Air Show in Oshawa

It's Saturday, June 21^st and it's kind of a cloudy day. We arrived at the airport at about 11 am. Not much was happening, the air show was supposed to start at 3 pm. Now it was just the exhibition: various air planes for sale, new and used, old planes, commercial and military. Beside this, 10 minute helicopter tours for $55/person. On the runway planes are taking off and landing continuously. Some are old planes, some are acrobatic preparing for the later show and beside this, the regular traffic.

Oshawa Airport is one of the major general aviation airports in the Greater Toronto Area. It includes two paved runways (1.2 km long) and instrument approaches. The airport is classified as an airport of entry by NAV CANADA and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency. CBSA officers at this airport currently can handle aircraft with no more than 50 passengers. Oshawa hosts the annual Canadian Aviation Expo, Canada's largest annual aviation event.

The exhibits are generally aircrafts with 2-4 seats but a few are bigger, up to 10 seats. One caught my attention: it was a four seater with shower cabin, toilette and kitchenette. And it's timeshared: $80.000 upfront and $200/month for maintenance and you get 73 days/year. It will be available starting next year. They now have only one prototype. For now you can have another timeshared: the DA40 Diamond aircraft without shower and kitchenette but for about $58.000 (http://www.lead-air.com/comparecosts.php).

Another interesting airplane was a combination airplane-glider (motorglider). This one had a folding propeller. So you can take off using the engine and after this go on glider mode shutting down the engine and folding the propeller. On cruise, fuel consumption was only 4.5 gallons/hour which is nice. Basically the length of the flight was limited only by your bladder! Of course, if you're in a hurry or in bad weather you'll have to use the engine. The maximum altitude was 30.000 feet (in glider mode) but the pilot owning this plane wanted to go for a record of 45.000 feet next year.

I had no idea that you can buy a kit Aircraft! Well, yes! For a minimum amount of money you can start buying parts. You don't have to buy everything at once. It seems that it will take you at least 500 hours of your time. And at the end, to have everything you need, including navigation, it will cost you around $50.000. But, for this amount of money you'll have your own self-made airplane. A two seater with an engine about 100-125 HP. There are basically two choices: STOL CH 701 Sport Utility Kit Aircraft with very short take-off and landing performance and Zenith Zodiac XL 601 with speed up to 220 km/h (see http://www.can-zacaviation.com/).

A well represented company was Cirrus (http://www.cirrusdesign.com/) with 4 seaters starting from $215.000 up to $446.600 depending on the performance of the airplane. Interesting is also the The-Jet prototype (V1). Piper was also there (http://www.piper.com/) with 4 seaters and a 6 seater starting from $757.000 (Piper Malibu Matrix).

The French company Air Creation (http://aircreation.ca/; http://www.aerotrekking.com/handcrafted2.asp) was represented with Tanarg products: 2 seaters delta flexwing machines, probably the cheapest way to fly! Off course you're going to fly only in good weather... It's a flying motorcycle: a tricycle.

The Air Show started at 3 pm and we saw all the products exposed flying and with all the specifications explained during the flight. The most interesting part of the show was the acrobatic flight. Patty Wagstaff , three times US National Aerobatic Champion, was the star of the show (http://www.pattywagstaff.com/). Part of the show was also the evolution of a Spitfire Mark IX and a Hurricane Mk IV.

April 11, 2008, the day of my last trip with a big truck: because of a herniated disk I had to quit. All I have left is memories after more than 4 years in trucking and half million km... I've been pretty much everywhere in USA and Canada, I drove through mountains and prairies, deserts, forests, cities and wilderness, sunny days and winter storms... I'll try to write about this experience in time, the things I've seen and lived. How I got lost a few times, stuck under an unexpected low bridge, dead end, narrow yard residential area or once, on railway tracks! Less of this in the last three years because I had GPS and MS Streets and Trips (helped o lot). I carried in my truck everything: dry or refrigerated food, auto parts, flowers or even agricultural fertilizer I found out at the border is radioactive! Luckily it was not over the legal limit. When I got to the delivery place I ask the people working there if they know about the radioactivity thing: they had no idea! They were not wearing any protective equipment and they were working 10 hours a day in that atmosphere loaded with radioactive dust... This was at the beginning of my trucking career somewhere in Pennsylvania, I don't remember where. Never been there again... I remember being in places with nice and interesting people or nasty receivers or shippers. Some of the worst places I've been: Toys'r'us, the record for waiting time - 34 hours or Loblaws Mississauga over 24 hours.

I've been driving single or team. For me it was best to drive single. I couldn't sleep while somebody else was driving. That's why I felt asleep while driving team two times. But it seems I'm a very lucky person: I had no accident! After this happened for the second time I quit driving team. The last three years I drove single. Problem was: you don't get long trips if you're single. So in the last 3 years I've been only twice in Vancouver or California. And to be honest: this were the trips I liked most. I guess now I'm an expert in East Coast and Mid-West! For a period of time I did New York City and for another period New York state, New Hampshire and Vermont. Nice if it's not winter... Hills in Pennsylvania are not so easy in winter especially Binghamton area.

In some of my trips I took a camera with me, so if you check my pictures links, you could see some of the places I've been. Unfortunately, many pictures I had were lost when my hard drive broke down before I had the chance to save them. For others I need more time to upload on the web. We'll see...