07/24/01 - National Blue Beret, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

I left Oregon at 8pm on the 22nd, and arrived in Wisconsin at 9am the next day, after 2 connecting flights. (And boy, are his arms tired... -Ed)  We had to make two passes, as the air traffic was so thick at Whitman field in Oshkosh you could nearly walk from plane to plane on final.

Well, this time I was 0 for 2.  No luggage, and no pickup.  Of course I had made sure to walk the camera up to the plane before it was checked, but nothing else made it here to OSH. Ouch.

I’ve been here twice before so I knew the layout.  I filled out my missing baggage report, and hopped the airfield shuttle to the Blue Beret compound to check in.  My luggage was supposed to be on the next flight in, but of course, it wasn't.   I wound up walking to the nearby WalMart for essentials until my luggage shows up.

Today I checked again for my luggage, and one of the two bags has arrived, of course it’s the one that doesn’t have the clothes I need.  The rest is supposed to arrive tonight.

Since I'm here to shoot video, I had to get cracking.  This is a massive airshow. Planes everywhere.  It’s always glorious to see 12 P-51’s in a row, and the countless other warbirds and assorted planes that find their way here.  There’s never a dull moment as just a moment ago an F-15 flew by and then a couple passes by an attack helicopter.   Once my gear arrives I’ll be able to go out and film the cadets taxiing the aircraft on the flight line, and tag along on some ELT searches.

LIVE UPDATE I was just told that there was a plane crash and the pilot was killed, though they don’t know what type of plane it was…  Well, I’ll continue this later... the plane is at the farthest end of one of the runways, but I’ll try to get some information.  Turns out it was a homebuilt experimental.

I plan to get as much footage of cadets in action here as possible,  The cadets have already gone through their training, but this is one giant show, so setting up some key shots shouldn’t be too hard.  I'll also go and film the EAA museum that the cadets get to tour.

Scott