Oshkosh - Day 1
Oshkosh 2007 – Day 1
Sunday we left for AirVenture Oshkosh, the biggest aviation show this side of Paris. I was to be one of over 500,000 attendees.
I had the privilege of flying to the show in my friend Jim’s Cirrus SR22. Not being able to pick up a reservation for an IFR flight plan all the way to our destination of Fond Du Lac (FLD) we instead filed to go to ETB.
The trip up was uneventful with a slight tailwind. We spent some time up at 12,000’ where I started to get a little headache. We were up that high to stay clear of the cloud tops, but without oxygen we didn’t plan to stay there the entire time. Even after descending back down to 10,000’ I still had the slight sinus pressure, so I don’t think I was having an adverse reaction to the thin air, probably just a little congestion.
After crossing Lake Michigan ATC made it very clear that they would not let us past ETB on our flight plan – implied was that if we didn’t cancel soon they would just cut us loose. We cancelled. It was time to get the eyeballs really cranked up for traffic duty. I was scanning for other aircraft while Jim was doing all the work of setting up for the approach.
Farmland in Michigan
Crossing the lake (with traffic to our left and above)
Going into FLD was nothing special. We contacted their temporary tower (as the special Oshkosh NOTAM instructed) who just told us to make a left base for 18. We dodged a communications tower in the traffic pattern by keeping in really tight and touched down with 4 hours and 5 seconds on the flight timer.
We parked in the grass and worked with the line guy (who was there immediately) to put a ticket on the airplane prop stating our desire to get refueled. He then gave us a lift to the terminal where Jim went in to get our rental car. I waited outside and took in my first glimpses of the Oshkosh environment. I saw many expensive general aviation aircraft milled about – new GTS SR22s, King Airs, Citations, etc. There were scores of people around, more than I’d ever seen at a small airport.
A few minutes later we hopped in the Hyundai for the 2 minute trip to the hotel. Some very nice Italian food from Gino’s filled the belly for cheap (half-off pizza that night) and we returned to the hotel. On the way, we saw a bunch of flashing lights ahead on the highway. As we approached them, Jim said something like “Check THAT out” and I looked over to see a T-6 Texan in the other lane. It was just getting towed away by a pickup truck. We were observing the clean-up from this incident:
During the landing, the pilot apparently did a crop duster maneuver to avoid hitting an RV – he forced the airplane down on the pavement before it was ready to land which caused it to bounce over the large motor vehicle, thereby missing it.
We did only a minor amount of rubber necking before continuing on to the hotel to get some sleep before the first day of the show.
Sunday we left for AirVenture Oshkosh, the biggest aviation show this side of Paris. I was to be one of over 500,000 attendees.
I had the privilege of flying to the show in my friend Jim’s Cirrus SR22. Not being able to pick up a reservation for an IFR flight plan all the way to our destination of Fond Du Lac (FLD) we instead filed to go to ETB.
The trip up was uneventful with a slight tailwind. We spent some time up at 12,000’ where I started to get a little headache. We were up that high to stay clear of the cloud tops, but without oxygen we didn’t plan to stay there the entire time. Even after descending back down to 10,000’ I still had the slight sinus pressure, so I don’t think I was having an adverse reaction to the thin air, probably just a little congestion.
After crossing Lake Michigan ATC made it very clear that they would not let us past ETB on our flight plan – implied was that if we didn’t cancel soon they would just cut us loose. We cancelled. It was time to get the eyeballs really cranked up for traffic duty. I was scanning for other aircraft while Jim was doing all the work of setting up for the approach.
Farmland in Michigan
Crossing the lake (with traffic to our left and above)Going into FLD was nothing special. We contacted their temporary tower (as the special Oshkosh NOTAM instructed) who just told us to make a left base for 18. We dodged a communications tower in the traffic pattern by keeping in really tight and touched down with 4 hours and 5 seconds on the flight timer.
We parked in the grass and worked with the line guy (who was there immediately) to put a ticket on the airplane prop stating our desire to get refueled. He then gave us a lift to the terminal where Jim went in to get our rental car. I waited outside and took in my first glimpses of the Oshkosh environment. I saw many expensive general aviation aircraft milled about – new GTS SR22s, King Airs, Citations, etc. There were scores of people around, more than I’d ever seen at a small airport.
A few minutes later we hopped in the Hyundai for the 2 minute trip to the hotel. Some very nice Italian food from Gino’s filled the belly for cheap (half-off pizza that night) and we returned to the hotel. On the way, we saw a bunch of flashing lights ahead on the highway. As we approached them, Jim said something like “Check THAT out” and I looked over to see a T-6 Texan in the other lane. It was just getting towed away by a pickup truck. We were observing the clean-up from this incident:
During the landing, the pilot apparently did a crop duster maneuver to avoid hitting an RV – he forced the airplane down on the pavement before it was ready to land which caused it to bounce over the large motor vehicle, thereby missing it.
We did only a minor amount of rubber necking before continuing on to the hotel to get some sleep before the first day of the show.
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