Say Hello To Stringers Franklin Porath And Dave Slosson!

With the final days before the official start to EAA AirVenture 2008 counting down all too rapidly... and, not quickly enough... ANN's senior staff is all-too-aware of the Herculean task ahead of us in reporting EVERYTHING that's news at The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration.

Fortunately, this year we'll have some help... and some really GREAT help at that. Over the next several days, we thought we'd take the time to introduce you to the staff members -- both full-time, as well as our "stringers" -- who will be bringing our readers and listeners all the news from Oshkosh that's fit to pixilate, orate and videotape this year.

And now, without further ado...

Franklin Porath

Frank grew up flying. His first flight was on his father's lap in a Piper Pacer and he started flight training when avgas was 25 cents a gallon. He also raced cars, directed opera, and rebuilt cities.

He was the Mission Coordinator for the Ohio Wing of the CAP, taught flying, and was the recipient of Red Cross and CAP awards for emergency life-saving search and rescue missions. He was the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (the astronaut's professional society) 2001 featured convention speaker. This year he will present his 14th forum at the EAA Oshkosh convention, where he also appeared as a speaker in 2001.

Frank was part of the first US Department of Commerce trade mission to the former Soviet Republic of Mongolia, where he hand-carried information requested on the EAA and home-built aircraft to Ulan Bator. He received the GE Outstanding Achievement Award, the INC Magazine 500 Award, and was on the Underwriters Laboratories Technical Standards Advisory Council.

Frank rebuilt and flew a Stinson Voyager (IFR!) assisted by his uncle, a former Flying Tiger, and imported the 4th Partenavia P68C to the US, perhaps his favorite aircraft.  For ten years at the Ohio Aerospace Institute he championed their General Aviation programs.

He has managed NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts Mars and Venus exploration projects, artificial heart, breast-cancer detection, brain-surgery projects, and some other really interesting stuff. He founded satellite paging and consumer electronics companies and recently returned from Europe, where he consulted for the Alp-Gotthard mega-tunnel railway project. Back in the US, he consulted for Rutgers University.

Frank recently received a 50 year pin from AOPA... and will probably be found camping at Oshkosh in the North 40 with his "Sweet Little Wife" Mary, beneath the wing of their Cessna Cardinal.

Dave Slosson

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Dave caught the aviation bug from his Dad, a WWII Navy pilot who instructed in PBYs. Needless to say, Dave came from a flying family, one that had several different planes as he grew up.

He earned his private pilot's license, his Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering degree from Purdue, worked on helicopters as an A&P aide for a while, then surveyed and drafted airport improvements for an engineering firm. He was hired by -- and just retired from -- the FAA after almost 31 years of Air Traffic Control, having worked a center, a flight service station, a VFR tower with nonradar approach control, and a tower/TRACON combination.

Dave's worked as a controller, automation specialist, supervisor, and acting manager over the years. He's been the liaison to the Airport Authority, Air National Guard, and the engineers building a new control tower, occupied in January 2007. He worked the Oshkosh air show as a controller from 1994-1998, and visited several other years besides.

Married to his wife, Vicki, for 32 years, Dave's lived in Fort Wayne, IN since January 1984. The couple are the proud parents of two boys -- Joshua is 26 and a computer engineer for a steel manufacturing company, while Michael is 23 and studying physics at Purdue.

Dave's owned half a 1966 Cessna 150 since December 17, 2003, and says he's enjoyed "getting my wings unfurled again." Over the years, he's been very lucky to get rides in a diverse selection of aircraft... including a P-51, F-4, Stearman, T-6, Hawker 400, Lockheed Lodestar, Bell JetRanger, RV-6A and a hot air balloon. Each one offers a different perspective on the world of flight. He says he's thoroughly looking forward to the challenge of passing his aviation enthusiasm onto ANN's online audience during the greatest general aviation air show, EAA AirVenture.

FMI: www.aero-news.net, www.airventure.org