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OK, I’ll accept that some of you guys and gals see it as a somewhat ho-hum year. My two cents is that you covered the ho-hum just fine. Many good stories of good people and good airplanes and pieces all week. Thanks.
OK, I’ll accept that some of you guys and gals see it as a somewhat ho-hum year. My two cents is that you covered the ho-hum just fine. Many good stories of good people and good airplanes and pieces all week. Thanks.
My days of wandering the grounds at AirVenture likely are behind me - arthritis takes a toll on mobility. (Although that SF-50 airstair door displays more genius with each passing day.)
But I can participate vicariously, as the AvWeb staff routinely turns the “ho hum” into “ho, ho, ho!” Thanks to all!
Hey! I know it’s extra work, but that’s what interns are for. When you review products in the blog (or anywhere actually), it would be a nice added touch to include a hyperlink to the manufacturer’s product page. Just wishin. Thanks for all you do!
You can tell… All aviators look alike! ; )
Because a pilot will tell you within 30 seconds that they are a pilot.
I too sensed the ebb and felt as though an inflection point or crescendo has been reached. The quantum leap from the 6-pack to G3X or HDX is complete never again to be repeated (I rent a 1980’s C172 recently refitted with the HDX STC). Ten years ago a homebuilder was leading edge going all electric, not so much anymore. Still, there was plenty of evolutionary whiz-bang eye candy to see this year which is unlikely to cease.
I wasn’t at OSH, but it sounds like some 600,000 people had a great time, and a few professional journalists were disappointed that there wasn’t any new whiz-bang hardware for them to report on.
To each his/her own.
I always enjoy Oshkosh. But it is to me more of social event than anything else. Of course the aircraft are great but this year there was no real highlight like a B1, B2 and B52 fly past. I was told there was larger military presence than ever before but it didn’t feel like it. But I hope to be back there next year I can’t stay away from the happiest place on earth for me.
This was my 38th Airventure … “Oshkosh” … since 1977. I guess I’d mirror the comments that there wasn’t any earth shattering product introductions or FAA rule or process changes like at Sun-n-Fun a couple of years ago. I did come across a nifty avionics product that I liked … the SI 11X eCDI from Sandia Aerospace. It’s a no mechanical moving parts electronic color LCD CDI. Unfortunately, it’s for the E-AB / LSA crowd only. It’d be a great companion to a pair of G5’s. Won’t do me any good … and I need one, too. Ya listening, Dennis?
This year, I made forums and the Theatre in the Woods my raison d’etra. The Friday night Burt and Dick Rutan presentation went on for over four hours … what a hoot! And THAT was after another Burt presentation that afternoon. Maybe we should say that 2019 was the ‘Return of the Rutans (by Starship) ?’
As always, I made it a point to go to the Meet the Boss forum … this year in the Theatre in the Woods. I must say I liked what I heard from Dan Elwell. Too bad he’s going to become Deputy Dog. He talked about major changes coming via the MOSAIC thing. “They” keep saying it’ll be a while – even they admit they’re slow – but it’ll be worth the wait. C’mon guys … I need it to happen before I’m pushing up grass full time. Light some fires under some people, would ya. I think the FAA itself should be paid using a Performance Based salary schedule. THAT would get 'em moving.
I spent some time in the FAA hangar talking to a regional AME deputy over a local problem we’re having. I was impressed that I found a receptive guy who I felt might take the issue on and deal with it. Either that or he’s a mighty good actor?
I attended Sen. Inhofe’s presentation on Saturday AM. THAT guy should be called The Messiah of GA. He is RABID in making positive changes for us all and provided a long list of accomplishments he’s achieved on our behalf. I got a chance to personally bend his ear on a subject he holds near and dear which resulted in his staff taking my name and asking me to send an email further explaining the problem. Don’t get no better’n that. Thankfully, he’ll be in office until 2024. He’s 84 but acts more like he’s 64 when it comes to GA. He talked about his latest legislation … the Plane Act of 2019. Sounded good.
Finally, I attended the Salute to the USAF presentation on Saturday evening. Boy … the USAF must be hurting because the Chief of Staff (with a noticeable security detail) along with the Commander of Air Mobility Command showed up and verbalized that that Service is looking for “a few good people.” No wonder there were so many daily flight demo’s by A-10, F-22 and F-35 aircraft. Having a beer at airshow center on Saturday and watching the F-22 doing its thing in front of some giant towering cumulous to the south was an awesome juxtaposition!
And now the large cargo trailer I called “home” for 7 days is back in my hangar and the wait for Airventure 2020 begins. Hopefully, 2020 will be The Year of MOSAIC?
Forgot … near Airshow center, I came upon the Airbus kiosk. Walking in to see what that weird looking ‘thing’ they were displaying was, I was greeted by a young man who was eager to talk about the “Vahana.” It’s a dual tilt wing, eight motor autonomous single person people mover (as long as you and your stuff don’t weigh more than 200 lbs). Yars would love it.
I like to talk technical so I started asking questions. It has eight 35KW motors … two per wing and side. Doing the math, that’s 375hp. (Imagine what an airplane with a 375hp engine could do.) I asked how many could fail. Answer: one or two IF they’re on opposite sides. I asked about endurance. Answer … are ya ready … 20 minutes. Well, maybe EAA could buy a few and replace those noisy Bell 47’s with 'em. OR … you could call one up if you needed to get to the other side of Airventure in a hurry. Unless you’re trying to scare birds away, not much use beyond that, I’d say. Maybe the Vahana could take me to Valhalla, though?
As I walked out, the young man thanked me for asking questions and hands me a key tag that said Airbus on one side and – are ya ready – “Charge Before Flight” on the other. I may frame that one down in my Man Cave. I wonder if Airbus knows that the NASA Maxwell has 14 motors?
Any vehicle whose charging interval is a multiple of its flight endurance is a (pardon the irresistable pun) non-starter.
I can drive my Santa Fe SUV around in the city for about 8 hours, on one tank of fuel. (My bladder no longer has such endurance.) It takes about 4 minutes to re-fill the tank.
But could Hyundai sell such a vehicle if it required a 24-hour refueling interval?
Maybe. But not to me.
I can fuel the new Cirrus in 10 minutes, then fly it for 4 hours. Sounds about right, to me.
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I agree about ebb and flow through the years, but after 39 EAA annual conventions/fly-ins including 3 at Rockford, I detect ebb and flow during the course of these annual individual weeks as well, and sometimes even during individual days. This year’s airshows were great, I got to indulge my major crush on Julie Clark one last time, and the USAF’s recruiting tools/aircraft demos were impressively spectacular. The Workshop area had plenty of buzz. Many people I talked to as they passed through have pulled the trigger (financially speaking) and committed to beginning the homebuilt project of their dreams. Many of these folks were talking about building from plans, an area of interest that seems to be having a rebound over the past few years. Some were experienced RV builders who wanted another project that was “not an RV” so maybe, when they finish, the variety will be something more than how much $$$ in the panel and which hot rod shop did the paint. After a couple of years in basements and garages, maybe AvWeb will be reporting on a whole new crop of Experimentals out on the flightline with their proud builders. Because, though the “New & Improved” fades quickly from Product and Product Lines (ho-hum), each one of those airplanes will have been completed by a new manufacturer.
I found a chart produced by the U.S Energy Administration that I wish I could show here, Yars. In one small graphical format, it shows both the futility and FOLLY of trying to power anything with pure battery power in terms of physics. Your statement is correct.
The chart is a comparison of ‘energy content per unit weight’ vertically and ‘energy content per unit volume’ horizontally. It uses gasoline as the index of “1” for both axis in much the same way as water is the index in specific gravity comparisons. So there are four quadrants to the chart: lighter than gasoline and requires less space and heavier than gasoline and requires more space. ONLY diesel is slightly higher in energy content in these two quadrants by about 10%. Everything else is shown to the left with LESS energy content than gasoline per unit volume although some exotic fuels do contain slightly more energy per unit weight. These two quadrants are lighter than gasoline but requires more space (CNG and LNG are among these chemicals) and heavier than gasoline AND requires more space. Methanol, ethanol and propane are in this quadrant. (The takeaway is why a flex fuel vehicle gets less fuel mileage on E85 than gasolene). At the very bottom left corner at darn near Zero and Zero is … BATTERIES. They’re energy content per unit volume OR per unit weight are near zero by comparison to gasolene.
SO … I just do not understand why people keep chasing the idea of electric power anything. Spending multiples of 20 minutes of flight time to recharge the Valhala … fuhgetaboutit with today’s battery technology. One thing is for sure … there will NEVER be a pure battery electric A380.
I walked out of the Airbus kiosk shaking my head and laughing.
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The recently-remembered Saturn-5 rocket used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in its second and third stages.
But its massive first stage used LOX and good old kerosene.
Hard to beat Jet-A.