A Berkut Perspective

-click images to view full size-

Our trip to Oshkosh began with a very generous offer from Jerry Parrish (Builder #27) . Since Jerry just added twin girls to his family, he decided he wouldn’t be able to make Oshkosh this year and offered his airplane to us for the trip. We gladly accepted and departed for the midwest the Saturday preceeding Oshkosh. Our first stop, 4 hours, 40 minutes and 1000 nm later, was North Platte, NE where it was a “mild” 100 degrees. Since we hadn’t any place to stay in Oshkosh until Sunday, we stayed overnight here and left the next morning with the hopes of being able to pass a budding storm system in Minnesota.

We started out early and picked our way across Nebraska and up through Iowa, keeping the menace to our north. Thanks to Ric Lee’s (Builder #49) Mountain High Oxygen system we climbed to 17,500 feet to fly over building storms and on into Oshkosh where it was sultry to say the least. With our Sunday arrival, we were able to taxi Jerry’s plane right to the booth and with the help of some gentlemen from Taiwan who arrived early, put Jerry’s airplane under the tent.

We picked up our car and were heading out to secure the house we were renting when we got a call from Rob Cherney (Builder #28) and his friend Howard Calk who had just arrived from Maryland in their Long-EZ. We picked them up and unloaded their plane just as the storm we flew by in Minnesota arrived in Oshkosh.

Monday was setup day but it rained in the morning so we waited until afternoon before arriving at the booth for setup. With the help of a few souls who stopped by to see us, including Ric Lee and Patrick Nerger (Builder #47) we got everything in place at set up by the end of the day.

The booth setup ended up working out very well. On our Berkut model we had a six-cylinder liquid-cooled engine called Cool Jugs from Liquid Cooled Air Power and representatives from the company to answer questions about the engine. Jerry’s airplane was prominently displayed in the middle of the tent. Tuesday afternoon saw the arrival of John Sapp’s (Builder #21) engine from Ron Monson at Performance Aero Engines. John had ordered this engine from Ron and had it delivered to Oshkosh for our booth and for him to take home from the show. The engine drew a lot of attention and was also equipped with a dual electronic ignition system from Klaus Savier at Light Speed Engineering, so Klaus sent people over to see how the system was installed.

Our builder’s bubbaque was Wednesday night and we had 25 people present including several builders. It was a nice time and there was plenty of food. The party wrapped up around 11:00 pm.

Builders at the party included Steve Drybread, Glenn Waters (#3), Tom Galles (#5), Bill Haas (#8), John Sapp (#21), Scott Charlton (#24), Rob Cherney (#28), Patrick Nerger (#47), Ric, but unfortunately no Shari, Lee (#49), and Jerrold Jorritsma (#54). Builders who were at Oshkosh but unable to attend the festivities included Wayne Peterson (#34), Charles Bracken (#39), and Brenda and Michael Vonic (#57).

For the most part, we were very happy with the traffic through the booth and the interest generated. Though the number of people seemed down this year, but more of the people who came through the booth seemed to be seriously interested and not just tire kickers. With the exception of the first and last day, the weather was perfect and in the 70’s for the most part. We couldn’t have asked for better. The worst part of Oshkosh was neither Dave or I was able to leave the booth for any significant period of time until Sunday afternoon and Monday, so there was a lot of the show we didn’t see. Also by the time Sunday rolled around, we were getting a bit tired.

Most of you know Dick Rutan flew to Oshkosh in his Long-EZ equipped with a Cool Jugs four-cylinder engine. Just before leaving for Oshkosh, Dick flew his Rocket-Powered Long-EZ for a short flight and brought the video tape by the booth for us to see. The airplane is powered by two 400-lb thrust rocket engines. The airplane was trucked to Oshkosh and attracted quite the crowd. Upon its return home, Dick will continue his efforts in this area. Please excuse the poor picture quality, it was all that was available.

Sunday saw the departure of John Sapp’s engine from the booth and onto his truck for the drive to Cedar Rapids. John and his engine arrived safely.

Sunday afternoon and Monday allowed for Dave and I to take a look at other vendors at Oshkosh and we found a few things we thought might be of interest to those of you who were not able to attend. Two items in the avionics arena attracted the attention of several builders and we were impressed with both.

One is the EFIS/One from Blue Mountain Avionics, a glass cockpit with integrated GPS, airport database, charts, engine monitoring, and other instruments. The instrument is 8” x 9.5” x 4”. The item comes with a number sensors and replaces a number of instruments by combining them into one. The introductory price at Oshkosh was $8800.

Another very impressive piece of avionics is manufactured by Dynon Development . The model EFIS-D10 includes 10 instruments in one unit with no moving parts. The instrument measures 4” x 3.4” x 7 and will fit into a standard 3 1/8” hole. An optional item is a heated pitot tube providing angle of attack information, as well as a static port. The instrument is expected to be available in December for $2500.

Monday afternoon was the end of the show and the day the booth came down. Jerry’s airplane left quite an impression and a nice photo opportunity. Dave and I departed on Tuesday morning, took our time returning to the shop, and enjoyed a few much-needed days to ourselves.