Oshkosh 2005

by

Bob White


This year I got an enjoyable 3 days at Oshkosh, arriving Wednesday 7/27, and leaving early Saturday morning 7/30.

I mainly concentrated on seeing the BD-4 and rotary engine related planes and people although I carried away several pounds of hardware from the Fly Market as well. I also got to meet some of the people I've corresponded with on the net the last few years.

BD-4's at Oshkosh 2005
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There were four BD-4 parked on the field this year including the first owner built plane from TEAM Aviation (Formerly TVAP). The planes range in build date from 1975 to 2005. Unfortunately John Steer didn't get to fly his plane in this year because of bad weather.


This plane didn't have a tag on the propeller, but is registered to John Holland from Florida.


Richard Martin from Colorado. I've had the pleasure of flying in this plane when Richard was flying thru New Mexico a few months ago.


Scott DeGaynor from Michigan. Scott has a clean fast plane. Scott won several awards at the banquet for his plane, and service to the BD-4 community.


Last but not least, here is the brand new BD-4 completed from the TEAM Aviation kits. Owned by Jason Glenn from Alabama. Jason is a helicopter pilot for the military, so one unique feature he built into his plane is the primary controls are on the right side. I should have gotten a picture of his panel.

I had to choose between the rotary enging cookout and the BD-4 banquet as both were held on Thursday evening. I chose the BD-4 banquet this year. Maybe next year they will be on different days. The BD-4 technical meeting Friday night was also worhtwhile. Bill Baudot gave some insight on TEAM Avation's future plans. There was also some discussion about the new Bede wing for the BD-4. One builder (sorry, I didn't take notes) is in the process of building it and had a lot of photos of the process.

Rotary Fly By


I spent much of the afternoon on Friday with Bill Shertz watching the rotary engine fly by. I didn't take notes here either, so I can't identify these planes, except the blue one is Dave Atkins RV. The first one may be Dave also. Each plane made two passes. For all the discussion about sound levels with the rotary engine, I didn't hear anything objectionable from any of the rotaries I heard running.

Further info about the fly by from Jim Maher:

On Friday 4 out of the 22 aircraft flown were Rotary powered. Dave Atkins RV6, Jim Clark & Jerry Gustafson's Powersport powered RV8's and our own Chuck Dunlap in his RV6.

On Wednesday 2 out of 16 aircraft flown in the Homebuilt Review were Rotary powered. Dave Atkins RV6 and Scott Jones PowerSport Velocity.

All in all a great showing for the Rotary movement. My sincere thanks to all who participated.

The Homebuilt Review (a flying parade of experimental aircraft) is my favorite event of the show. Anyone wishing to fly in next years Homebuilt Review can make arrangements by contacting me, as I help to organize the event.

There are many who are content to stay home and complain about how commercial Oshkosh is getting. I prefer to try to do something about it.

Along with persistent people like Tracy Crook and Dave Atkins I believe that Experimental aviation will continue to have a strong presence at Oshkosh for years to come.

Jim Maher (Dyke Delta 13B ARF) p.s. the model builders will know what ARF means.




Chuck Dunlap's plane


Dave Atkin's plane



Here are a couple more rotary powered planes. These planes are nearly identical RV-8's except for the paint job. They were parked right next to the entry arch to the flight line. These planes were piloted by Jim Clark and Gerry Gustafson. They have the Power Sport conversion package. Very slick well done installations.



I did go to a few other places. For example, who could pass up the opportunity to see the first non-government space ship.

All in all, I had a very enjoyable time. Next year I'm hoping to fly up in the rotary powered BD-4.