Back From Airventure 2011

I had planned to spend Wednesday through Friday at Oshkosh. However, the forecast for Wednesday was terrible and my friend Mark had to be back by Friday at the latest. We decided to leave Tuesday.

The briefing we got on Monday night was not encouraging - IFR, marginal VFR and rain along the Pennsylvania part of our route. (This turned out to be kind of a theme this year) We decided to try any way and call again from the airport at 7:00 a.m.

When we called from the airport, it was more of the same, but looked better if we could get 50 miles West and clear in Michigan and Wisconsin. We looked up and saw a blue patch I was sure would work to get over the low mist and clouds. Mark went so far as to call it clear VFR. We headed down to the already packed plane to launch.

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My copilot and traveling companion this year will be my friend and law partner, Mark Mattioli. He competes in aerobatics in his Christen Eagle. I am trying to convince him that some great planes have no tailwheel and may even have the prop on the back.
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Looking back over the strake, you can see the mess we are leaving behind. The view ahead is fine and  above the clouds it is smooth and clear. Off to Oshkosh!
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Mark tries his hand at flying the plane for a while and concedes that it might not be so bad, considering the lack of a tail wheel.

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Here comes Lake Erie. We have decided to fly in a direct line across both lakes. At 200 knots, we won't be over either for long and I feel more comfortable with it after the flight to the Bahamas.

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Eastern shore of the lake

Cloud shadow on the lake

Mid-crossing

Looking back to the East

Here are some views of the Lake Erie crossing.

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Patchwork of fields and clear skies in Michigan

All alone in Bay City

Fueling up

Historic pilot's lounge

FBO in former brick schoolhouse

                                                                                   

We make our fuel stop in Saginaw, Michigan at James Clements (Bay City). It is absolutely deserted. We check out the FBO, located in a former brick schoolhouse, then head out. Next step is to cross Lake Michigan, then join the Oshkosh arrival procedure at Ripon.
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Shore of Lake Michigan just out of Bay City

Over Lake Michigan, we cut the corner on another lake, now only about 30 miles from Ripon. Still going pretty fast, so time to drop down to 2,300 feet and 135 knots, then listen for the arrival ATIS and tune in to the Fisk controllers.

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Following the RR tracks for Fisk

Base to final for Runway 9

Final for 9 - Oshkosh here we come

Over the highway and a new view of my usual drive into the show

Here are some shots of the final approach to runway 9. I was happy to get it because it is the simplest one. You don't find out until about 2 minutes before touchdown which runway you will get. I was offered the 18 or 9 approaches and picked this one. It consists of following railroad tracks until you turn right for final to the runway. The 18 approach is the opposite, kind of a tight spiral over the runway in the middle of the show.
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On the ground

We made a perfect touchdown and started looking for the Velocity display with our sign in the window for the flagmen.

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Made it! Duane Swing meets us at the end of the taxiway and helps us through the fence to the display. We get her tied down next to John Youngblood's beautiful plane and head out to lunch. The weather is perfect.

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View to North

View to South

View towards Conoco-Phillips Square

Here are some views of the show from the Canon tower on the field. Lots of planes, lots of people. I'm a happy guy.
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The grand daddy of cool canards - the Beech Starship. The show this year includes a salute to Burt Rutan, so all of his designs are here, along with about a million Long EZ's.


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The only flying B29, "Fifi".

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After the show, we check into our (very warm) rooms at the UW Oshkosh dorms, out for Mexican and then to Kelly's, a corner bar outside our dorm.  As always, I'm joined by my friends the Keighans, who flew in today in their Lancair IV.

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Mark and I start out early with breakfast at the dorms and on to the EAA Museum at 8 a.m. I know my son would like the Lego models of all the Rutan designs.
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As we make our way into the show, it is still raining. It rained for most of the day, so I spent a lot of time in the big exhibit buildings. There were lots of cool new gadgets to be had.

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Carlos from Grand Rapids Technologies was kind enough to stop by the plane and fine tune some settings on my beloved EFIS. He was obviously appalled by the minimal use I am making of the nearly endless list of features on the unit.

I told him I have been happy with "direct to" navigation and keeping the track line on the course line. I reminded him that it had always been my intent to grow into the unit after I had been flying a while and promised to make more use of the unit's capabilities.

Thanks again Carlos!

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The Velocity Cookout is always Wednesday at 6:00 and is a must do. It is a great chance to meet up with other builders and owners. It is open to anyone interested in Velocities and would be a great opportunity for prospective builders to get info as well.  The weather let up for us and the event was very well attended.
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The highly efficient registration and badging team, Elizabeth and Linda.

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Our cooks, Jerry and Andy, ready to swing into action.
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Andy Millin caught checking out his wife, Theresa.
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Duane Swing sitting dangerously close to the "Brat Machine" (Ken Baker) while it is in operation.

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Andy strikes a heroic barbeque pose as Carlos looks on in admiration.

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Brett, Darryl and Norah.
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Ken leads an "Eagle One".

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The entire campground was muddy from the constant rain. Here is scenic 10th and Elm, home of the Velocity cookout each year.

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John Youngblood and I, the owners of the two nicest Velocities at the display, as ranked by John Abraham. (Curse that Youngblood's plush interior!)

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Thursday morning at 7:00 and, surprise, more rain.

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At least the plane is still there and relatively dry inside. People are still out walking around in the rain.

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While I was in the AOPA booth, Harrison Ford came in to give an interview. I was about 10 feet away. He spoke about general aviation and about making Cowboys and Aliens. He brought his DeHavilland  Beaver and his Jet Ranger to the filming site in Wyoming. He would give rides to the film locations.

He sheepishly admitted that some poor production assistant would have to go out to the middle of nowhere and hold a pole with a flag on it to wait for him to land. He thanked moviegoers for supporting his airplane habit.

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I was at the Velocity display when an Alabama ANG F16 made a bad landing, went off the runway and collapsed it's nose gear, then plowed through the dirt. There's a report I'd hate to make - crashed in front of thousands at Oshkosh. Poor guy.

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Quite a few people who have followed this blog actually stopped by to say hello. It was fun.

This is Andrew, who just returned from a tour in Iraq and was following the blog over there. He brought Isaac with him. Hi guys!
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On the way out of the show on Thursday, we stopped by Scott's beautiful Lancair IV.

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Friday morning and it's time to go home. We arrive at the show at 6:30 a.m. We head to weather brief and learn that there is a severe band of thunderstorms across our path of travel. Our only way around is to go way to the southwest and then skirt the storms to the south. It just figures that the weather is now perfect at Oshkosh.
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One last look at the plane at the booth as we approach. John's plane has already departed.


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Mark flight planned while I cleaned, packed and preflighted, then we pulled her up to the taxiway access.
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We hold at the gate while a flight of Mustangs taxis by only feet away. Cool.
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View back down taxiway toward tower

Tower view over the strake at midfield

Almost there, we hold for traffic pulling onto taxiway

We taxi down to the end of 36 for takeoff. At the end, we line up next to another plane on the runway, we're cleared for takeoff and off we go. Immediately after takeoff, we do a 180, maintain 150 degrees, 500 feet above the ground until out of the airspace, then turn on course for our first waypoint. It was kind of busy, so no pictures of this part.

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Here's a quick in-flight video.

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Although the weather at Oshkosh was great, this is what we head into.

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Mark is happy to be heading home

Mark gets weather from his new gadget

On our way home at last.

Luckily for me, Mark had purchased a Garmin 510 handheld and activated its XM weather feature at the show. We figure that between that, Flightwatch and a few stops, we can pick our way home today.

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The Scharfenbergs

Dave taxis down for a photo op

Dave pulls up for a picture

Great side by side shot- note his top loader door

Severe weather starts to surround us so we put down in Galesburg, Illinois. It turns out we will be able to move on within an hour and a half after the tail end of the front passes.

In a happy coincidence, Dave Sharfenburg's family happen to base their Lindy award winning Velocity there and they were at the airport to leave for a trip to Colorado. Dave taxied his plane over for some pictures after taking a look in my plane, then took off.

Here is a video of Dave's takeoff.
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Eastbound between layers at 3,500

The ceiling goes down. Time to find an airport

Tied down moments later in Muncie, Indiana

We take off again shortly thereafter and proceed eastbound. We make it a couple hundred miles between layers before the visibility goes down and we make a landing at Muncie, Indiana for lunch and another weather briefing.

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Big cell to our North. This lit up the XM weather display in red.

Skirting the end of the front in eastern Ohio.

Between tops and just clearing the haze at 9,500

We climb to 9,500 on course for home. We have 440 nautical miles to go and the system extends just to our north for most of the way with tops to 50,000 feet. We pick our way between the clouds at 200 to 235 knots for an hour and 45 minutes. The miles slip behind us amazingly quickly at these speeds.

Soon we are in Western Pennsylvania with home showing on the far side of the map. We have flight following the whole way, so the flight shows up on Flightaware.com. We are finally confident we will make it all the way.

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Made it! Home at the hangar.

Made it! I drop Mark at his car then head back to unpack and put the plane away. It performed wonderfully, but I have to admit that I'm glad to get out of it. It was hot and humid once we made our descent and I almost understand why pilots install air conditioning.

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Back home and I add my third Oshkosh showplane cup to my office shelf. I had a great time, saw lots of friends, got to show off my airplane and did a lot of flying.

Each challenge makes me a better pilot. This last flight convinced me to activate the XM weather feature on my plane and to learn to use it

Mark was a great copilot and really helped out. Thanks guy!

See you at the show next year.

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