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 From the news desk at EAA Oshkosh 1998

 The Australians return! One of the most colorful parts of EAA AirVenture is
 the large international contingent who come to Oshkosh to participate in the
 event. In 1998, more than 400 Australians will travel en masse to Wittman
 Regional Airport, as they have on four previous occasions. These sport
 aviation enthusiasts from "down under" bring a contagious enthusiasm for
 people and airplanes with them. They are a colorful part of the annual
 International Parade at EAA AirVenture. 



 John Murray had been thinking about it for a few years, so finally this year
 he and Kevin Green jumped into John’s Bonanza F33A in Moree, New South Wales,
 Australia and flew to AirVenture ‘98. They put two 77-gallon tanks in place
 of the back seats and headed off through New Guinea, The Marshall Islands,
 Hawaii, California and on to Oshkosh. 

 In New Guinea they missed the recent tidal waves by a day. In Hawaii they
 calculated that the head winds would run them out of gas before reaching the
 mainland, so they went to a hardware store and bought three five-gallon cans
 and two hand pumps ("One as a backup, just in case," John said.) They filled
 them with gas and headed out. No worries, mate.

 John and Kevin are ag pilots back home. They spray cotton fields at night.
 Ironically, Kevin had a reservation to come to AirVenture ‘98 on the Oshkosh
 Express 747, but John made him a better offer.
 So, 53 flying hours, 5,513 nautical miles, and 3140 liters of fuel later
 . . . Welcome to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.


   Around the world in (less than) 80 hours.

 You don't have to wait for the Columbia 300 to see a non-Experimental Lancair.
 Gary Burns has his new Lancair IV, which is in the midst of a record-setting
 round-the-world trip, parked in front of the Lancair tent in the North Aircraft
 Display Area. "There's no 'Experimental' written on this airplane," Burns,
 a 737 captain from Australia, said. The plane went through a battery of flight
 tests to qualify as a fully certificated aircraft Down Under. Why the
 circumnavigation?

 "It all came about from visiting Oshkosh in '91," Burns said. "This is really
 the Mecca of homebuilt aircraft, and I built my aircraft with the purpose of
 bringing it to Oshkosh. From Australia you're almost halfway around the world,
 so why not keep on going and set some speed records on the way?"

 Burns and copilot Alex Schenk are shattering or setting records on every leg
 of the trip. "The current records are usually held by Bonanzas at 160 knots.
 We're averaging 280, 270, 260 knots. Quite a few places we're going, there are
 non existent records - purely because of the distance." The 110-gallon aux tank
 in back gives them enough range to have flown from Hawaii, over San Francisco,
 to Lancair headquarters in Bend, Oregon, with 2.5 hours of fuel remaining.
 Burns credits Lancair and Qantas Airlines, his employer, with providing
 assistance for the trip.