7/29-8/3 Oshkosh Fly-In

The team was invited to Oshkosh to showcase their work. They went around to different press events as well as "Teachers' Day" at the museum. It was an extremely busy week, but a lot of fun too!

The "North 40"-Look close there are a couple of thousand planes here.

We camped all week and the weather was just about perfect.

Various "Press" events.

The kids' finished "Sportsman" airplanes at the GAMA/Build-a-Plane booth.

Builders' placard inside each airplane.

Some of the sights of Oshkosh. Nowhere else on the planet do you have the diversity of aircraft in one place at one time.

6-29-13 Day 13 (Last Full Day in Arlington)

Today we took Dustan and Aidan back to the airport so that they could fly home to Michigan so we spent a couple of hours in Seattle doing the tourist things. Then we came back up to Arlington to watch Plane #1 make it's maiden flight. It flies like a champ but they still have some avionics bugs to work out. Great job! Tomorrow the rest of us fly back to Michigan.

6-28-13 Day 12

Today was devoted to getting plane #1 ready for the DAR (Designated Airworthiness Representative) inspection from the FAA. Once we pass this the plane becomes an official airworthy vehicle. The DAR came in at around 2:00 in the afternoon and by 3:30 we had passed and had an aircraft that we could begin to fly once we put the inspection covers back on and tied up a few loose ends. This was also the last official day of the build so we celebrated by taking some group pictures.

For more pictures of our build please see Dustan Muir's Flickr Page

6-27-13 Day 11

We did it! The plane was taxied today!

We started out the day with a continuation of our composite structures lesson.

Then we got to work.

The plane during the taxi.

We celebrated the taxi with a bar-b-q lunch. For more pictures of our build please see Dustan Muir's Flickr Page

6-26-13 Day 10

We started off the day with a lesson in the relative strength of composite construction versus aluminum construction and how easy it is to repair a composite structure versus repairing aluminum. Very cool!

Later on in the day we were working frantically to get the "taxi" in-but it didn't happen. We got close but we weren't ready today.

A crew shot.

We also got some press from the Arlington Times. Check out the link: Newspaper Article For more pictures of our build please see Dustan Muir's Flickr Page

6-25-13 Day 9

Today the kids were finishing up on the engine section on the first airplane and the avionics techs were trying to finish up wiring the first plane. The goal is to taxi plane one tomorrow. From my vantage point I don't think that we'll make it-but these guys have pulled off miracles before. Also today Everett Mellish flew in with his beautiful floatplane. He told the kids that they could get a ride as long as he got a few minor items fixed. Consider it mission accomplished!

For more pictures of our build please see Dustan Muir's Flickr Page