OSH 2023

[Nark]

Why is it so hard to get a bran muffin these days! Is it the raisins!?

That’s because they’re bran new…

[Scudrunner]

Looks like it was a particularly nice year out at OSH. Wish I could have gone but the $2500(!) in round trip gas was off-putting.

Maybe next year.

Not to mention thousands of weekend warriors converging on one airport. I bought my plane to avoid crowds

[Colonel]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvTce0Qr ... BiNWFlZA==

[TundraTire]

Looks like it was a particularly nice year out at OSH. Wish I could have gone but the $2500(!) in round trip gas was off-putting.

Maybe next year.

Not to mention thousands of weekend warriors converging on one airport. I bought my plane to avoid crowds

The video of the opthamologist flying a Bonanza against the circuit pattern was entertaining. Good job by the Tower to avoid a disaster.

[Nark]

There are several kind of pilots, some may say only a few aviators…

Airventure brings together hundreds of thousands of like minded folks.

The only place I’ve ever seen a multi-millionaire weak in the knees, awed by some blue collar type’s contraption.
In my many, many times there, I haven’t witnessed a single act of arrogance and alienation of another. Arrogance by itself, sure. But that has been from John Q. Public who either drove or flew in. $100 says that arrogant ass has less than 200TT. I digress…

Being a volunteer is the only aspect I haven’t participated in. This year I’m still on a high as being part of the show. (Albeit not wiggling the stick) The Air Boss briefing was every performer, the Red Bull guys having fun with Patty Wagstaff, who was having fun with the seaplane demo’s who was having fun with the F22 demo team. Everyone was professional and welcoming to each other.
Static display last year. It was a neat feeling having a social media influencer be in awe of my war machine.
To my favorite: an anonymous dude who flew in. Every time. I’ve been offered a beer, and likewise have offered a beer to a passerby who happens to know a little more than what Wikipedia tells them.


I don’t know where I’m going with this, other than to say don’t write off the ability to visit one year. It really is the coolest place to nerd out.

PS: if you do fly down, I have a fully stocked beer fridge and bar in the hangar only a few more miles south.

[Colonel]

Did you have a chance to meet Skip? He's hilarious.

PS I presume Patty didn't get drunk and drive up and down the runway at midnight

Correctional officers at the Winnebago County Jail went "above and beyond" normal operating procedures when they dealt with air show pilot Patty Wagstaff during the booking process after she was arrested for driving drunk down a Witmann Regional Airport runway during the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture, according to documents released by the Winnebago County District Attorney's office.
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Wagstaff, 57, was verbally abusive with corrections staff during the booking process – which includes fingerprinting, taking a mug shot, collecting identifying information and posting bond – and called officers "pigs" and "Iraqi wannabees" when she was brought into the jail after she was arrested July 31.

Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Key in December ordered Wagstaff to pay $500 in fines plus court costs after Wagstaff pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer and her first-offense drunken driving in December. In addition to the fine, Wagstaff's driver's license was revoked for eight months.

Key on Feb. 11 will review a motion to reconsider the license suspension. The motion states that the suspension should have been retroactive to the date of the offense.

Six months after the incident took place, the Winnebago County District Attorney's office released the police reports in response to an open records request by The Northwestern. The documents give the first clear picture of what happened on the airport runway and in the jail after the famous stunt pilot had been arrested.

The incident began when security officials at AirVenture observed Wagstaff driving a Ford Escape at a very high rate of speed down a closed runway at Witmann Regional Airport around 11 p.m. on July 31. The vehicle skidded off the runway and drove on the grass towards the Warbirds area before security personnel blocked the vehicle and called police, according to the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department incident reports.

When officers arrived, Wagstaff struck Deputy David Roth on his arm several times as he tried to get her to exit the vehicle. Once she was out of the vehicle, officers had to wrestle her to the ground in order to handcuff her and take her into custody, the reports state.

I was at OSH when that happened. You can't make this stuff up.