Oshkosh Beware: ANN's Editorial Team is Set to Invade!

ANN is fielding a BIG team of industry experts, writers and airplane geeks next week as we beat Wittman Field black and blue in search of "REALLY COOL AIRPLANE STORIES."

It's a sad tale actually, because the truth is that ANN is pretty much comprised of airplane geeks in search of an aviation fix -- folks who are totally unsuitable for REAL jobs...  and just seem to kinda flock to us in droves. Those of them that can pass the company aptitude test (how many fingers am I holding up?), make the grade, and learn to live in poverty from airshow to airshow... in hopes that fame and fortune may finally come their way. Because this is aviation, we know that some dreams are just meant to be shattered <grin>.

OK... enough of the silliness, over the next few days, we'll be profiling some of ANN's most experienced veterans and some of the newbies that will be part of our intense aero-coverage next week. In actuality, they're all really cool people, who make us quite proud, but we don't tell them that because if we did, they might ask for food, or raises, or something.

Herewith, some of ANN's Oshkosh 2003 Special Coverage editorial team...

ANN Oshkosh Veteran (In More Ways Than One...) Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien

Kevin O'Brien is a multi-talented individual. If only any of that talent were for aviation writing! We keep him around in dimming hope that he will some day be useful. Seriously, though, he grew up in a flying family. Medically disqualified from flying in the military, he wound up jumping out of planes instead and qualified for Special Forces by the simple expedient of dating the gal that ran the opthalmology lab. Yeah, there was training and stuff, but the hardest part was getting a guy for whom the big "E" was a blur, certified at 20/20. It's typical of Hognose that his solution was unconventional, contravened numerous regulations (he thought Tony Kern's Darker Shades of Blue: the Rogue Pilot was a bio of him), and was plenty of fun at the same time.

After leaving the Army in 1987, he stayed in the Reserves and Guard while having a number of entertaining professions. He taught school, wrote manuals and designed interfaces for a machine tool company, learned network engineering, participated in a few startups, made and lost a fortune. He sits on corporate boards and still is hanging on in the Guard, which rewarded him with an all-expenses-almost-paid trip to Afghanistan in 2002/2003. One weekend a month, my eye. The deployment drove a stake in the heart of his own network design company, so now he's trying to decide what to do when he grows up.

He says he can just barely fly. Even with an airplane. We know better.

Klyde Morris Creator/Cartoonist Wes Oleszewski

For security reasons Wes' bio has been confiscated by the TSA and added to their secret list of bios that could pose a possible security threat to undisclosed areas.

Persons requesting Wes' bio, knowing what is in Wes' bio, reading Wes' bio, or thinking that Wes should have a bio, will be added to the TSA's secret list of suspected probable threats to something and considered to be suspected co-conspirators in unknown threats and may have their airman's certificates revoked for secret reasons.

Meet Klyde Morris "Creator" Wes Oleszewski at Oshkosh Fly Market Display Area #802!

ANN Veteran Juan Jimenez

ANN owes a lot to the great work done by Juan Jimenez--even if it has almost killed him once or twice...

The (self-described) crazy Puertorican in the picture has been flying or fixing things in airplanes since 1974, and currently owns a BD-5J Microjet that, by the time you see this, will either be flying or sold.

He has survived writing for ANN for three years, so now he gets to buy the booze each night after covering the airshows.

If you see him during the shows and have a story to tell or new product to talk about, flag him down, he's always looking for something cool to write about.

We'll have some more info and insight into the rest of the ANN crew (at least those that have made bail by July 29th) over the next few days...

FMI: www.aero-news.net