AirVenture 2009 - General

The newly restored "Brown Arch".  (It was blue the last time I saw it.)

This is my fifth AirVenture I think.  Every time I go it's different because I'm interested in different things, depending on what I'm doing at the time.  In the beginning I focused on the airshows, warbirds and ultralights (because we had a Kolb UltraStar at the time). Later when we had the Citabria, I enjoyed the Mattituck engine-build/tear-down demos.  Once I started building the RV, I enjoyed looking at the RVs, and strolling through the four big vendor buildings, learning about all the stuff that was available for the RV:  avionics, tools, paint, seatbelts, seats, GPS, headsets, engines and accessories -- there was so much to learn and see. 

This time I just kind of took in the overall thing.  I really enjoyed camping in the North 40 -- my first time there and much superior to Camp Sholler.  What made it even better was being part of a great group. 

I didn't spend much time in the vendor buildings -- I know what they have, have bought everything I need, and frankly, I'm tapped out! 

I attended a couple of Workshops I hadn't attended yet, and caught some forums -- but not as many as I wanted to, as always.

Still, I'd say it took me until Thursday afternoon before I can say I had seen it all.  

 
This homebuilt is a grizzled Oshkosh veteran. 
 
I finally made it out to the Seaplane base for the first time.  I really liked it.  Shady and cool, very relaxing. 
 
Someday I'll fly off the water...
 
I tried to use the trams whenever I could, to save wear and tear on my feet and legs.  This was the first AirVenture that I figured out how the tram system ran. 
 

I like the EAA workshops.  They are exceptionally well taught and organized, plus the price is right:  free.  I went to the TIG welding and composite workshops.  The famous Sam James, of Sam James cowls fame,  also put on a composite seminar, so I went to that as well.  Both composite workshop and seminars were great.  The workshop addressed composite fundamentals while the Sam James seminar was more geared to actually making a fairing.  

Note to RV builders:  attend the composite workshop and Sam James seminar BEFORE doing your fiberglass work, not after, like me. 

 
Quite a few people attended the Sam James seminar.
 
Sam James made an RV intersection fairing for his example.  It was perfect for me, as I had tried making one only two weeks earlier.  Almost everything about the way I had made mine was wrong. 
 
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