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About Us: "Throttle
Forward"
By Ralph McCormick, Publisher
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Going to Oshkosh can be dangerous. For one
thing, if you’re not a pilot when you arrive, there is no doubt
that before the second day is over YOU WILL WANT TO BECOME A
PILOT. If you go to Oshkosh as a pilot, you will be burning with
desire to get home and FLY.
Watching the aerobatics will get your
adrenalin flowing. You either say, “I want to do that!” Or “I
can do that better.” It depends on where you sit.
Oshkosh AirVenture 2002 was loaded with
planes, excitement, noise, heat, rain, and lots of trash. From
the best I could count (of the 750,000 people who attended)
there were only four pilots in this country who didn’t travel to
Oshkosh. So for the four of you I write this column. |
Ralph McCormick: Oshkosh equipped. |
Often we don’t know what we do when we do it??? Doesn’t make
sense does it??? What I mean, for an example, is that when we
take a young kid flying and find out 10 years later he passes
his Private Pilot check ride. Would that same kid have become a
pilot if we hadn’t taken him/her flying several times??? There
are many instances of that which I could attest. Not all are
flying related.
One small event, which happened back in 1953, was when Paul
Pobersky and a few other pilots held a meeting of
‘Experimenters’. That one little meeting eventually turned into
an annual fly-in, the first one at Curtis Wright Field in
Milwaukee, WI. That one little fly-in turned into one heck of a
big fly-in, better known to the world as AirVenture 2002 at
Oshkosh. It was an insignificant meeting in 1953, with major
ramifications in regards to aviation today.
 This
event is now a multi-million dollar event. EAA (Experimental
Aircraft Association) is an extremely large cash flow
organization. That little fly-in/Experimenter Club is now one
humongous aviation corporation called the EAA which builds
pilots with the Young Eagles program, preserving Warbird and
flight freedoms, providing entertainment and education for
aviation and so much more.
As I mentioned earlier, one never knows when a small initiative
will turn into something large. All the more reason to step out
into the unknown and take the risk.
The most remarkable thing is that the trash from the thousands
of cokes and burgers will not be found on the ground. It is most
rare to find a coke cup that has been tossed on the ground. I
noticed that in 1983 and it is still true today. I am happy to
be part of a crowd of 750,000, that when we leave all trash is
in a receptacle, not on the ground.
EAA Aviation Foundation Sweepstakes winners:
Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee: Vernon Miller, S. Saint Paul, MN
Young Eagles Jaguar Raffle winner: Ted Kowalczyk, Chicago, IL
If your name was not mentioned in the above list, good luck next
year.
Have a safe flight..
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Throttle
Forward and Fly-Low!!
ralph@fly-low.com
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