AirVenture 2017 - Forums

The forums at AirVenture are one of my favorite pastimes.  There are six forum periods a day, with at least eleven different topics.  So that is 66 to choose from a day, plus many others scattered about the show.  In otherwords, there is probably a forums on whatever aviation topic you  may be interested in.  You could literally spend all day every day at AirVenture just going to forums.

The last year or two, I've been losing faith on the new F-35 fighter/bomber, discouraged by its high price -- it was originally supposed to be a low-cost fighter --, how long its taken to become operational, reports on it not being a good dogfighter, not as stealthy as it should, and so on.  So I went to a forum on the F-35.  It was given by David Nelson, who is the lead test pilot for the F-35.  He's a real pro, having flown Air Force jet fighters his entire career:  the F-15, Air Force test pilot school, the F-22.  A superb speaker, he fielded some tough questions and answered them honestly but effectively.  I came out of the forum feeling much better about the F-35.
   
I wanted to hear Mike Busch speak, having been a long time fan of his writing.   As far as I'm concerned, he is the man when it comes to piston engine maintenance.  He gave six or seven forums -- each on a different topic --during AirVenture.  I was only able to go to one -- All About Oil -- and it did not disappoint.  Mike spoke in the biggest forum tent and it was packed.    The good news is that he has a ton of webinars on the EAA website that cover all the information in the forum I missed.
   
Foreflight flight planning software is hot this year at AirVenture.  I've been playing around with it on my iPad this past year and figured I should go to a forum and get smarter on the software.  So I went to Foreflight's "What's New" forum and got a lot out of it.
   
I have a Lightspeed Electronic Ignition in my RV so I went to a forum given by Klaus Savior -- founder and President of Lightspeed.   Frankly, the forum was way over my head -- very technical.  Klaus
has clearly forgotten more about internal combustion engine ignition than most peope (especially me) know.
   

I also attended following forums (but no pictures):
 

Flying the Alaskan Inside Passage by Deon Milton.   I really enjoyed this one since I've been thinking about flying the RV to Alaska for years.  I may just have to do it in the next year or two.  Deon said that you get 20 miles outside any Alaskan city or town and you are in wilderness.

The Top Ten iPad Mistakes was very interesting.  I didn't know anything about the speaker, Master CFI Gary Reeves beforehand.  Wow, he really gives a good presentation!  The thing I remember the most was that despite all the good that the flight software and tablets bring to the cockpit, incidents have actually increased since they came into being.  Gary explained why.

I enjoyhed a brief by Sid Siddiqi on the P-51 & P-47 vs. Me109 & FW-190.  I hadn't realized how comparable the four planes were in performance.  As always, it is the pilot who makes the difference.  And numbers.
   
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