July 26, 1999 Oshkosh 1999: The Week Ahead

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by	The Editors of AVweb

Garvey On "What's Wrong With The FAA?"

Communication. Surprises. Resources. These were the three main themes that FAA Administrator Jane Garvey stressed as problem areas on which she is working in response to AVweb's Mike Busch asking: "What's wrong with the FAA?" Garvey's comments came Monday during an exclusive AVweb interview conducted by telephone between Oshkosh and Washington. The interview came as AVweb was preparing to launch its coverage of EAA's AirVenture '99 and as Ms. Garvey prepared to travel to OSH on Sunday for her annual "Meet The Boss" session.

So, what is wrong with the FAA and where does AVweb get off with point-blank asking the administrator such a question? The answer is not an easy one, nor have the issues that give us cause to ask it arisen overnight. Instead, it's one that has been a growing, nagging concern among many in the aviation industry. Granted, things could be worse — a lot worse. All signs point to strong and sustained upswings in the industry, including record new aircraft sales numbers and high student start rates. Safety is much-improved, also, with preliminary NTSB statistics pointing to 1998 being the safest year on record. Plus, we do have an administrator who takes the time to answer questions, to listen to the grass roots of aviation. She is also willing — perhaps eager — to intervene when underlings at the agency roam "off the reservation." Two cases in point were the subject of Monday's one-on-one interview between Garvey and Busch.

The first was the story of Bill Bainbridge. Anyone who was at last year's "Meet The Boss" session would remember it. In an emotional speech, Bainbridge asked for the FAA to withdraw its enforcement action against him, and Garvey publicly instructed the FAA's Deputy Chief Counsel, James Whitlow, to take care of it, then went further, meeting with Bainbridge and Whitlow afterwards in an attempt to put the matter to rest. Unfortunately, her best efforts backfired when it turned out that the letter prepared by FAA counsel concluded with an obvious threat, instead of a much-needed apology. Although the Bainbridge saga is concluded, there is no question that it received attention at the highest levels. Ultimately, the issue was resolved, but not until even more intervention by Garvey on Bainbridge's behalf.

The second example occurred earlier this month. For more than two years, the FAA has been considering an internal draft of a proposed Airworthiness Directive on turbocharged twin Cessna exhaust systems. Less than a week before the FAA planned to release the AD as a direct-to-final rule, the Cessna Pilots Association (CPA) and AOPA got wind of it. After getting their key points straight, they appealed the pending action directly to Garvey's office. Garvey herself responded to AOPA and the CPA via email to acknowledge receipt of their letters, promising to get back shortly with a decision. Ultimately, the AD was released as a proposed rule — affording industry the opportunity to comment. But the basic question that AVweb wanted to ask Garvey is, why did it happen in the first place?

These and other notable events — including the infamous Bob Hoover episode — formed the basis for Busch's question. We also asked Garvey about rumors that she may be leaving the FAA soon to take the position of Secretary of Transportation in the event — also part of the rumor — that current SECDOT Rodney Slater would resign. Read her responses to these and other questions in AVweb's Preview Coverage of AirVenture '99.

EAA AirVenture — Behind The Flightline: The Sights, Sounds And Smells Of AirVenture '99

Where else in the world can the rabid fan of flying sample such a broad blend of aviation as in Oshkosh, Wis., in the late summer of each year? In many ways, you can look upon the gathering much like a bride's wedding trousseau: a blend of something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue — the deep, clear blue of the Wisconsin sky.

With the opening today of the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual convention, the air over Wittman Regional Airport will carry a thick, sweet aroma blended from scents of avgas and Jet A, grilled bratwurst and burgers, roasted corn-on-the-cob and cool lemonade. It's such an intoxicating scent that one sample could make any veteran of Oshkosh salivate as surely as Pavlov's pups responding to the ring of a bell — if you could bottle it, at any rate.

The minute-by-minute rumbling of huge, round warbird engines contrasts with the soft ringing whine of two-stroke ultralight engines as much as the sight of dainty antique homebuilts taxiing past behemoths like the airliners parked on the West Ramp.

AirVenture '99 is a sprawling city of airplane nuts and their families and friends — tens of thousands of them living comfortably in tents, campers and motorhomes in the vastness of Camp Scholler. Thousands more pull tents from the planes, string hammocks in the shadows of their wings and settle into the vast open green of the North Forty Aircraft Camping area, in the Warbirds staging area to the east, around the centrally located Theater in the Woods and in the ultralight field adjacent to the southern end of Runway 18/36.

More Than Just An Airshow

You should have the idea by now. Oshkosh is a place of contrasts, attended by hundreds of thousands who are tended by more than 10,000 volunteers, many of them veterans of decades of manning the flightlines, campgrounds, information booths, type club buildings, parking lots, taxiways and runways.

Oshkosh may be the one place on earth where an avid aviator can see new planes, new avionics, new engines and more new gadgets than any kid ever dreamt of for Christmas Day. For example, where else might you find two all-new autogyro designs, both four-place, that are not direct competitors?

You can see it here. The Groen Brothers' Hawk 4 gyro aspires to be the new standard in utility aircraft, targeted at a niche of operators in between helicopters and fixed-wing planes, such as pipeline patrol, power-line maintenance, television news-gathering and environmental patrols, where slow speed and low flying are the standard. In contrast, the Carter Copter shoots for the business-aviation strata, pressurized for high-altitude, high-speed performance.

Oshkosh is where Ballistic Recovery Systems has chosen to unveil a new aircraft-recovery parachute system for retrofit in Cessna 172 Skyhawks, while Aviat Aircraft hopes to debut its retro hotrod, the 200-mph Monocoupe 110 Special, scant days after its first flight in Afton, Wyo. And Quicksilver Manufacturing, maker of the oldest line of ultralights available, will show off a new two-place trainer vastly redesigned from the venerable MX line.

Before AirVenture '99 ends Tuesday, pilots will get their first glimpses of Garmin's new color-display GPSMAP 295 and the new AvTracker software program that combines logbook keeping, cost tracking, partnership management and operational alerts into a single homogenous package. Raytheon Aircraft Co. brought its first Jaguar Edition Bonanza and Barons for display, while Cessna Aircraft jammed its exhibit with its full line of piston singles, a CitationJet and Caravan on floats.

And this just scratches the surface. You will read much more about many more new products in the coming week.

Power To The People

But more than new planes and products, Oshkosh is where plane-loving people come together each year to celebrate flight.

The EAA-member volunteers will celebrate their dedication and hard work with a parade all their own, winding through Camp Scholler in golf carts and John Deere Gators, garbage trucks and fire trucks with the lights and sirens blaring.

Dozens of volunteer docents at the EAA Museum will impart stories of sport aviation's history to the uninitiated, complemented by the knowledge of crews staffing the antique hangars at Pioneer Airport across the way.

Each day the multitudes will crowd the flight line along 18/36 to watch a celebration of Airshow Legends with pilots cavorting through the sky with apparent abandon for hours, before heading south on the field to watch another 90 minutes of action as colorful ultralights and powered parachutes dot the evening sky, flown by average owners with as much pride and precision as any professional performer.

It's at AirVenture that two score volunteers in the Emergency Aircraft Repair area attend to the foibles and failures of a couple of hundred pilots cursed with an airplane problem that must be solved before they can safely wing home again.

And each evening, as the field closes to traffic and the sounds of aviation die as slowly as the light, thousands of the hard core will amble from campfire to campfire, making new friendships and renewing old ones.

In the coming days we'll take you for a peek behind the flight line, the news conferences and new-product announcements to meet some of the people who make it work, make it large and make it aviation's perennial top fly-in and air show. We'll try to paint you a picture of airshow life as it ebbs and flows with each sunset and sunrise. And, we hope, you'll come away with enough of the fun and friendship to make staying away next year harder than ever.

So, until tomorrow, safe flying, everybody.

Weather Throws Curve At Pilots in AirVenture Cup Race

The hot, humid weather spawning thunderstorms throughout the middle of the U.S. delayed, but couldn't stop, the 15 contestants in the second annual EAA AirVenture Cup Race this week. Originally slated to start Monday from an airport near Kitty Hawk, N.C.,and finish the same day at Oshkosh, Wis., the racers were forced to make an unscheduled stop in Dayton, Ohio, when the weather deteriorated along the course route. After waiting out the weather overnight in Dayton, the pilots finished the race on Tuesday morning under a cloudless blue sky at Oshkosh.

The objective of the AirVenture Cup race is a flat-out speed dash for experimental aircraft over an 825-nm dogleg course, testing the navigation and piloting skills of the participating flight crews. The aircraft with the shortest time is the overall winner. The dogleg allows the competitors to avoid the congested airspace around Chicago's O'Hare Airport by passing over a pylon in Aurora, Ill., before turning north. The aircraft compete in three race categories depending on engine displacement and whether they have retractable gear. Some of the aircraft types that competed this year included Lancairs, Long-Ezs, Berkuts, and RVs.

When all the results were finally calculated, Jim Rahm of Daytona, Fla., flying a Lancair IVP, was declared the overall winner with a total flight time of 3 hours 57 minutes and 29 seconds. Rahm's average speed over the course was 239.69 mph. Placing first in the Formula RG category was Dick Keyt of Granbury, Texas, in a Polen Special II, with a time of 4 hours 4 minutes and 46 seconds, which works out to an average speed of 232.56 mph. In the Formula FX category, Don Saint from Granbury, Texas, took home the gold flying a Glasair IIS in 4 hours 49 minutes and 18 seconds, at an average speed of 196.77 mph.

AirVenture Cup Race organizers were quick to praise the great help they received from volunteers at Dayton's Wright Brothers Airport. On short notice the Dayton volunteers provided accurate timing to insure the validity of the scoring, found overnight accommodations for the flight crews, and hangared the race planes to provide protection from the thunderstorms that rumbled through overnight. Race winners will be honored at a Theater in the Woods trophy presentation the evening of July 28.

A Marvel Of Design Features

One of the great things about AirVenture is seeing the numerous one-of-a-kind aircraft that show up every year. AVweb caught up with the contingent from Mississippi State University before the show opened as they unloaded the Marvel II observation aircraft from its trailer after a two-day trek from Starkville. Tom Hannigan, laboratory coordinator with the MSU department of aerospace engineering, explained that the Marvel prototype was designed and built at the school for use as an observation plane in Saudi Arabia. The Marvel features composite construction, a mid-fuselage wing, a helicopter-like bubble nose, and a 250 shp J10 turboprop coupled to a ducted pusher prop. The duct was incorporated to protect the prop from foreign-object damage when operating from dirt or sand runways, and not for noise reduction or prop efficiency as in most ducted fan designs.

Another interesting feature of the Marvel II is the four-wheel landing gear arranged in parallel tandem configuration. Hannigan explained that this landing-gear arrangement allowed the Marvel II to take off and land on soft sand runways typical of Saudi Arabia. The original Marvel had a unique camber-changing wing, but the Marvel II being shown here has a conventional wing design. The MSU aerospace engineering department also did design work for Honda in the early '90s on a prototype aircraft powered by a Honda engine. The Honda plane, now retired, is on display in a museum in Japan. AirVenture visitors who want to take a close look at the Marvel II and find out more about the interesting work being done at MSU can stop by the display on the south side of the main display ramp.

Cajun Condo Camp

An obvious incentive for arriving at AirVenture before the show starts is to get first shot at the best campsites. AVweb visited the "Cajun Condo" camp nestled in a grove of tall trees in the Antique/Classic aircraft camping area. Camp founder Joe Champagne is the chief pilot for Air Grand Canyon, and flies Cessna 207s out of Grand Canyon Airport, in Arizona. Champagne, originally from New Orleans, has been coming to Oshkosh for 22 years, and tries to get into Wittman Field a week before the show starts to stake his claim on this prime campsite.

Joe's camp has grown over the years, and now includes more than 50 inhabitants from various countries, as evidenced by the numerous national flags flying over the camp entrance. Joe said one of the prime reasons he attends Oshkosh is to visit with all the friends he has made here, many of whom have become "citizens" of his camp. Although the citizens' planes are parked nearby in the hot sun, their tents are arranged in a loose circle in the shade of the trees. Anyone who has ever camped at Oshkosh knows that many pilots would willingly trade a tankful of avgas for a shaded campsite when the inevitable heat and humidity descends on the convention.

Every year at Cajun Condo, Joe and his buddies cook up 50 gallons of good old Cajun gumbo to share among the camp residents and anyone else who happens to wander by. This year Oshkosh won't be all fun for Joe, though — he brought along as light reading the FAA proposal for new restrictions on Grand Canyon overflights. According to Joe, if enacted, the proposed changes in the two-inch-thick document would have a drastic impact on tour operators who conduct scenic flights over the Grand Canyon.

North Forty Aircraft Camping

By Sunday morning, airplanes were already starting to fill in the preferred campsites in the area surrounding Runway 9/27 on the north end of Wittman Field. Known as the North Forty, this area is the designated parking and camping area for the majority of spam cans that are not allowed in the EAA-designated aircraft parking areas for Warbirds, Antiques, Ultralights, Classics, or Experimental. AVweb visited Bill Sellers and Vernon Roper of Marysville, Calif., occupants of campsite row 1, space A, the primo spot closest to the convention grounds. Arriving on the Thursday before the start of the convention in a pristine Cessna Skyhawk XP II, Sellers said he lucked out in getting this choice spot.

Also arriving Thursday was a Cherokee 140 piloted by Barrie Keal. He and his wife, Sylvia, flew from their home in Georgetown, Ontario, across Michigan's Upper Peninsula so they could make a dinner stop at their favorite en route restaurant in Manistee, Mich. They wound up in row 1, spot E. Their first priority was to make friends with the owners of a nearby 172, because you can't sit in the shade of a Cherokee wing.

Thursday arrivals were steered away from the coveted area at first, because the ground was waterlogged. When rows 1 and 2 finally dried out Saturday, Sellers' Hawk XP was the first plane directed to taxi and he got row 1, spot A. Sellers has been to Oshkosh many times, but this was the first time for Roper. Roper said they were looking forward to taking their chairs out to the end of row 1, which stops near the midpoint of 9/27, to "grade" the landings of arriving planes. They'll have plenty of opportunities to critique fellow pilots as traffic increases dramatically over the next few days, especially when two planes land simultaneously on the runway during peak times.

You've Fought Headwinds, TRWs And Traffic

And Now You Get To Hassle Over Where To Park

Michael Hoag has volunteered for parking duty for the last 19 years. He's one of about 25 volunteers who spend a few days before AirVenture trying to keep the traffic moving. After guiding this Staggerwing Beech to its home for the week, he took a moment to explain the system. Once the airplane leaves the runway, FAA controllers send it to the appropriate parking area for its category. Then each area's point manager looks for a sign in the window that pilots are asked to display showing their destination, and assigns the airplane to a volunteer on a motorbike who guides it to a full stop. The full details on the parking system are spelled out in detail at EAA's web site.

Parking is a potential choke point in the system. If the airplanes don't get parked efficiently, they back up on the taxiway, which causes runway congestion, which means the tower tells Fisk to start holding at Ripon, and some pilot ends up doing doughnuts over Ohio.

When Michael's not parking airplanes, he's got seven Aeroncas to keep him busy. One is flying, one is halfway through restoration and the other five are in various stages of disarray. But again this year he's spending his time welcoming some of the 11,000 arriving airplanes to a home away from home for EAA's AirVenture.

And The Judge From Cincinnati Gives That Landing A 9.5

How do you pass the time when you fly into AirVenture '99 four days before the show starts? If you are Bob Gardner and Russ Lee of Cincinnati, Ohio, you plop yourself down in your lawn chairs along Runway 9/27 and critique the landings of fellow pilots arriving for the big show. AVweb found Gardner and Lee armed with an airband scanner and video camera as they reviewed the continuous stream of arriving aircraft the day before the show opened. Gardner told AVweb that they flew in from Lunken Airport near Cincinnati on Saturday in a Piper Archer, and that sitting by the runway in their lawn chairs analyzing the landing skills of pilots was a good way to pass the time until the real airshow began. Gardner has been coming to AirVenture for the past three years, and for him this is one of the most entertaining parts of the Oshkosh experience.

Compared to the past two years, Gardner and Lee felt that the arriving traffic this day was lighter than usual, and that the patterns and landings were all pretty respectable, with nothing real memorable happening. Not like the incident that occurred several years ago that Gardner fondly remembers. In that event, the OSH tower had instructed a Cessna following a P-51 on downwind to Runway 27 to report when he had the Warbird in sight. The Cessna pilot repeatedly transmitted that he didn't see the Mustang, even though he was right behind. Finally the Mustang pilot belched out a big puff of smoke from his engine and transmitted: "Now can that dang Cessna see me?" Gardner said the crowd of plane watchers lining RW 27 let out a big laugh on hearing that on their radios. Gardner is building a Loehle P-40 replica that he hopes to fly to AirVenture sometime in the future. When that happens, the tables will be turned, as you can bet there will be a panel of "judges" scoring his Oshkosh landing.

Two Down...

Each year, no matter how careful we all are, a handful of us manage to prang an aircraft — or worse.  So far, AVweb is not aware of any serious accidents involving those of us trying to get to OSH. We are aware of a very nice Bellanca 260 that landed in Indiana while en route to OSH but couldn't get its nosegear down. The Bellanca's occupants emerged unscathed, but the Bellanca will need some work. Jim Duca of Boulder, Colo., had his share of Oshkosh excitement on his way to AirVenture '99 when the right front cowling latch on his Stinson 108 failed a few miles east of Mason City, Iowa. The slipstream picked up the cowling and ripped off its right rear latch, leaving the remnants flapping in Duca's face. Making right turns to keep the cowling pressed down, Duca returned to Mason City and lined up on the nearest runway, making an uneventful downwind landing. "I thought I was going to have to land it in a field," Duca said. "I didn't hear anyone in the pattern, so I didn't bother much with protocol." Duca will miss AirVenture '99 but hopes to repair the Stinson and return in the future.

Let's all be careful out there, okay?