Airventure report by Ozzie

[Guest ozzie]

Arrived Chicago Thursday evening but had to give the B29 and Skydive Chicago a miss due to intense t/storms. So grabbed the hire car and headed north to OshKosh were the wx was a little better but several storms rolled in over the first two days. Great to be away from the cold back home. Had a small incident landing in Salt Lake City where a overhead bin popped open and i copped a face full of bag and knocked a tooth out, so a visit to the airline's office when i return to arrange compensation. Must say i was well treated by them and even tho i missed my connection to O'Hare they fed and then bumped me up to 1st class for the last leg.

 

Set up camp and spent Sunday helping Dale Kramer set up his electric Lazair. Must say it was great to have one of the motors in my hot little hands. It seems to be lighter than my 100cc pioneer motors.

 

To see it fly was everything plus more than i expected. So quiet and smooth!!!! Great power and as Dale has a very heavy Lazair with the weight of his amphib mono hull and batteries it still had an excellent climb rate. Much better than my light Lazair (73KG). I won't go into all the specs but after seeing this it proves every conclusion i have come to about electric powered aircraft. I am booked into the electric forums on Friday and looking forward to listen to the "experts". I'll pass on what links i can find.

 

The iffy wx has cleared into a beautiful sunny day with lower temps( they have had a heat wave over 40 for the last few weeks) for the start of the show. Fantastic to watch the mass arrivals like the 102 Bonanzas that arrived. There seems to be more people here than my last visit in 08 looking at the overflow of the camp sites. There are more forums than i can possibly attend so have to be very selective. As usual the locals are fantasic so helpfull and friendly just wish they would stop calling me "Sir" all the time. As the time goes by i will try and post some photos but i am limited to 15 minutes of time each sitting. I can see i will be up for a huge postage bill shipping all the neat tools books etc back home at the end of this. The flying activities are already in full swing and the Tower is constant chit chat on my radio.

 

If anyone has anything specific they need info on please post it here and i will try to help.

 

I will try and update each day but untill then find the links at Airventure.org and get the live webcams and EAA radio links to keep you in touch

 

Ozzie

 

running amuck at AV11

 

 

[turboplanner]

We'll have to research those safe batteries a bit more Oz and you'll be off.

 

Don't know if anyone's got a spare tooth though.

 

 

[Guest JRMobile]

Thanks for the update Ozzie, I will be tuning in with interest for the next report from our local ozzie correspondent.

 

 

[winsor68]

Crikey OZ! We were just discussing oversize cabin baggage the other day and agreed that until someone is killed by the lockers popping open and baggage landing on their head it is unlikely that anything will be done... Glad you weren't the test case!

 

 

[.Evan.]

Thanks for the update, OZ! Looking forward to the pics also!

 

 

[Hongie]

Suitably compensated I hope?

 

 

[farri]

Goodonya Ozzie! Have fun!!!

 

Frank.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

decent pics of the electric Lazair!

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

G'day all.

 

start of the second day it is still hot but change of WX expected tomorrow or next so must make the most of the good.

 

Sorry looks like won't be able to post pix as there is just moniter and keyboard and no usb ports. the system is starting to slow up with all the traffic. i'll keep an eye out for and maybe a way around it. yesterday was lots of walking and a bit of shopping and a lot of willpower not to load up too much. Some fantasic cockpit inovations coming for those who love all the bells and whistles using removable I Pad type devices. All a bit too much for my little beast tho. Spent the later part of the afternoon with Dale's lazair. I arrived at the site and it was unmanned and as i was wearing my lazair T shirt i got bailed up by the crowd and could not escape and ended up answering all their many questions. Felt like the old days when i was trying to sell them. Dale flew during the evening and ran out of daylight before he ran out of charge. I was talked into acting climbing up into the ultralight commentaters tower and spent almost an hour answering the many questions on the lazair and electric flight. Must have pleased the crowd as recieved a huge applause at the end. felt pretty humble as all seemed appreiciated that i came all the way from home to attend. Lots of hand shakes and still more questions as i walked back to the stand. Public speaking is not my thing but i did enjoy the attention. Dale is a very talented man and seems to make it all sound so easy. The lazair is the only E aircraft flying at this time. There is huge interst in E flight it will definatly will not be a passing fad. There were no less the several hundred people crowding around Dale at any given time so he has decided to give a forum on his work this morning.There was a rumour that Randall Fisher was to bring his E powered lazair but seems to be a no show randell has done the e moni and trike the last few years. The E Gull is on display in the UL area but has not flown. Another interesting application of E drive i saw was for a pre rotator for a Gyro.

 

As usual the size of the sight and number of displays and quality have increased even tho the economy is pretty flat.

 

Must run to make dale's forum and i'll try to add a bit more and find a solution for posting photos later today.

 

blue skies all

 

ozzie

 

BTW i still have the tooth.

 

 

[winsor68]

Way to go Ozzie!

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Things slowed up a little here with a weather change and low cloud. Spoilt the afternoon airshow a little but in typical form things moved right along. The B29 arrived and what an awsome aircraft it is. Took advantage of the iffy weather and headed off field with my friend to have a tyre replaced that he blew on the way up in his van. Turned out great as the rain gave up and the tyre shop was right off the end of the runway. So set up on their lawn and watched about 150 aircraft depart passing overhead at no more than 100ft. Easy to tell who was leaving at over gross. Bob Hoover gave a talk and what a gentleman he is. The que to meet him was quite long and he refused to leave untill he had met them all.

 

Still have over half the show to cover. Seems to be a lot more people here than my 08 visit. But the flying displays seem down. Warbirds in review i counted 79 aircraft in the air at the same time and i am sure i missed a few. amazing how they co ordinate them all.

 

Well my legs are tired, a little sunburned and need a good sleep but going to push on.

 

bumped into Flying Dog yesterday. he will be the one to get to upload photos. he has taken well over a 1000 so far.

 

ding time up so will try and get back on later today and update a bit more. take care all

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guernsey]

Good on you mate, wish I could have made it over with you. We all appreciate your updates. Travel safe, and don't let CFI get his hands on your tooth, there is a rogue tooth trading business going on in Northern Taswegian land David

I've heard that the Tooth Fairy has joined Raaus and is living over there.

Alan.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Arrived Chicago Thursday evening but had to give the B29 and Skydive Chicago a miss due to intense t/storms. So grabbed the hire car and headed north to OshKosh were the wx was a little better but several storms rolled in over the first two days. Great to be away from the cold back home. Had a small incident landing in Salt Lake City where a overhead bin popped open and i copped a face full of bag and knocked a tooth out, so a visit to the airline's office when i return to arrange compensation. Must say i was well treated by them and even tho i missed my connection to O'Hare they fed and then bumped me up to 1st class for the last leg.Set up camp and spent Sunday helping Dale Kramer set up his electric Lazair. Must say it was great to have one of the motors in my hot little hands. It seems to be lighter than my 100cc pioneer motors.

To see it fly was everything plus more than i expected. So quiet and smooth!!!! Great power and as Dale has a very heavy Lazair with the weight of his amphib mono hull and batteries it still had an excellent climb rate. Much better than my light Lazair (73KG). I won't go into all the specs but after seeing this it proves every conclusion i have come to about electric powered aircraft. I am booked into the electric forums on Friday and looking forward to listen to the "experts". I'll pass on what links i can find.

 

The iffy wx has cleared into a beautiful sunny day with lower temps( they have had a heat wave over 40 for the last few weeks) for the start of the show. Fantastic to watch the mass arrivals like the 102 Bonanzas that arrived. There seems to be more people here than my last visit in 08 looking at the overflow of the camp sites. There are more forums than i can possibly attend so have to be very selective. As usual the locals are fantasic so helpfull and friendly just wish they would stop calling me "Sir" all the time. As the time goes by i will try and post some photos but i am limited to 15 minutes of time each sitting. I can see i will be up for a huge postage bill shipping all the neat tools books etc back home at the end of this. The flying activities are already in full swing and the Tower is constant chit chat on my radio.

 

If anyone has anything specific they need info on please post it here and i will try to help.

 

I will try and update each day but untill then find the links at Airventure.org and get the live webcams and EAA radio links to keep you in touch

 

Ozzie

 

running amuck at AV11

Good onya Ozzie for the reports......Ask Dale Kramer if he remembers doing aeros at Antioch Airport CA. during his tour in 82 or 83 in the Lazair. They wouldn't let him do them over the field so he went off-field, but they were still memorable. I remember looking at that beautifull shiny aluminum Lazair over and thinking "I'll fly one of those one day" and I did. Tell him thanks for planting the seeds back then.................Maj

 

 

[bushpilot]

Keep the updates coming, Ozzie.. Love the colourful way u tell the stories...

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

OK i missed acouple of days as i tried to jam in as much as i could before it all ended. Am now in Virginia after a 20 hour cross country drive and giving my legs a well earned rest for a day or two before heading to WashingtonDC.

 

I was a bit dissapointed with the Electric Synposiums. Mostly just gobbily goop by company execs and it seems not much has moved forward over the last 12 months. All the big players like Yuneec that has been making a lot of noise were non show. The E Spider did not appear. Randell Fishman who previously appeared with his E Moni and Trike did not arrive with his version of an E Lazair. The E Gull did not fly due to some issues with thermisters failing in the motor. Seems that the old KISS principle is the best approach for E flight. Dale flew each morning and evening and the only problem he had was with one of the chargers. The little inrunner Joby motors run much cooler than the outrunners and they seem to be the way to go. Dale has put together a very reliable package that came out to just under 6000 dollars US for the complete twin engine setup. (add about 1500 for the chargers) This is cheaper than replacing with two rotax or hirth engines. There was some dicussion over how the weight of the batteries should be addressed in relation to the FAR103 regs. Some said that they should be part of the 254lb empty weight. The regs state that the fuel is 5 gallons on top of the empty weight. A gallon of fuel is classed as volume and not weight so Dale cut a 5 gallon fuel container open and filled it full of his LI PO batteries and used that for the number of batteries that he has on his Lazair. The weight of the batteries, 96 in total, came to almost 100lbs, giving around 45 minutes in the amphib configuration of his Lazair.

 

Moving on. The saturday night airshow was pretty speckie. Great how they can now light up the aircarft with all the super intense LEDs and add pyros to them. Some really tight formation flying from the T6 pilots who laid down so much smoke they had to be full IFR by the end of the display.

 

Add a heap of fireworks and a jet truck plus a mile of firewall exploding had everyone cheering for more. Airventure just keeps getting better and better. Well worth the trip across to see it.

 

The international visitors march was a bit of a flop from the Aussies. With over 300 Australians at Airventure only 30 turned up to fly our flag. Pretty slack bunch, they must have gotten stuck at the pub.

 

I'll finish off this thread possibly next week when i finally return home and recover. very over tired from the heat humidity and the long distances travelled.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

I'll just add a couple of more items before heading off to beddy bye.

 

I came across a product by Airwolf that could be helpfull to Jabiru engine owners that have a hard time with high oil temps. This product called a oil filter chiller that is made up of aluminium fins that simply clamps onto the oil filter. They claim a considerable reduction in oil temp.

 

I had the opertunity to talk at length with Carol Carpenter. Some may remeber her from the Rotax maintainence seminars that were held at Maitland a couple of years ago that were arranged by AirBorne. She said that if anyone would like to arrange similar at other locations she would like to hear from them.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

After spending some time over in Virginia it's good to be back home. Made my LAX connection by a couple of minutes.

 

What an interesting Airventure this time around. Even though the week had a lot of highlights you could see the affects of Americas struggling economy.

 

Not as many freebie handouts by the exhibitors. Some of the major exhibitors have a good income from their designer accessories. Honda Jet had a nice and pricey gochy type outlet in their exhibit hall. In 2008 they were giving away hats and teeshirts and were a source of free chilled bottle water. Not this year. Nice to see the Honda Jet now flying and getting closer to certification. Looks and sounds nice due to it's over wing engines. The B29 'FiFi' looks like a monster to fly. The Boeing 787 is very impressive with it's thin wing that just keeps bending up on take off. Very quiet and it's size will let it fit in well without running into things like the A380 does. Hope i can fly on one soon.

 

The Curtis replica looked like it could be a handful with it's control limitations and was flown at the close of the main airshow when the air calmed a bit.

 

I was a bit disapointed with the electric synposium it was more geared to the big corporate companies like GE who are looking at the big ticket items. Any development breakthoughs like advanced hybrid designs by these companies will take many years to flow down to our end. It was a shame that the EAA pulled the $60,000 prize until next year. It was strange that Yuneec did not display considering the number of close to market products they now have. Sonex had their aircraft on static display and has only just flown once down the runway. Nice display of burnt out controllers and componets. Up to version 9 for the controller. Sonex are really asking a lot from their design and it is proving hard to keep all that expensive smoke inside the componets. The Innovations Display organisers got a bit miffed when Dale knocked back their invitation to display the Lazair . Dale preferred to set up in the ultralight area so he could fly every day. He definately drew more people into the ultralight area and recieved a fair share of media coverage. Dale is a real down to earth person and readly gave away all the information of the conversion and the artwork for the battery circuit boards is there for the asking.

 

At Dale's forum it seemed about a third of the crowd had serious intentions of commencing an electric project in the very near future. Several had already started.

 

Had some interesting conversations with Dale about my connections with the Lazair. We both met with many former Lazair distributers from the eighties who came to see his E Lazair . A enjoyable highlight was to talk about the history of the Lazair and Dale's conversion for half an hour over the ultralight PA. Pausing to let the crowd hear Dale as he wirrred past. The announcer did a great job of asking all the right questions to keep it all flowing considering the first either of us new about it was when we where introduced and went straight into it. Onya Dale. Kinda fun being the one with the accent tho.

 

Main airshows with the Shell Aerobatic team flying their 4 T6 aircraft that lay down so much smoke they are full IFR at the end of their display are fun to watch. The mass fly overs of warbirds. I counted over 70 aircraft and i am sure i missed a few. It was interesting to watch the formation takeoffs on the non display runway and join up and fly out to their turn and return point that had different era aircraft converging over top at different levels. With rotary wing from Vietnam war at low level. Great skills by all involved. The B29 FiFi took up quite a bit of the sky. One comment by an old timer was that all those warbirds were immaculate in their restorations but it was never like that when they where first thrown together in the forties. Watching the F16 run off the runway was unexpected and show just how quick it can go all wrong.

 

A few days had their weather problems with enough thunderstorms and rain to make the camping area roads lots of entertainment with huge brand new John Deere tractors pulling monster RVs with a car hitched to the back through the mud. The EAA had a subscribable SMS storm warning for cell phones available. Friday afternoon saw a storm with 50 mph winds go through that stopped the air show. Fortunatly we were in the campsite when we received the 30 minute warning and lucky that the rain missed us. All the days were high thirties with 90% plus humidity the best way to spend the middle of the day was to pay the $3 and head for the seaplane base and abreak from the crowd. Jerry made a great campsite neighbor with his fully equipped mega RV that had a Golf wagon hitched behind. A retired USAF Col. and American Airlines pilot. Drove all the way from LA. Full of stories. The night airshow is a crowd puller the aircraft look great with all the high intensity light and flares. The night runs of the jet car make it's 375mph run look more intense as they light a wall of flame that bounces a wave of heat over the crowd. Well having said all that i haven't even scratched on all the other many displays and products. Quite a few new electronic marvels paticually in the portable range. My Lazair friend Bob who i travelled back to Virginia with bought a 9 inch display unit for $600. that had Nav mapping functions plus a VTC overfly display funtion seemed a must especially trying to navigate the sensitive arears around Washington DC it had a host of other tricks and was also used for the 900 mile road trip to his home. I was glad to drop off my hire car back in Chicago and then enjoy being driven across the country. Lots of bargains to be had. The only other forumite i bumped into there was Andrew, Flying Dog. He was loaded up with his camera gear.

 

I'll add some more photos to my albums as i sort them all out. Some footage from my GoPro to edit out as well.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Yes Dave, i managed to drop it in the post at the airport as i was leaving. would not miss that one!

 

 

[Powerin]

Welcome back Steve, did you get your vote in for RAA? It closes this Friday at 4-00pm, express post if you haven't will do it.David

Geez David if ever I run for election to anything I know who to get for an agent :big_grin:

Oz...thanks for allowing us to vicariously experience Osh through your great reports!