Oshkosh Part 1

Again, i wrote this blog about a week ago, so you will have to go back in time.  I am calling this Oshkosh part 1 because I plan on writing about the rest of the air show and the trip home.  Thats the plan anyway:)  Hope you like it.   

So I am in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at the biggest airshow in the world.  It took us 3 days to get up here due to a combination of blown tires, news interviews, and people unwilling to drive late into the night, not to mention the people who could not manage to drink less. However, despite all the crazy turns our trip took, we managed to overcome our obstacles and arrive safely.

We set up the booth with all 5 of our Mavericks on Sunday morning and when we got back later in the afternoon we tried to relax some.  We were all so exhausted from the trip not to mention the past several months of working incredibly long hours.  I must say that I am not included in the long hours.  I rarely work on the Mavericks so I was more of a hindrance that a help in the Maverick shop. Automotive Mechanics is not that foreign to me, but this is an aircraft so it is a bit more important that things are done correctly, and I am not as adept at mechanics as I am at construction.  

Monday, the air show began.  The early crew got there around 8 am to put the final touches to our booth and get the Mavericks ready to display when the doors officially opened at 9.  Because we are the only flying car in production not to mention that the Maverick is plain out cool, our booth is constantly flooded with people.   After mentioning how amazed I was at the amount of people in our booth, I was informed that this was a slow day.  Quite the thing you want to hear when you repeatedly tell everyone every awesome thing you know about the Maverick.  I must say, I am becoming quite the salesman, every time I talk to someone new, I sound more and more professional.

           

Our booth is right across the taxiway from the War Birds.  And since we are celebrating 100 years of Naval aviation (1911-2011) there are hundreds of the most incredible planes pulling in right near our booth.  I really like the old military planes, they are all huge! Every time I walk up to the engine I realize that each blade on the prop is almost as long as I am tall, and some are even longer than that.

Tuesday evening we brought the original Maverick home with us.  We are flying at the air show Friday or Saturday morning and we wanted to give it a check ride and make sure that it was fit to fly since we haven’t flown it in a few months.  There is a guy who has a private airstrip on his farm about 3 or 4 miles away that we took off from.  It was great, Troy did the test flight and it flew wonderfully.

This morning we woke up to quite a bit of rain.  It wasn’t too hard, but it had been raining all night and didn’t stop till about 2 in the afternoon.  I rode in the Maverick with Jamie while Steve drove it back to our booth.  There were several very important things that were in the tent that were wet.  For one, the computer that was set up with the Maverick simulator was sitting in a puddle of water, for two, someone’s backpack was left open with a laptop and iPad and both were damp.  And for 3, several books were wet and our white Maverick T shirts got wet and the color is all smudged in the material.

After we were all set up, it was still drizzling, and only a few people were in the booth so I went and walked around to see the planes.  I went from plane to plane admiring each one and enjoying the time by myself in the rain and relatively quite time.  As I looked at planes, jets, helicopters, and visited each booth and pricing flying equipment that I plan to get as soon as I have my license, I spent that time thinking.  I had gone with Steve to park the cars in the lots and as we walked back I asked a question I really wanted to ask for a while.  I wondered what I did or didn’t do that made him get impatient with me.  I asked the question in more detail and with some examples but that is basically what I was asking.

           

For an answer I got more of a life lesson, and definitely not what I expected at all.  I have spent a lot of time wondering whether I should bring anything up or whether I should just deal with it, but to my utter shame, I thought he would be apologetic and sympathetic and understanding ,so I brought it up.  I have some how come to this point where I think that I am right, and invincible, not weak in any way, have a good work ethic, and not easily swayed by anything.

Steve pointed out some things about me that I have been refusing to see, I honestly didn’t even realize that I had been turning a blind eye.  In the circle of guys I hang with now, I can be swayed so that I stay in their good books and remain a “friend”.  I also realized that these past few weeks, my work ethic has plummeted, I dislike even mentioning it cause it is quite a blow to realize that I am letting down the men and women that have taught me to work.  This is on a much different scale than I remember, because God raises bar in our lives all the time and I have been taught to realize when God does that, and I missed it this time.

But most of all, the most painful, yet most obvious is the realization that I have weaknesses and that I am not invincible.  I don’t mean that I would survive a bullet to the head.  What I mean is that I thought that I was strong morally and spiritually on all fronts, there was nothing that could get to me.  I could withstand any attack the enemy throws at me, no matter which angle.  I am just as likely to fall as the next man, I don’t like having weaknesses, and like even less admitting the fact. But it is the truth.

           

I write all this for several reasons. First and foremost is that I need prayer.  And I will give some specifics here.  1.) Please pray that I would be more faithful with reading my bible. I tend to be on and off with it.  And I continually tell myself that I am too busy.  That is a lame excuse and should not be tolerated, we would never dream of getting up in the morning and not brushing our teeth, therefore I should not leave for work without reading my bible.   2.) Pray for my medical to come through.  After all the loops I have jumped through to get this medical I can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.  I met with the medical examiner I met at Sun-N-Fun and he send it into the FAA.  However just this past weekend the FAA was on the news and they are going through a bit of a crisis of some sort, the details of which I will spare you so you don’t get too bored.  

           

To all the people that have invested in my life: I promise to work harder to remember what you taught me and to walk the straight and narrow and to walk constantly with Christ in sight without anything getting between me and Him.  I love all of you so much and cant wait to see you all again.  

Your brother in Christ,

Austin