Back to The Year 2001 in Review!

      Show me the pictures! (I'll read this stuff later)...

Great weather (at least Wednesday thru Friday) and lots of excitement were the standard fare for Chapter members who were able to visit Oshkosh during AirVenture 2001.

Chapter 174's website editor, Norm Beaudette, picked up third place honors among all EAA chapter web editors.  In a ceremony honoring top finishing web editors as well as newsletter editors and outstanding Major Achievement recipients, awards were presented by master of ceremonies Mort Crim and EAA staff.

Chapter member Paul Gould's Aeronca Chief won the Classic Reserve Grand Champion Award!  Those of us who've seen Paul's masterpiece (6 years in the making) weren't at all surprised.  You can read about Paul's Millenium Chief in the March Newsletter. And visit the Ohio Aeronca Aviators site for more great pictures!

It wasn't difficult to get to listen to or even talk with some of aviation's living legends, including Chuck Yeager, Bud Anderson and Charles E. McGee.  Most could occasionally be found rambling through the crowds enjoying the event like the rest of us.  And all were happy to provide an autograph if asked.

This year AeroShell Square was graced with legends of the past, including the Vickers Vimy replica Silver Queen and the completely renovated Boeing 307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying Cloud.

Daily flights of the huge C-17 Globemaster III were an extraordinary sight.  But it was after landing that the C-17 really stole the show.  Requiring only 3000 feet of paved runway, the Globemaster would land and then taxi backwards!  And it can even turn on a dime - try that in your Cessna!  The airplane is equipped with the latest technology, including fly-by-wire (computerized) controls, but requires a crew of only three!  The C-17 sports four Pratt & Whitney F117 engines - the same model engines found on the Boeing 757 - and cruises at 450 kts at 28,000 ft.  Gross weight is 585,000 lbs.

Sean Tucker and Patty Wagstaff kept the crowd gasping with their death defying aerobatics. If that didn't get your attention, daily fly-bys of a pair of B-1B bombers certainly did - not to mention daily air races and formation flying by squadrons of T-6s and Beech T-34s!

Van's Aircraft had their new RV-7 and RV-9A on display at one of the busiest vendor stands at the show.  And here's the really big news - during one of his talks, Van revealed that he's considering designing a four-place RV!