After the Monday evening deluge, Oshkosh had delightful weather the rest of the week. Before it was hot and humid; afterward cool and comfortable. There were a lot of things that I didn't get a chance to see like the Honda Jet but there were a lot of other things that I did see. If you go to the Airventure web site there are a lot of pictures and a bunch of video clips that you can watch.

Halfway through a talk by Brian Binnie I realized that I should have been recording his talk and slides with my camcorder. Later when Rutan et al had their tent show I did record most of their presentation. This and the arrivals of White Knight with Spaceship One and the VA Global Flyer represent about 50 minutes of video which I can show on Alvin's TV. I also took a lot of pictures. The 35's are printed but the digital ones are not. I'll try to print up some of them before the meeting and find the disk of 72 pictures that I took Friday morning on the Canon Dawn Patrol. This is a great deal as they loan you the camera and then put the pictures on a disk for free.

I had a long talk with the people from Valley Engineering. These are the people who bought Culver Props and make a VW belt type reduction unit. In the Dawn Patrol articles in Kitplanes last year there units were described including the fact that they could swing a 96 in by 60 in prop for WWI aircraft. Interestingly, when they took off the prop, instead of unbolting the hub, they removed the nut that held the upper pulley (with the prop) to the reduction drive and lifted the whole assembly off.

Not wishing to get hung up in Chicago traffic we didn't leave Oshkosh until 5 PM Sunday. We went through town on 41 and 94 with little trouble but being tired only reached Michigan City. The next morning, realizing that Dearborn was a long way away, we headed for the Gilmore Auto Museum NE of Kalamazoo and found a beautiful estate with numerous barns filled with antique and classic automobiles. It is home to the Classic Car Club of America Museum, the Pierce-Arrow Museum, and the Tucker collection and library. There were only a handful of people there so it was relaxing and very enjoyable. They were expecting thousands on the weekend for one of their shows and swap meets.

We spent the entire next day going through about 1/4-1/3 of Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. Likewise, on Wednesday we spent the entire day at the Air Force Museum. Admission is free as is parking. I was there in 1991 and it is now much bigger. There are 3 large hangars; we spent most of the day in half of one (which was pre WWII), never saw the other half of that hangar, and wandered about the other two for about an hour before they closed. Many of the displays were new in the last ten years. In the old days the B-36 in the hangar was impressive. It still is but now there is a B-52 in another one with a B-47 under it's wing. They even have a structural test B-2 on display. It would take two days to do it justice; hopefully, next year.

I was just sculpting away at the trailing edge bow of the center section with my belt sander, but stopped to get the Hawk out. It’s fun when you see progress. Before Monday I will bring the fuse from my neighbors house. It is almost time to figure out how I want to move the ailerons. Most other questions have answers. Nice.

e-mail me if you need directions. Come early, I will be home by 5. Hope to see a good turnout.

Happy flying