Source: 2000 Beartracks, Mike Meador

It would be hard to find much wrong with this years Oshkosh – other than getting there, we had one of our better years. Fantastic parking spot, wonderful weather (most of the time) and a rather full social calendar are just a few of the highlights.

Rain, fog and high winds kept us grounded in Fincastle until the day before the big show was to start. We had hoped to drop in on a few Bearhawk builders to check their progress but with time so short (and a hand held radio) we decided to head straight for Oshkosh.

With our unusually late (for us) arrival we found that our usual parking location was not available and it looked like we were headed for the nether regions of the parking area until Bob “invents” a new row. Well, he didn’t really invent it – it was a row, it had a number – it just didn’t have any airplanes on it until we parked there. The guy in charge of all aircraft parking at Oshkosh came over to give it the once over and gave his blessing – we had the tie downs sunk (well part way) before he could change his mind. Sinking the tie downs this year could take up a whole page – let’s just say we wore out a couple of bystanders trying to get them down all the way.

We had several pre-arranged get togethers with builders and friends – thanks to all. It really makes it nice to go to Oshkosh or Sun N Fun and know that you are not going to have to pay exorbitant food prices on the field to survive for the week. We would rather spend our money on parts! Parts were very slim pickings this year. Although you could get as much cook-wear, gold jewelry, feather dusters and furniture as you wanted. The Aeromart was so-so but Bob and I did find a couple of things that we were looking for.

We were VERY busy at the airplane. We handed out over 300 data sheets and had to have more printed up. Bob actually flew the Bearhawk several times in the Fly-Bys and when he and Budd Davisson took it up (fully loaded) for the flight review. There was also an in air photo shoot for Sport Aviation.

I found several interesting displays such as the Extruded Engines (Not suitable for aircraft, don’t cha know). This was the neatest little thing I’ve seen in a while. They have a web site if you would like to take a look at it (www.alu-x.com) The aircraft diesels seemed to be the busy tents and booths this year this will be interesting to watch to see if ANY of them make it to the market at anywhere near a reasonable price. And the New Champ was on display with a little Jabiru engine up front – very nice and quite plush I must say.

I even got a chance to visit the emergency repair facility. Some moron decided to test our quick drain (I guess to see if it worked or he did not know what it was) and managed to get the thing stuck open. So while Bob played the little boy with his finger in the dike – I went for parts. Nobody at Oshkosh had the piece that we needed all those vendors with gold chains and pots and pans and not one vendor had the quick drain that we use on the Bearhawk! I finally went to the repair station and managed to find a pipe plug of the proper size. A couple of quick flips later and the offending drain was removed, repaired and reinstalled. Other than this little incident the rest of the show was great.

Our departure was held up by low ceilings and bad weather in-route. Budd showed up at the last possible moment to do a flight review with the airplane loaded to the gills with camping supplies and our few meager purchases. He had never flown it in this condition so this would be a good test of the Bearhawk’s capabilities.

Bob and Budd were gone for nearly and hour and time was getting short for departures before the airshow would start thus closing the field. They finally made it back, I hauled Budd out and myself in and punched up Fincastle on the GPS. We were the last plane to leave before the airshow started! If the taxi way was 100 feet longer we would have never made it.

I can say that we both had a really good time this year and are looking forward to next year. It is looking like 2003 is going to be the year to really get to Oshkosh. Bob and I go to Oshkosh every year but the 2003 Convention looks like it is going to be something VERY special that you will want to attend.