Oshkosh 2006 - Page 3
July 23, 2006
Over 60 racing airplanes ready at Dayton Wright Brothers Field.
Lined up for takeoff. Race time starts when you cross the departure end of the runway, gear in the well.
Racing....
Racers recovered at Fond du Lac after crossing the finish line.
Staged for departure, waiting for the Oshkosh pattern to clear.
FAA "Pink Shirt" controllers arrive to launch us to Oshkosh.
At the end of the day, lies and hangar flying at Wendt's on the Lake. I think air racers are a younger bunch than the normal EAAer. Paul and the folks need to notice that.
July 24, 2006
Monday morning, Oshkosh day 1 arrives with the unveiling of the new Cessna Light Sport concept airplane. With the Cessna Secret Service guarding the plane, Duggy the DC-3 happily watching, the media (insert rattle sound effect from "Right Stuff" here) prepare for the first examination.
The first inadvertent peek under the covers demonstrates that it is *not* a reconstituted Cessna 150.
Cessna head honco Jack Pelton speechifies.
First look at the first new Cessna single engine airplane in, what? 40 years?
Jack Pelton drones on that this is just the start of a new commitment by Cessna in the Single Engine Piston arena. I'm not paying attention. The airplane is more interesting. (yeah, yeah, great intentions. But this is the plane you're showing so thats it for today. Right?)
I'm ignoring the speech, looking at the plane. Pelton says something like, "That new plane has been flying for months ... and here it is now"! My ears perk up, and the crowd turns away from the LSA.
I hadn't noticed that the airport had gotten strangely quiet. Not a single airplane flying at the "Busiest Control Tower" in the world. Then here is the one airplane in the air, and it's apparent that Cessna had pulled one over on everyone. While Pelton had been quoting performance numbers and engine types for the LSA (that hasn't flown, and may never be built), the Next Generation Piston airplane from Cessna is still mostly secret. No engine type, no speeds, no gross weight, nothing. And yet *this* is the airplane that's in full blown flight test today, not the LSA.
Cessna had pulled a serious mis-direction over on all of us.
Oshkosh 2006 - Page 4