We’re about to go exploring Sault Ste Marie but I wanted to take a few minutes to share some of the photos I finally got time to download. First is my expression just after a flight of P-51s had arrived at Oshkosh on Monday. 🙂
1307 P-51 Mustangs at Oshkosh
A kid was staring at this next one asking aloud to nobody in particular, “Where does the pilot sit?” “On the ground,” I replied. After our brief ensuing conversation I paused to stare at it myself, imagining the ability of this machine to watch without being seen and strike without warning. How the world has changed since the P-51, eh? Back in 1945 that plane was scary because you could see and hear it, yet now it is music and art for aviation enthusiasts.
1319 Drone
What will our world be like in 65 years? Will people painstakingly restore, maintain and fly these for adoring fans when the military has long since moved on to something vastly more scary?
One of the big events for this year’s Oshkosh was to be a mass C-47 flyover. This was another great WWII plane, starting with flying relief supplies over the mountains to China before the U.S. entered the war and culminating in providing the foundation for Allied logistics at Normandy where they again carried supplies and also pulled troop-laden gliders. After the war it was known and loved by many as the DC-3, owned by celebrities like John Wayne (who also flew his), and is still in service around the world. Again my imagination turned to pausing on the beach at Normandy for a moment of reassurance at the sight of reinforcements going to parachute behind German lines.
1320 C-47 Flyover
Here’s the one I mentioned before was using a smoke generator that alarmed some non-aviation observers. I imagined some having been dragged to the show by fanatic loved ones, and others like Anne who had caught the fly bug to become fascinated themselves.
1322 C-47 Smoke Trail
There’s a treat at Oshkosh many people miss: the seaplane base. Just 15 minutes from all the crowds, concrete and stimulation is a quiet wooded lake where people mix air and water.
1336 Seaplane OSH
Click to enlarge and you might make out the mass of planes floating in the distance. This view shows perhaps 1/5 of the planes there, with more arriving regularly. Back at the land OSH base there had been team after team of aerobatic jets arriving, so the weekend show that we’ll miss is sure to be spectacular.
Here are some snaps of the glorious P-51 that was buzzing the runway back at FDL as we were packing up Tripp.
8574 Here Comes Fun!
8578 Speed & Grace
This one was further away than some passes, and even panning with the plane at 1/800th of a second there’s motion blur. With the thrilling speed and distinctive music of the engine, there’s a special grace in the way this plane dances in the air. Can you tell this is one of my fav planes? Sigh…
Here’s a snap Anne took as we climbed up near FDL to have a look at the cloud situation before deciding whether (and in which direction) to circumvent the storm toward our upcoming Canada leg.
1348 FDL Departure
I’ve added a yellow oval just below the white hangar just right of lower-center in the pic, to show where Tripp had been parked with our tent beneath her wing. You can just make out the other planes still parked on the grass along the taxiway and stuffed into the area around the terminal building at the left edge, but you can’t see the hordes of planes parked along the intersecting runway out of frame to the left.
Last is this shot of Escanaba as we began to approach the Great Lakes intersection town of Sault Ste. Marie.
8607 Escanaba
Well, this quick post turned into quite a photoessay, eh? We’re off to explore…
John & Anne Wiley 
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