I wanted to share this with the group even though it's not Thorp news. Please delete it if it's inappropriate for this site, Lee. My son Matt & I just returned from a great fly-in in Oshkosh last weekend... Oshkosh, Nebraska! It was a really fun time in the small town of just under 900 people, who welcomed us with wide open arms! There were over 40 aircraft that flew in, and over 100 people registered, with some of us camping on the field. There is only one small, 12-room motel in town, and a few attendees were able to get a room there. We had a large, empty hangar to congregate and park some of the aircraft in, compliments of the city. We even had hats, buttons & stickers as well as mugs for the fly-in pilots... filling in what was going to be an empty slot in my collection! 3 of us Kitfox builder/pilots flew up there a few weeks ago to scope it out & talk to the airport manager & city officials, and they couldn't have been more enthusiastic and welcoming, so it was a "go".
We Kitfox guys only had to fly about 180 miles from Denver, an easy 2 hr. trip, LOW & SLOW. 1.8 coming back, dodging some cells & rain. You sure don't see many masks over there, similar to a trip my wife Vicki took up through Wyoming & Montana a few weeks ago. Very refreshing for us to be able to exercise our common-sense without a Big Brother mandate. My son-in law Bill & grandson Liam also made the trip in their Grumman Cheetah. There were lots of other cool airplanes there - a Fairchild PT-19, '46 Luscombe, J4 Cub, a few other Cubs, Super Cubs, etc. There was a Cessna 195, a few Cessnas & Pipers, and the requisite RVs (4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 14, etc.), of course. Cirrus, Sonex, and a rare-low wing Bearcoupe homebuilt - I think it's the only existing one at this time. Sadly, none of the T-18s from our area made it. A couple of powered parachutes gave us a pretty good show with some close, low-level fly-by's. There were others that I'm just not remembering right now. We had the Kiddie-Hawk simulator for kids that Bill Marcy here in Colorado designed/built, and which is at KidVenture every year. Lots of cold stuff to drink. A couple of great restaurants in town, the farthest one from the airport was about a 5 block walk away. Also a Kwik Stop across the street. It was a really good time!
