Day 2 at AirVenture

AirVenture opened to a first day attendance of over 200,000. The weather could not have been better, it was warm and sunny all day and not a cloud in the sky, perfect for an airshow. This guy tried all day to get this thing off the ground, but never succeeded. The craft below had better luck.

The huge converted Boeing 747 called the “Dream Lifter” arrived late Monday afternoon for a 24 hour appearance. The Dream Lifter is a converted Boeing 747-400 designed to transport major assemblies of the “Boeing 787 Dream Liner”, the next generation “Jumbo Jet”. The Dream Lifter can hold more cargo than any other plane in the world.

Mr. Jack Roush owner of Roush Racing as well as Roush Performance Products. A racing legend.

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Another happening today was the appearance of race car building legend Jack Roush owner of Roush Racing. Mr. Roush, a former Ford engineer, established Roush Performance Products in 1988 http://www.roushperformance.com/. The company produced after market performance products mainly for Ford Mustangs. Mr. Roush spent some time signing autographs and having pictures taken with many of the AirVenture goers. Like me :-)

Update From Oshkosh

Well, the start of the trip was delayed by one day due to the deluge last Thursday, but I got away early on Friday and headed up to Toronto and made it all the way to Sault Sainte Marie the first day. I crossed back into the USA late Friday evening and found a motel since it was raining quite steady. The ride up 'til then had been very nice. The weather all up thru Canada was sunny most of the time. I arrived at Oshkosh at 3:oopm on Saturday and got registered for AirVenture and then went and picked out my camping site. As you see from the picture, I am updating this blog from inside the camper trailer, thanks to the people at EAA for providing the FREE WiFi in all of the campground. That's a BIG area! But it works very well.
Things in the display area of AirVenture are proceeding at a feverish pace. All the vendors are working hard to get their displays up before the opening bell in the morning.
I understand that Harrison Ford and John Travolta will be here this year as masters of ceremonies at "Theatre In The Woods". Both Harrison Ford and John Travolta are very experienced pilots. I hope Captain Travolta flies in on his Boeing 707!
More later.

Volcanoes In Southern Chile

This astonishing picture shows the Chaiten volcano erupting in the middle of the night during an electrical storm. (May 2008)

The volcano triggered earth tremors, and shot an ash cloud two miles into the sky.

Here, the ash plume reaches all the way east to the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the entire continent of South America.

That is not snow behind these residents of the town of Chaiten, Chile. It is ash from the volcano that has blanketed everything in the region.

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In Chile, volcanoes are pretty much a fact of life, but this year they are making their presence felt in a big way. Chile has some 2000 volcanoes of which a large number of them are considered "active". Last year the Llaima volcano suddenly sprang to life and started to spew lava and ash into the sky, threatening nearby communities and generally disrupting normal life in the surrounding area. Llaima volcano is plainly visible from the front door of my Aunt's ranch in southern Chile's Lake Region. This year the volcano has again erupted threatening the area.

The pictures above are from the volcano near the southern town of Chaiten about a day's drive farther south from the Ranch. The Chaiten volcano suddenly erupted back on May 2, 2008. The last time this volcano erupted was back around 7400BC! It has since devastated the entire region and continues to do so keeping all the inhabitants of the town of Chaiten away from their homes for months since the Chilean government imposed a mandatory evacuation of the area. Some very good information on the Chaiten volcano and the surrounding area is available here: http://geology.com/events/chaiten-volcano/

I will be riding my motorcycle to the southern tip of South America this coming January and February (2009), and I will have to pass thru the area of the Chaiten volcano, or as close as the authorities will let me. I am very interested to see just how much impact the ash cloud has had on the area. This past February (2008) I was in the area surrounding the Llaima volcano and police and military had all roads leading to the base of the volcano blocked to all. I wanted to go to the Conguillio National Park, but was stopped about five miles from the area due to the activity of the Llaima volcano. We'll see what happens this year.

Dakar Rally 2009 To Be Held In Chile And Argentina

The Paris to Dakar Rally http://www.dakar.com/index_DAKus.html that has historically been held in Africa and Europe, will be held in the South American countries of Chile and Argentina. The reason for the change is due to security concerns after the death of four French tourists last year in Mauritius. Since I will be in Chile for the entire race, I will try to report on what I see, so keep watching this space.
Here is what Reuters had to report:

SANTIAGO, July 17 (Reuters) - Preparations for next year's Dakar rally in South America, staged for the first time outside Africa due to security concerns, are on schedule, deputy secretary of Chile Sports Jaime Pizarro said on Thursday..
"Preparations are progressing as planned," Pizarro told Reuters.
The 6,000 kms coast-to-coast race will begin and end in Buenos Aires with the Chilean port city of Valparaiso at the midpoint.
Organisers decided to move the event to South America after receiving what they believed to be terror threats and also the deaths of four French tourists in Mauritius in January.
Some 570 vehicles and 950 participants from 50 nations will drive along the route beginning on Jan. 3 and ending on Jan. 18. (Reporting by Claudio Cerda, writing by Lisa Yulkowski; Editing by John Mehaffey)

Annual Trip To EAA Airventue coming up

Time is getting short, and soon I will be pointing my K1200LT toward Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the largest Air Show in the USA. The week long event brings together thousands of people with thousands of aircraft of all kinds. From the smallest to the largest and everything in between.

The yearly event is held at the Whitman Regional Airport, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Whitman Regional Airport is the home of the Experimental Aircraft Association, and AirVenture is their largest yearly event. During the week long event, the control tower at Whitman Regional boasts "The Worlds Busiest Control Tower". If you go to AirVenture, don't forget to visit the excellent Aircraft Museum on the airport grounds as well as the Pioneer Airport. There is also a float plane base on nearby Lake Winnebago. If you enjoy camping, then the only place to stay is Camp Scholler, which is right on the airport grounds. The campground has just about every thing you could possibly need, from clean showers to a camp stores. This event is VERY well run! The event runs from July 28th to August 3rd. More info here: http://www.airventure.org/

This year I plan to take the same scenic route I took last year. Up to Toronto, Canada, then north toward Perry Sound, and probably find a campground there for the night. The following day, I will keep heading north toward the northern end of Georgian Bay. Last year I made it to Newberry, Michigan on the second day after crossing the border back into the United States at Sault Sainte Marie. The third day should find me going thru Green Bay, Wisconsin and finally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It's a beautiful ride.