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An AeroGeek Enters the Hall of Kings
by Bob "Groucho" Marks

GPS Position: N 43 Deg 22.77’ W 91 Deg 34.59’ 16,150 ft, 247 kts GS, Magnetic course 261 Degrees

I know where I am. Exactly. I’d better- I’m supposed to be serving as navigator. Not that navigation is such a chore- running Jeppesen Flight Map moving map software on a laptop jacked through a Trimble GPS is no harder than running the moving map in Microsoft Flight Sim 2000. Easier, probably, except that in FS2K I’m not snarled up in a web of power cords, antenna wires, serial cables, and oxygen lines. Excuse me a minute- I’ve got to adjust that headset cord wrapped around my neck. Aaauuccck.

Flight test photo of our trusty steed, the Model 202-11 Boomerang

We are westbound, speeding our way back home. Two hundred forty knots is a pretty good clip, but is nowhere near the top speed of our distinctive flying hallucination known as the Rutan Model 202-11 Boomerang. We are all ready to go home, after five days of aviation overload at the Experimental Aircraft Association Airventure 2000 airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

If you are not familiar with Airventure, better known simply as Oshkosh, it is briefly the epicenter of world sport aviation. In fact, for seven days in late July, Oshkosh is the busiest airport in the world. Quite a bizarre mix of aircraft operate out of OSH during the Airventure gathering- everything from privately owned F-4 Phantom IIs to high performance homebuilts to vintage Ryans to WWII warbirds roar, buzz, and scream in and out of the airfield constantly.

This blend of airplanes---old and new, civil and military, conventional and weird---are a big part of what makes Oshkosh the Mecca of the aerogeek.

 

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