July 22-29, 2023 - AirVenture 2023
Interesting Airplanes
This Mooney gets my award for most colorful paint scheme.
   
My friend Mark Meredith's Super Chipmonk called "Chippy".  Mark does airshows with Chippy.  AirVenture is a big place though and Mark and I did not cross paths the entire week.  .
   

The great airshow pilot Rob Holland's sleek MXS-RH.

"The MXS-RH is a one-of-a-kind, all carbon-fiber masterpiece.  This single seat, competition and airshow - ready aircraft is designed and built by MX Aircraft in North Carolina, and incorporates design modifications suggested by Rob himself.  Powering this aerobatic monster is a Lycoming engine producing 380 horsepower.  Weighing in at a minimal 1200 pounds, this state-of-the-art aerobatic masterpiece boasts astonishing performance, is capable of pulling 16 positive and negative Gs, and rolls at nearly 500 degrees per second."
   
Rob Holland has won a few awards....
   
Nice DC-3/C-47.
   

Beautifully polished Howard 500.

The prototype flew in September 1959, and type certification was achieved on February 20, 1963.  However, by the mid 1960s, turboprops and business jets with tricycle landing gear were being introduced by major manufacturers; while the Howard 500 compared favorably with these aircraft in terms of speed and range, it was an anachronistic taildragger with piston engines, resulting in limited sales.

Twenty-two Howard 500s were produced initially, with a further eight being converted from earlier PV-2s to virtually the same standard.
   

And another Howard 500.
   

The luxurious business jet of its day.
 
   
Incredibly, I found a third Howard 500 further south down the flightline.  3 out of 22 at AirVenture; impressive.
   
A nicely polished Cessna 170.
   
Another nice polish job on this Twin Beech.  You see a lot of these; not surprising since over 9,000 were built.  They were continuously produced from 1937 to November 1969.
   
Now this pilot has figured out how to get a front row seat!  He must fly in early to get the prime aircraft parking spot on the flight line in Vintage Aircraft parking.
   
Same with this Tri-Pacer driver.
   
Camping in Vintage Aircraft.
   
Looking down the Cessna 195 parking.
   
This Ryan Navion taxiied by with three little girls inside waving to their Grandmother who was standing by me on the flight line.
   
The Navion pulls into Vintage Parking.
   
Another classy DC-3 taxiis by.
   
The temporary tower at the south end of runway 18/36.
   
DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver.
 
The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined high-wing propeller-driven short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft developed and manufactured by de Havilland Canada. It has been primarily operated as a bush plane and has been used for a wide variety of utility roles, such as cargo and passenger hauling, aerial application (crop dusting and aerial topdressing), and civil aviation duties.
   
A Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) makes a sharp left turn on short final into the Ultralight runway.  This is required since the Ultralights have to fly parallel and to the west of runway 18/36 before they can turn to heading 300 for the Ultralight grass runway.
   
Amphib floatplanes in the South 40.
   
One of my favorite planes:  the Republic RC-3 Seabee.
   
A big King Air follows two other planes south into the South 40.
   
Pairs of T-34s come in for landing on runway 36.
   
Set up for a nice formation landing.
   
You don't hear much anymore about the single-seat Panther kitplane.
   
Big business jet with a "Star Wars" paint scheme.
   
Awesome paintjob on a Sonex Waiex.
   
Now's your chance!  The "Bally Bomber" is for sale!
 
Jack Bally, who worked for decades as a carpenter, started on the project in 1999, working from a set of plans for a 1/9-scale RC model. After scaling up the plans, he started toiling away at his home in Dixon, Illinois, estimating that the project would be finished in about five years.  Seventeen years, 25,000 rivets, and approximately 40,000 man-hours later, the airplane made its first flight in November of 2016.  The aircraft has a 35-foot wingspan, and though it is incredibly loyal to the design of the original B-17, the cockpit was built larger than the rest of the aircraft's 1:3 scale as it needed to make space for a full-scale human pilot.  The B-17 is powered by four Hirth F-30 two-cycle engines, 85 hp each.
   
The Sonex booth.
   
The Kitfox booth.
   
The interesting Junkers with its corrugated skin.
   
A couple of Airdrome Aeroplanes representatives near the homebuilt camping area.
   
This high wing had a bike slung from each wing.
   
Interesting parasol wing.
   
A couple of Breezys in the Homebuilt Parking area by the flight line.
   
This one has a nifty "panel" and steering wheel instead of the normal stick.
   
It's hard to come up with a compelling paint job for a Breezy which is mostly steel tube, but this one does it.
   
This is the actual Red Bull Cub that pilot Luke Czepiela flew to a breathtaking landing on Dubai’s Burj Al Arab Jumeirah:  the Bullseye Landing.
   

A picture of the Red Bull Cub approaching the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah hotel.

From the Red Bull web page:  "As far as aviation feats go, landing a plane on a helipad is (literally) right up there. Especially so, when the helipad in question is just 27m in diameter (about the size of a tennis court) and located at 212m above ground level on the side of one of Dubai's most luxurious hotels.  But that’s precisely what aerobatic pilot Luke Czepiela pulled off at dawn on March 14, 2023, manoeuvring his modified 7m Carbon Cub aircraft into the history books.  Taking into consideration the location of the helipad, this being on the 58th floor of Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, amongst all other factors, this was truly a remarkable achievement in the world of flying, engineering and all-out awesomeness."
 
   
Flying to AirVenture in your Grumman Goose; that's the way to do it!
   
Looking down rows of Long-EZs.  There are roughly 833 FAA-registered Long-EZs in the United States.
   
 
   
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