittman Regional Airport always features interesting aircraft. This year we gazed in awe at three Lockheed P-38 Lightnings, one being EAA’s 993 “Marge,” painted up to look like Richard Bong’s fighter. Bong, from Poplar, Wisconsin, was the leading ace in the Pacific during WWII. He survived the war with 60 kills, only to be killed while testing a Lockheed P-80 in California.

The P-38 “Glacier Girl” was retrieved from Greenland after it was recovered 250 feet below the ice. In 1942, a flight of six P-38s and two B-17s were being ferried to Britain, but bad weather forced them to land on the ice. The crews were all rescued, but the aircraft were abandoned until 1992, when one of the Lightnings was brought up in pieces. It was subsequently restored and given a second life.

The P-38 “Ruff Stuff” belongs to Ron Fagen of the Fagen Fighter Museum, Granite Falls, Minnesota.

About 350 warbirds were on display at AirVenture 2014 including four North American B-25 Mitchell Bombers; a Lockheed Ventura, used by the British for anti-submarine patrol in WWII; and Rudy Frasca’s restored Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVIII.

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2014 was indeed a time to remember. Some highlights of past AirVentures include Paul Poberezny driving around the convention grounds in his chopped VW Beetle, “Red 1,” stopping to sign my daughter Brenda’s hat when she was 10 years old; Charlie Hillard, Tom Poberezny and Gene Soucy flying with the Red Devils Aerobatic Team, and then the Eagles Aerobatic Team; brilliant performances by Bob Hoover in his Shrike Commander, and Duane Cole in his Clipped-Wing Taylorcraft; EAA’s annual Aviation Art Competition, which Tom Poberezny and I founded in 1976; attending the World Aerobatic Championships at Oshkosh in 1980; and last, but not least, attending AirVenture every summer since 1973 with my two sons and sometimes my daughters. So EAA, thanks for the memories – they are irreplaceable!

This entry was posted in All Features, EAA & AirVenture, Features, October/November 2014 and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

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