The core of the AirVenture airshow schedule tends to be somewhat predictable from year to year because popular acts are popular because people like to see them year after year. Still, every year brings something new and this year, one of the new things is a world record skydiving event, beginning on Wednesday and continuing through the end of the week.
The organizers of this event, led by B.J. Worth and Jim McCormick, have pulled together 108 of the best skydivers in the world to attempt a multi-point sequential skydive over AirVenture—that basically means they’ll attempt to complete, in the space of about 90 seconds, six completely different formations from an exit altitude of about 20,000 feet. (Yes, they use oxygen.) Quite the challenge when you understand what’s involved. I joined the group on Sunday for a warm-up jump at Skydive Chicago and shot this video. My friend Duffy Fainer, also a skydiver, flew me down and back in his Cheetah. He’ll be doing the announcing during the records attempts on Wednesday and Friday.
Just to offer a mere glimpse into the difficulty of doing such things, consider that the skydivers and all their gear and photographers will have to be bused up to Oshkosh on Wednesday from south of Chicago. FAR 119, which governs flight for compensation, prohibits skydiving airplanes from carrying passengers beyond a 25-mile radius of their base of operations. The FAA couldn’t figure out how to waiver this. In the name of blind regulation, these folks will suffer a four-hour bus ride (up and back) in lieu of a one-hour plane ride. Silly, no? But that’s what it has come to.
— Paul Bertorelli
North 40 as Leading Indicator
We should have gotten over this years ago, but every time we drive onto the show grounds, the first panorama we see is the campers staked out in the North 40. If it’s full of airplanes, we extrapolate that as a leading economic indicator that GA will have a good year. If it’s sparsely settled, pilots and owners are bearish.
I’m not sure what to make of it this year. When Duffy and I departed early Sunday morning, the ATIS said camping was 40 percent full, but it looked a lot fuller than that to me. Campers were backed up to within a couple of hundred yards of the west fence line and GA parking was filling fast later in the day.
Whatever the case, the traditional AirVenture hell from the skies arrived early on Saturday morning. A violent storm ripped through just at dawn: gusts to at least 30 knots, if not more, and a deluge of rain. Duffy told me when one of his tent poles folded in half, he decided that’s enough camping for this year. The early week outlook promises better weather.
— Paul Bertorelli
Watch for Tom Poberezny
We had just wrapped up a news conference with Cirrus at the Eagle Hangar, which is the main convention hall at the EAA Museum, when a very familiar face came around the corner.
Tom Poberezny, who headed EAA for 35 years and worked for Paul, his predecessor and father for seven years before that, is back at the show after a four-year absence. You might recall that Poberezny suddenly “retired” in the middle of the 2011 show under circumstances that were never revealed publicly but were clearly uncomfortable.
He also attended Cirrus’s annual kickoff party at the hangar and was back in his old form, addressing the crowd, talking to friends and generally doing what he’s always done: promoting aviation.
He looks good and he said he’s looking forward to touring the show and checking out the changes that have been made in his absence.
For those, like me, who think the show has missed Poberezny’s presence, we’ll be happy to know he’ll be on the grounds. Make sure you say hello. He will appreciate it.
– Russ Niles
