OSHKOSH

Oshkosh was great! Uncle Tom joined us for his first Airventure, and it was fun to see how much he enjoyed it. Uncle Kieran did his usual amazing job of organizing the accommodations, the people and the food. The sandwiches, meatloaf, and pork tenderloin were perfect as always. Ryan and Hunter, being Oshkosh veterans, had a great time being given some independence to roam free around the airfield.

Oshkosh Veterans

Uncle Tom and Mark discuss acrobatics

Brothers

As for Mark and I we saw everything from a replica of the Curtiss pusher that was the first plane to take off from a ship, to the 787 Dreamliner. We even saw an F-16 and the Navy version of the F-86 (Hunter and Ryan know what it is called) land hot and overshoot the runway! Not to mention seeing a pink RV-12 covered in painted roses!  It was a fantastic paint job, just not quite our style. We were on the flight line and got waves from Bob Hoover and Burt Rutan. It was fantastic to see "Fifi" (the world's only airworthy B-29) flyover, land and then taxi right in front of us. This was especially great for Mark and I as we saw her when her engines were being worked on in Midland. (About three years ago we stopped in at the Commemorative Air Force's museum on our motorcycle ride from Austin to Colorado.)

Curtiss pusher plane

It's PINK!!!

F-16 after landing too hot

Dreamliner - please forgive the resolution this was taken from the car

Bob Hoover

Burt Rutan

Fifi

Uncle Tom with Fifi -
I believe this was the engine we saw taken apart in Midland

We hunted out as many RV-12's as we could find, and in critiquing others work on the wings, Mark felt like his edges might not have been as smooth. After returning and looking at his more closely, he realized that they were fine and just as good as others (if not better. . .says this impartial observer!)

Uncle Kieran and me hunting for RV-12s

Heritage Flight

Before landing too hot

Upon returning from Wisconsin, Mark was anxious to get back to work so he was out early in the morning the very first day back prepping the inboard top skin. Once that was done, it was a trivial but time consuming manner to rivet the skin on. It's amazing how quickly he was flying through the rivets. In order to move quickly with his riveting he needed to open  another box of 1000 rivets. This is the second box that he has opened since beginning work on the left wing. After finishing the inboard top skin, he worked on prepping the other two skins. By the time he was done prepping those skins the temperature in the garage had climbed to something past "Saharan" and it was time to cool off in the pool.