Compiled By The Staff of the Aero-News Network

For well over a decade, we have recognized the highs and lows inherent in the general and sport aviation community. There are but a few places where that is more a propos than at a major event like the Oshkosh Fly-In.'

It's hard to know what really is going to make a difference and what really qualifies as exceptional unless you've been watching this industry carefully for several years... as we have.

So... here are our picks for the Best and Worst of this year's Oshkosh... and why we think so:

Outstanding Personality (Commercial): Kate Andrews. One of the key go-betweens who interfaces with the media for Cirrus Design is a truly delightful lass by the name of Kate Andrews. Such positions are often fraught with personality issues and while there are a number of excellent professionals who know how to do such a job quite well... few of them do so with the utter delight that Kate does. She's a true pro... but she's also an absolutely great person to work with... and that NEVER hurts when a person serves as the primary "face" for an entire company.  

• Strong Runner-UP: New Glasair's Tom Wathen. Most-recently famous for saving the Glasair and GlaStar lines, his decades of work in aviation, and some of his classic racers (Flabob Chapter 1 showed off the replica DeHavilland DH-88 Comet and the Thompson Trophy-winning LTR-14 Miss Champion, for instance)... for doing his best to minimize the impact the Stoddard-Hamilton debacle on his beloved clientele... and he did it by putting his money where is heart was. A helluva guy.

Outstanding Personality (General): Friends of Meigs Field's Rachel Goodstein. A passionate voice for one of the most well-fought and honorable battles in general aviation, Rachel never let up (still hasn't!) on the City of Chicago, the FAA or anyone else who might be called upon to have an effect on the infamous theft nd destruction of a treasured American resource. Rachel's efforts, and those of her compatriots, were amazing and a true inspiration to ANYONE who loves aviation. Well done!

Greatest Improvement Over Previous Oshkosh's: Attitudes -- the industry is coming back (or trying to). No longer willing to remain paralyzed by FAA's nearly-moribund Sport Pilot debacle, kit builders are moving ahead, as best they can. So are buyers -- whether they were waiting for Sport Pilot, or waiting for the economy to bottom out, or waiting to see if aviation would be discontinued "in the wake of September 11," they're starting to come back. New products abounded: Mooney's introducing a LSA; the Piper 6X got its TC, as did the Beriev Be-103 -- in avionics, in safety items, in accessories... heck, there were THREE serious new vacuum pumps (Aero-Advantage, Tempest, and AirWolf) introduced at Oshkosh 2003!

Dead Grass Award: Cirrus Design Display. Pretty airplanes are hell on grass, even when you do your best to protect with temporary flooring, access ramps and all... but if there was a more well-traveled path through the veggies than to the airplanes at the Cirrus Design display, we're not aware of them.

• Runner(s)-Up: The flightline in the lightplane area. No matter what, come flying time, hundreds of people beat feet to watch the ultralights, SportPlanes and rotorcraft fly each day in the VERY South 40, the Oshkosh LightPlane airpatch.

The Steel Cojones Award: Adam Aircraft Corp. For bringing the Adam 700 to the show.

The Lonely Stretcher Award: To ANN's Juan Jimenez, who managed to get through an entire week at Oshkosh without making a single phone call to 911, and who lost the deposit he put on a room and a shot of morphine at the local hospital.

The Coolest Aircraft at OSH 2003: Hands down, the ORBIS DC-10. The FedEx team that took over to make sure this fantastic aircraft is kept operational and flying, and the long list of supporters who make sure the airplane and crew have what they need to perform their outstanding work worldwide, deserve a permanent standing ovation.

The Sexiest Aircraft at OSH 2003: Looking like a scaled-down Piaggio Avanti, the Swiss Aeriks 200 two-seat composite pusher from AceAir, SA was easily the sexiest aircraft at the show. It's something about those Italian curves... AceAir is located on the Italian side of Switzerland... and the bird reminds me of Sophia Loren. What can I say.

The Cat Shepherd's Award: Ever try to herd cats? If you have, you'll understand this award, which this year goes to B2OSH, the 82 Bonanzas that filled the sky in a 20-mile formation and once again turned in an accident-free performance. Bravo! That, ladies and gentlemen, is no small feat!

The Reality Check Award: This one goes to the kids in the parking lot next to the ultralights who were selling tall glasses of very cold, very good lemonade for the incredible price of -- get this -- one dollar.

The Patience Of A Saint Award: ANN's Juan Jimenez notes that, "So who's going to tell me that the folks who flew the Boeing 307 to OSH were not expecting to have to suffer through jokes like 'Where did you put the bilge pumps?' It takes a special person with a special quality known as 'class' to put him/herself through that, all for the benefit of those who want to admire such a beautiful aircraft. The folks who repaired the damage also did an A-1 job and deserve a solid round of applause."

Highest Price Food Item: ANN's Aleta Vinas reports, "It was warm at Oshkosh, after the rains subsided, and I had the need, the need for ice cream. I'd spied the ice cream carts the first day but today I wanted an ice cream bar! I sauntered over digging out my money, pulling out a couple of dollar bills. Can't be more than a couple of bucks, I figured. I figured wrong! The 'primo' bar was $3.75! $3.75 for a lousy ice cream bar! $3.75!! $3.75! Are they nuts? I could buy a whole quart for that on the "outside" but here I was, captive at the fly-in, no place else to go. I got indigestion at the sight of the price and was cured. According to EAA Corporate Headquarters, the prices are pre-approved (you mean someone allowed $3.75 for an ice cream bar?) and the prices need to cover the costs of putting on the once-a-year event."

"Ya Gotta Be Kidding" Award: (Rant Mode "On") Ultralight Aviation's Ever-Present Clown/Part-Time Rip-Off Artist, Chuck Slusarczyk of CGS Aviation (Repeat Award). Every time we go to these events, this clown parades around this silly "Zoom Free Zone" sign trying to intimate that he is being picked on by ANN's Editor-In-Chief, Jim "Zoom" Campbell. Campbell has written extensively about the problems experienced by a number (but clearly not all) of Slusarczyk's customers. While a number of CGS Aviation Hawk owners are rightfully happy with their aircraft (which can be a delightful little flyer), this character still pulls enough shady moves that we can not recommend him and whenever we note this, a new round of personal attacks, falsehoods and other crapola emerges.
Fact: A number of CGS customers have had unpleasant experiences with the company and Mr. Slusarczyk.
Fact: A number of people have NOT gotten what they paid for and/or been cheated by CGS.
Fact: A number of people who have complained about CGS and/or Slusarczyk have been the recipients of personal attacks and threats from same.
Fact: CGS has been successfully sued by unhappy customers and is still in the process of defending itself against same in other venues.
Fact: What "Zoom Free Zone" really means (to us and many others) is that the person who displays this nonsense is an immature fool (IMO) who won't make good for his "shortfalls" in customer service and will NOT get a positive recommendation from Jim Campbell or anybody else at ANN until he satisfies those aggrieved parties and all the personal attacks, threats, imbecilic signs, and rumor mongering by Chuck and his buddies will not change that (but it will keep us laughing our asses off at this pathetic character). (Rant Mode "Off")

Exercises In Futility 2003: The most futile effort of the show turned out to be trying to buy Klyde Morris out of the "Fly Market" and into one of the vacant booths in the buildings. Having been located in the remote section of the Fly Market, the Klyde Morris booth was getting about as much traffic as a funeral for Saddam Hussein's sons. By Friday Wes saw the writing on the wall and after being advised that there were many empty booth spaces in the buildings where the crowds were gathering, he went to the EAA vendor services window to see if he could buy his way out of Aero-Purgatory. He was told there that "indeed, you can buy your way into an empty booth space." But, when he offered them his credit card... any credit card... an EAA representative told him that "Yes you can buy into a booth, but YOU cannot buy into a booth." Her reasoning was that part of the Klyde merchandise consisted of T-shirts and they already had enough T-shirt vendors in the buildings. He instantly offered to burn all of the shirts and just sell other stuff, like the Klyde dolls -- certainly no one was selling those in the buildings. Then, he was told that he still could not be in a building because they were "not a true aviation business," and they already had their quota of non-aviation vendors. Wes stated that Klyde Morris is a pure aviation cartoon dealing strictly with aviation issues and that it is read strictly by aviation people... how can it NOT be a true aviation company? Upon hearing that, the EAA lady upgraded Klyde Morris to "borderline aviation." Of course they already had their quota of them in the booths, too. There are three kinds of people who you never argue with or lampoon: there is the Mafia, the IRS and anyone at EAA with any hint of authority at AirVenture time. So... Wes was sent with his money, back to the Fly Market where he belonged, and the previously empty booths in the main exhibit buildings remained empty through the show. Wes says, "My feet may have been muddy, my merchandise may have not been seen by 70% of the AirVenture guests and my earnings may have hardly covered the cost of the booth space, but I was warmed deep in my soul by the fact that the EAA officially considers my aviation cartoon strip to be 'borderline.'"

• Runner(s)-Up: SportPlane Manufacturers. Whaddya do when no one will buy your product because they're waiting for the new rule much ballyhooed by industry, the FAA and a number of associations... and the rule is YEARS past the time it was originally promised? You starve, twiddle your thumbs, find (non-aviation) part-time work and HOPE LIKE HELL that you can survive until the wheels of bureaucracy do their thing. Good luck...

ALL The Right Moves: Tom Poberezny. After all the crap that we've had to heap on this guy for everything that concerns us as far as EAA is concerned, it behooves us to do the right thing and note that this year, Poberezny's EAA kicked ass. Yeah, it had it's problems but whatever they did, they did it far better than usual and in such a way that very few feathers got ruffled. A grand time appeared to had by all but the most curmudgeonly amongst us. Bravo... nicely done.

"Best Actor" Award: Liberty Aircraft. STILL not certified, Liberty still hasn't gotten the TC it has claimed was "imminent" on more occasions than we can count. While we love the aircraft, we're growing increasing disenchanted (and so are a number of their customers, apparently) with the company and the missed deadlines, fibs, and other problems we've become aware of. These guys need to get their act together RIGHT NOW or serious damage will be done to a promising program and a super little airplane.

• Runner(s)-Up: Steve Hay as the Viking, or whatever he is when he drives that loopy Ornithopter. We love that guy.

Worst Idea At Oshkosh 2003: Secretary Mineta's "No Questions" Policy and Oshkosh PD's Enforcementof Same. When SecTrans Mineta showed up at Oshkosh, a lot of people had questions for the man. When accredited journalists tried to ask some of those questions, as Mineta toured the site, they were rebuffed quite heavy-handedly. One Oshkosh PD Officer even told ANN that only EAA could ask Mineta any questions. This NOT being the United states of EAA, we noted the cops bitching about one reporter who politely stood his ground and tried to get a question to Mineta... and the trouble they promised to make for him later (which apparently did not happen). Folks, this is shameful BS. It is EVERY journalist's job to ask questions and it is our right/responsibility to do so under the Constitution... and for anyone in authority to even think of making trouble for a journalist who was POLITELY doing his job (as our observations/pictures confirm) is a travesty and a thoroughly UNAmerican thing to do. These folks must think they work for Sun 'n Fun or something... 'cuz they sure as hell aren't working for we citizens.

• Runner(s)-Up: The Case of the Copped Corvettes. Moony, celebrating fifty years of aircraft production hosted some Corvettes (also celebrating fifty years of production) at their main display area... until some over-zealous EAA staffer assumed that their corporate sponsor, FORD, might take offense and arranged to have the offending hot-rods removed. Dumb idea.
• Runner(s)-Up: Charging (still) high prices for last day attendance at Oshkosh. By the time the last day of Oshkosh rolls around, this thing is DONE. Charging anything but a few bucks (at most) seems to be something of a bad deal.

"Risky Business": Adam's A-700 Flight To Oshkosh. Barely a week after their totally new bird with totally new engines takes flight, Adam Aircraft decided to bring it to Oshkosh. While many consider the move gutsy (including our staff, begrudgingly), we consider the move questionable. Already under fire for safety practices and other concerns, what chance this aircraft has of seeing the light of day (certification and production wise) were put into jeopardy for what we consider a PR stunt that had questionable value and WAY too many risks...

Biggest Oshkosh 2003 Blunder: FAA's Continual Sport Pilot Delays. The many broken promises and delays seen in this program have nearly decimated an already shaky industry and hurt the companies and personnel who have devoted their lives to this business. The excuses are getting ponderous, the delays are out of control and we STILL wonder whether this whole thing will still blow up and destroy what's left of the SportPlane business.

• Runner(s)-Up: The T-6 That Ate Frasca's T-34. Some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you... as Rudy Frasca found out when he went to visit a porta-John before leaving to fly home in his beautiful T-34. unfortunately; for the few minutes it took him to finish readjusting his personal CG, a T-6 fired up, got a bit out of control and munched on his tailfeathers. Ain't life a bear?

Weirdest Rumor: Impending Donation of A Concorde To The EAA museum. It ain't true... we reported that months ago, but a week doesn't go past without someone reporting this rumor to us as if it were gospel. Would that it were true, but it isn't. Bummer.

Bozo Of The Week: Sun 'n Fun. No... this is not a cheap shot at an (excessively) easy target. It's a proper reflection of the effect that Sun 'n Fun's outright frauds have had on the Airshow/Fly-In business. Ever since the rest of the world found out that our long-held suspicions about the fictional nature of Sun 'n Fun's attendance figures were as real as we feared, the Airshow/Fly-In community has suffered the distrust and disinterest of an industry that is sick and tired of being lied to, abused, and taken advantage of. Their flagrant disregard and disrespect of their attendees, vendors, sponsors and supporters has reverberated throughout the industry and left a black eye for one and all. Our own experience has proven that Sun 'n Fun deals fast and loose with the facts (and that's when their not outright fibbing), but it's a shame that they tarred an entire industry with a brush of their own making. The entire leadership structure of Sun 'n Fun should be forced to apologize to the industry and then made to resign.

ANN's "Above and Beyond" Award: To ANN Oshkosh Newbies Aleta Vinas, John Ballantyne, Rob Milford, and Tyson Rininger. It was their first time covering Oshkosh for ANN and they not only fit in well with the grizzled curmudgeons who populate this corporate hell, they covered their assignments well, put a great and new set of faces on who and what ANN is coming to be, and were just plain delightful to work with. Many thanks, gang, many thanks.

• Runner(s)-Up: EAA's Media Relations Staff. This aspect of EAA has never run so smoothly or so pleasantly as it did the week of Airventure 2003. Special props for EAA's Dick Knapinski who STILL sets an industry standard for working with the aviation media, bar none.

Biggest 'O' at Oshkosh: ANN's Aleta Vinas says "You can never see the AV-8B Harrier too many times! I saw it three times. Three times I watched it fly backwards, pivot in a circle and move side to side! The roar of forty thousand horsepower is deafening but who cares, it's the Harrier and now it's taking a bow."

FMI: www.airventure.org