Oshkosh Odds And Ends-Part Three

By Tom Woodward

As our press briefing responsibilities at AirVenture subsided, I had more time to walk the grounds looking for the unusual. For a while there, I was wearing the grass down between the Press Headquarters and our media tent, but on Wednesday morning I had signed up to assist our local EAA Chapter 983 from Granbury, Texas to help with the Pancake breakfast.

This is a new event that is turning out to be very popular. It takes place at the Chapter pavilion at the east end of Camp Scholler near the Big Red Barn, with a different chapter doing the cooking of the pancakes and sausage each day. Keith Lindsay from Chapter 38 in Georgia is the orchestrator of each days event. He has volunteered to make sure each chapter has all the supplies needed and things run smoothly. Chapter 983 had more than 20 members volunteer. This is my home chapter based at Pecan Plantation, a fly-in community south of Ft. Worth, Texas. When Oshkosh week rolls around our home airstrip has as much life as Chernobyl. We often joke that this is the week to reunite with our next-door neighbors. EAA provides the grill to cook the cakes, which in itself is a masterpiece. It consists of a round cooking surface about five feet in diameter that rotates at the perfect speed where about two revolutions gives you a perfect pancake. Perkins provides the batter and from the number of attendees, about 400, the pancakes must have been good. Funds are collected by National EAA and then payment is made to the chapters. This is the first year for this activity but I see it as one that will be very popular in the future.

Teen Build and Fly Projects

This area located by the Airplane Workshop was easy to miss because it consisted of a small field of about half a dozen common RV12s. But if you pass it by you would have missed the outstanding achievements of hundreds of High School students, for those half a dozen RV12’s were built in high School by students. Each airplane has a paint job that reflects their high school colors and some had their mascots gracing the tail. One such RV12 had a Pirate emblazoned on the tail representing the Granbury High School Pirates of Granbury, Texas. Last year Granbury High School started the Eagle Program. This program, under the supervision of Lead Mentor Kevin Ross, as well as many volunteer members of EAA Chapter 983, started in the 2016 school year.

The RV kit was donated, the mentors donated their time and the students were able to build and flight test the airplane within the school year. Each student then had the opportunity to get flight time in the airplane. On several of the airplanes each student participant had their name put on the side of the fuselage. The program will eventually become self-funding as the sale of one plane will provide funds for the next aircraft.

(Images provided by the author)

FMI: EAA.org