My Trip To EAA Airventure- Oshkosh WI

With gracious hospitality of those including the Uncontrolled Airspace Podcast gang, The Flying Musicians Association and Michael Goulian, I took my first pilgrimage to the largest gathering of aviation enthusiasts held in America- Airventure!  Fate and luck on my side, I actually got a room at the University Of Wisconsin dorms and shuttled back and forth in busloads of aviators from around the world.  After a night learning Australian slang my Aussi friends and I were treated to a week of glorious weather, and experience the phenomenal diversity of aircraft.  The trade show facilities presented the latest innovations and accessories, and the Lecture Pavilions hosted instruction and introduction to many aviation products, construction methods and history makers in aviation, and the FAA FAST Safety Seminars offered continuing education credit lectures, several which I made time to attend.  You'll smile to learn that an FAA staff actually gave me a ride on her golf cart clear across campus to make a time-sensitive meeting- Yes, the FAA really helped me out that day (THANK YOU AGAIN)!  Attending the AOPA Airport Support Network dinner gave me the chance to meet with Craig Fuller, President of AOPA and share my vision and news of progress in completing this documentary, of which he expressed a great deal of interest.  As if that wasn't exciting enough, attending Airventure gave me the opportunity to meet with a large number of potential sponsor companies, share my vision with them, and begin the dialogue that are the first steps in what I hope may be a long and healthy relationship. We'll be looking to meet many of them at the AOPA Conference in Hartford CT this September.

New Students

Good weather and mild winds have made the first half of the summer at Katama Airfield an active and exciting place to be.  In addition to the students we expected, almost a dozen more have made their way here for primary flight instruction in July.  Resident Primary CFI Paul Santopietro shares that this number of students is about the same as last year, and considering the economy this is a very good sign.  It's been my good fortune to find many of them available and willing to be included in our project, so expect to see the names Sean, Colleen and Paige in upcoming posts.