Pilgrimage to Mecca complete for 2015

My 27th trip to Oshkosh ended with me in my usual happy/sad state.  Can't believe it's over for a year, but my daily routine of getting up at 4:00 am in order to be at the show when the gates open at 6:00 has worn me down.  I'm toast physically, but mentally I'm fired up to work on the -12.  Great photo gallery here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eaaairventureoshkosh/    From that link, a P-51, P-38 and F-35 fly in formation.

The highlights of the week were getting my 5th flight in an RV-12 and attending every forum Burt Rutan gave.  Burt officially presented his latest (and last, he says) design, the SkiGull.  He had planned to fly it to the show, but didn't quite make it.  Can't wait to see it next year.  The plane will, according to Burt, land on snow, dirt, pavement and water, with water being its preferred habitat.  It uses a pneumatically actuated pair of skis which pop down during the take-off run, lifting the hull clear of the water.  The skis are extended for water landing to absorb shock.  Apparently, it will handle ocean landings, allowing the owner to land, then taxi up onto a beach.

On the builder front, the big news is that the Mothership has given their blessing to using a split bulkhead behind the baggage compartment.  Van did this on his personal RV-12 and most people building E-AB did it, but until now those of us building SLSA couldn't.  Without this, the builder must remove the fuel tank for each yearly condition inspection.

The RV-12 shown is one of the most beautiful I've seen.  The builder has a Cobra painted the same color.