I just came back from a meeting at EAA with Tom Poberezny, and Adam Smith, Museum Director. What an incredible meeting! I hope you are all sitting down!

We changed the name of the event from "Year of the Zenith" to "Zeniths to Oshkosh."

Thursday is Burt Rutan Day, Wednesday is Navy Aviation day, Tuesday is Bob Hoover Day, and Monday will be designated as “Chris Heintz” day! Monday will be one of the biggest days because of the Ford Motor Company bringing in REO Speedwagon!

EAA will be giving us parking for 50 airplanes (5 rows of 10). Tom says if we go over 50, not to worry, EAA will try to get us a little more space. We are looking at 2 spots on the field, and as soon as I have more information from EAA, I will post a map of the field with our location.

On Monday, July 25th late in the morning, somewhere around 11:00 AM, EAA would like one of each of Chris's designs to come to the Aeroshell Square for a group photo and a presentation to Chris from Tom Poberezny. After the celebration, Tom would like to have planes fly the circuit on runway 18/36 for a flight display with someone from Zenith as a spokesperson at the announcers stand! Then after the Zenith parade, the aircraft can go back to their original parking area.

There have been many members volunteering to be in the homebuilders showcase. Zenith will interview each volunteer and set pilot requirement. We may have to use some sort of lottery system!

EAA wants to do a feature article on Chris for the EAA Newspaper and for Sport Aviation. EAA would like Chris to give a speech at the Homebuilders Hangar sometime during the week.

EAA will be working on some kind of a jacket patch to honor Zenith pilots that flew their airplanes in. They are doing that for the Rutan planes too.

EAA discourages private companies giving awards for best of anything. However, they encourage participation awards. Maybe we can work up some kind of plaque with the pictures of your plane on it. They did that for me when I had my Ercoupe. This is something we can think of a few months down the road.

We will be putting up a central page on the Zenith website we can all go and get more information on the Oshkosh event.

There are two very large indoor places that will hold 300+ people for meetings, dinner parties, etc, right on the grounds of EAA. The nice part is Robbins Restaurant is licensed to cater on the grounds of EAA. So if it looks like we might outgrow our builder’s dinner, we might be able to have it at EAA and keep the same restaurant! More on this in a couple of weeks.

VERY IMPORTANT

WE HAVE 10 ROOMS LEFT AT GRUENHAGEN HALL! Gruenhagen Hall is the college dorm at UWO. These rooms are nice, they have 2 beds, and they are only $55 per day! The nice part is the transportation. Busses run all day long and will pick you up at the university and drop you off right at Oshkosh tower! I reserved 30 rooms a while back for Zenith builders and enthusiasts. There are 30 rooms to a floor so we can all be together. Here is the bad news. They want all reservations turned in by Friday! They have over 100 EAA members on a waiting list!

Here is what I need form you. If you would like a room at Gruenhagen, you can call me at 920-237-1450, or E-mail me your name, phone, address, and credit card number.

If you want to park your plane in the Zenith Showcase, send me your name, address, N number, phone number. We have 15 airplanes confirmed so far.

If you are a Zenith builder or enthusiast not bringing your airplane to Oshkosh, but would like to keep up with activities, send me your E-mail address to backstagelive@gmail.com.

5 months to go!

Joe Scheibinger
2809 Scenic Drive
Oshkosh, WI 54904

920-237-1450
backstagelive@gmail.com