Get Rid Of Warbirds At Oshkosh

I like the idea it is a good one. No right now the guys on scooters are not
allowed on the taxiways only the ramps my guess that is directed by the
insurance guys.

Dave Zera
Co-Chair
Safety/Flight Line
AirVenture
"Scott" wrote in message
.. .
And just out of curiosity, were there any ground marshallers along the
taxiway to help keep traffic from getting too close and keeping an eye on
things? We all know forward visibility is very poor on most warbirds and
it seems like they should have an escort from a guy on a scooter to be a
set of "remote eyes". Just a thought.

Scott


Kyle Boatright wrote:
"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...

snip

Warbirds, you are not welcome at Oshkosh.

Jim


To me, the warbirds are very welcome, as is everyone else until all the
parking fills up. What happened yesterday was simple pilot error, and
could have been avoided by taking more preventative measures. One idea
would be to let groups of warbirds depart once an hour. If you fly a
warbird and have it fired up and ready to taxi at 0:10 before the hour,
you get to depart with the group of warbirds that leaves on the hour.
Yep, it'll be an inconvenience to some, but if everyone knows the
procedures, it won't be the nightmare of mixing the warbirds with the
spam. As someone who flies an RV, I don't like taxiing and departing with
warbirds or jets. The warbirds leave a fair amount of wake turbulence if
you're following one, and have the nasty combination of a big prop and
poor visibility. Taxiing behind a jet (I got stuck behind one for 20
minutes yesterday) is miserable. Even if you're 50 or 100 yards back,
your airplane rocks back and forth due to the jet blast and it smells
like you've stuck your head inside a kerosene heater for the entire time.

As far as obnoxious warbird flyers go, there are plenty of other people
who are just as obnoxious. A pet peeve of mine is the guys doing
formation work (frequently RV's, but I've seen it done in everything from
ultralights on up) who don't think twice about doing a 4 ship overhead
break without much regard for other aircraft in the pattern. The
attitude seems to be similar to the warbird guys - announce what you're
going to do and expect everyone else to adapt.

KB

"David J. Zera" wrote in message
...
I like the idea it is a good one. No right now the guys on scooters are
not
allowed on the taxiways only the ramps my guess that is directed by the
insurance guys.

It is my understanding that the only thing keeping them off the taxiways is
the fact that all vehicles on active taxiways are required to have a yellow
flashing light above them. Put a pole up from them and mount a light, and
there you go!

Check on that, if you will. You might be able to get that going.

As far as the wing sitters go, I think insurance will be more likely to
prohibit that practice, than bikes on the taxiways. Plus, if you polled the
warbird drivers, and asked them how many would be willing to let someone sit
on their wing, I'll bet MOST of them would say, "NO Way!" Might leave a
dent, or scratch the paint, or ..... Fill in the blank.
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...
As far as the wing sitters go, I think insurance will be more likely to
prohibit that practice, than bikes on the taxiways. Plus, if you polled
the
warbird drivers, and asked them how many would be willing to let someone
sit
on their wing, I'll bet MOST of them would say, "NO Way!" Might leave a
dent, or scratch the paint, or ..... Fill in the blank.
--
Jim in NC

Can't really say, but the pilots I know personally I think would say that
the scratches and dents obtained by plowing into that Pitts up there under
the nose might require a bit more work to rehab than the risk of someone
scratching the paint on the tip.
We always put out the word before hand to potential wingtip sitters that we
preferred them to have nothing in their back pockets and no rivets or jeans
were encouraged. We never had a problem getting people to do this for us.
Oshkosh might be another matter however, because of the sheer density of the
operation. People wanting to serve as sitters would need prior notification
that's for sure.
But its all academic really. The lawyers advising the insurance people will
most likely shoot down the tip riders anyway :-)
Dudley