Oshkosh Bound! - F1 Rocket Hangar

Finally after many long years of not being able to get to Oshkosh, this year I was able to return, and Dang! It sure felt good to back! I was also fortunate (and grateful) to have my wife come along for a week of adventure. This was her first time to Oshkosh and it absolutely surpassed her expectations, even overwhelming at times. She had a blast, we’re still happily married and she even said she would go back again some day (just not next year!).

The first order of business once I got into the show was to find the homebuilt area, specifically to find the F1 and S-51 displays. F1 Aircraft was the first one I came across, and you certainly couldn’t miss Darryl Hudec’s beautiful plane proudly displayed out front of the display.

Cockpit

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What a beautiful job on blending the horizontal stab and elevator tip fairings.

Another subtle thing I noticed was that the wing root fairings showed no fasteners!

Darryl also spent a lot of time fabricating a lovely canopy. Rather than the standard aluminum canopy skirt, this one is all laid-up with Carbon fiber. The fit is perfect and again, shows no fasteners.

Another subtlety I noted was the little canopy track cover plate below. By taking off this little metal strip, Darryl is able to remove the canopy while in the full aft position. This is smart!!

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Bob Baker’s IO-550 Fire Breather

Also displayed, was Bob Baker’s IO-550 Fire Breathing Dragon, which is powered by a RAM IO-550. For those of you who aren’t familiar with RAM Aircraft Engines, let’s just say, they produce one hell of a Continental engine.

RAM was founded in 1976 by mechanics and engineers with a focus on improving Twin Cessna aircraft. They naturally progressed into overhauling Continental 520 series engines that powered the Cessna Twins. This lead to a decades long evolution of refining the Continental 520/550 series of engines and the Cessna, Beechcraft and Cirrus airplanes they power resulting in hundreds of RAM designed STCs and PMA parts.

The Canadian Rockets!

It was also really good to see my fellow Canadian F1 owners made an appearance at the show. Even better was that they’re both from Alberta (The Rocket Capital of Canada!).

This next F1 belongs to Erick O’Connor (hom409 on IG) and it’s a fine example of the F1 Rocket. This F1 probably has the best panel I’ve seen in any Rocket. This is definitely what I’m planning to install in mine one day (more or less).