George and Karl's Excellent Ad(Air)venture (2005 edition)

Karl Barry writes: George and I meet at the airport to weigh everything and pack the plane. The bad news is that we both weigh more than last year or the scale is less accurate then it was last year. [It's the scale Karl, it's the scale. Trust me!]

About that Weight & Balance???

We plan for an early (5am) departure. Well, that was the plan but George is willing to find any excuse to avoid 0-dark-thirty.

[My comments will be in brackets and italics. Hit the read_more link for the 2005 adventure to airventure. And watch for an addition to the photo gallery for Oshkosh 2005. … George]

SATURDAY - George calls me with the news that there is some weather coming through that will affect our flight so we delay our departure and plan to meet at the airport at 8am. I suspect that George just wanted to sleep later but I have no proof.

SUNDAY – We meet at 8am. George takes the 1st leg and we set out on our great adventure. We have decided to take the southern route. The last two years we have flown across southern Ontario and wanted a different route. The weather is perfect VFR. We head west out of Worcester (east would have taken too long), across the Catskills, south of Binghamton and Elmira. We stop at Corry, PA, southeast of Erie, just as the rain is beginning. George checks the weather and learns that a nasty front is moving through so we wait while it goes by. The airport manager gives us a ride into town to get lunch. He also picks us up after lunch and brings us back to the airport. Great service! [And fuel was only $2.98/gal.] George rechecks weather and it is improving. It still looks bad to me so George takes the 2nd leg and files IFR. [Yeay… right… You just wanted me to fly both legs so you could gaze out the window, and guilt me into letting you land at OSH.]

It was totally unnecessary as the weather was great VFR again. [And… ] We pass just south of Cleveland and just north of South Bend, Ind.. We faced a brutal headwind on this leg and cruise at 80 knots for much of the leg. [That's the real story - you blame our ground speed on technique just like last year] It’s also very warm (80 degrees) even though we are at 6000 msl. We arrive at Michigan City, Indiana (not to be confused with Indiana City, Michigan) for our next stop. On the ground it is 96 degrees and very humid. We calculate that we might get to Oshkosh after the 8pm curfew so we decide to stay overnight in Indiana. The airport attendant tells us where the motels are and lets us take the airport car for the night. Once again, it is great service. [And fuel was $2.93/gal. … And funny, I ask what the security arrangements are, will we have access to the plane - they open after 7 - what is the gate code? We get a strange look and they say it is always open. As we drive away, we realize that yes there is a gate, but no fence on either side. And they still let us borrow the car.]

MONDAY – We get an early start to the airport and depart at 7am. It is already getting warm. Even though it is George's turn to fly the OSH arrival he lets me have it since he flew both legs on Sunday. Thanks George! [ Hmmmmm… ] We follow the Lake Michigan shore line past Gary, Ind., and then Chicago. What a sight! Flying the shore line by Chicago is a close second to flying the Hudson Corridor.

Chicago Skyline

After passing Chicago we turn inland and head toward Ripon for the approach. A thunderstorm is about 15 miles west of the airport. We follow the tracks past Rush Lake. Wait a minute! Why is Rush Lake on our right? Oops! [Karl was PIC. Remember that! But rumor is that Gregg A. did the same thing] We circle back to Ripon and follow the right tracks toward Fisk. We get sent to a right downwind to Rwy 27. The pattern is busy and I first get assigned the orange dot but it is changed to the green dot. The landing is acceptable (George has a different opinion but since I am PIC only my opinion counts). [Well… we were low, slow and did a touch-and-go on the roof of a large building on final, but who's watching anyway] After taxiing halfway to downtown Oshkosh we get to our camping spot in row 591 near the fire station.

The greeters greet us, we tie down the plane and head to registration. [Third year in a row, Don't buy passes for the last day! Hit me if I try to do it again next year!] Afterwards we take the bikes to the grocery store to get drinks and breakfast food (our 20 pounds of ice lasted 3 days). [Do you know how big 20 pounds of ice is? There was no room for food in the cooler, but it kept the ice cold. Lasted all week. And good thing for local stores. We must be getting more casual this time - we forgot way too much stuff. Then again, we forgot to diet in advance as well.]

George decides to head over to flight line to see the arrival of SpaceShipOne.

Space Ship One on a low pass

I opt to sit by the plane and watch arrivals while listening to ATC. This is my favorite activity at Oshkosh. When George gets back we go to dinner at Friar Tucks. Later that night severe thunderstorms hit the airport. The winds tore our tarp from the ropes holding it down. We sat out there for over 2 hours in the lightning and rain holding onto the tarp so we wouldn't lose it. We know from 2003 experience that our tent leaks. When it got near midnight we finally decided that we didn't care anymore and went to sleep.

TUESDAY - The tarp and tent (and George and I) are still there when we wake up at 6am. [As we look out over the quiet campgrounds, here comes a tent being rolled down the taxi-way back to some campsite. They were blowing around like giant tumble-weeds during the storm. Those little 6" stakes are worthless. The storm almost pulled out the mega-stakes that we used on the tarp. Had to hammer them back in a couple of times. Later there were clothes and sleeping bags draped over many a prop and wing. Ran into one drowned rat waiting for the bus to find a laundromat - Said he didn't have a single dry item of clothing] We make coffee and bacon & eggs for breakfast (they were not from free range chickens but I got over my guilt). The sky is overcast; it is drizzling, windy and cold. [So much for everyone trying to dry their belongings. Lesson - keep everything in the plane whenever there is a risk of storms]

Later we both head over to the exhibits. Lunch for me is a Brat (eat your heart out Chris H.!!). We check out the planes and the vendors. A lot of expensive stuff but I manage to get out with only a $3 pin. [I added to my shirt collection] We took a bus over to the seaplane base. It is a very different atmosphere there, much more laid back and quiet. There are no seaplanes moving since Lake Winnebago is very rough today. After getting back to the camp site we go to dinner at the Charcoal Pit. We head back to the plane to relax and go to sleep early.

Seaplane base is another world

WEDNESDAY – We’re up at 6am again for coffee and breakfast. It tastes sooooo good here! [It's my cooking! Even if he won't let me fry the eggs in the bacon grease] We head to display area and attend a couple of presentations.

* The NTSB presenter is very good. [Really entertaining presenter, considering the serious topic.] She is an accident investigator and explains the logistics of investigating an accident.

[It's amazing how small the NTSB really is. Approx. 400 employees overall, only 40 or so investigators. And they are mandated by congress to investigate all aircraft accidents, and other transportation as well… trucking, and marine. In addition to her general talk, she presented two "survivable" accidents she investigated that resulted in fatalities. One was a '68 Cardinal that landed without power just short of the runway in New Mexico, after a 4.9 hour flight, estimated 5 hours fuel. Their planning was right on the money - they ran out of fuel 50' from the end of the runway, right on schedule. Cabin was mostly intact. 2nd was a C150 that ran out of fuel and electric power. That one was a night cross-country with instructor and student who did 2 landings with generator light ON, eventually ran out of battery enroute to 3rd airport, ran out of fuel during a go-around, and landed without engine, at night without benefit of runway lights or aircraft lights. Went off runway, again cabin mostly intact. Both accidents were fatal because no shoulder restraints were used.

Oh… and one more tidbit. The handheld GPS like Garmin have a non-volatile trip log that Garmin can extract. After an accident they send the unit back to the factory to recover the details on the last 10 trips. NTSB finds it really helpful.]

* A presentation on “Flying the National Parks” was good. [It was presented by a group that runs organized air-tours of the national parks. I had forgotten about the elevations involved. Density Altitude is a big factor if you want to tour the parks out west, but the routes sounded really spectacular]

Lunch is another Brat (boy they are good Chris!). We stop by Charlie E.'s camp spot. He bought a new Garmin 396 GPS and was showing his wife how it works. His wife was more than happy to give up her seat so we could see the new toy. Her eyes were slightly glazed over. Afterwards, George and I go back to the Charcoal Pit for dinner. We each have a ½ rack of the ribs with grilled shrimp. When the dinners come out we thought they gave us a full rack each. The ribs were excellent. They were right up there with the best I’ve had. Try them next year. We decided to leave on Thursday so we started some of the packing. [And pull down the now almost destroyed tarp to get fuel - $2.99/gal. Later I start trying to give away our Thursday gate passes - $40 … almost 10 Gal of fuel at ORH]

THURSDAY – We are up at 6am again for coffee and breakfast. We pack up the plane and get a weather briefing. It will be great VFR all the way back. I fly the Oshkosh departure since George flew it the last two years. We start up and taxi out but are about 15 minutes too late. We get stuck in VFR departure line while several arrivals are allowed in. We watch as one taxiing airplane gets stuck in the mud. [CAP Flagman stood in front of the aircraft and directed him right into the soft ground. Nosewheel was buried up to its axle. Hmmmm soft field technique or bad direction?]

Oops...

[A bit earlier we saw another aircraft get stuck. But that one powered out while the flagman bounced the tail up and down. He forgot that there was an elevator I guess, almost got taken out when the aircraft lurched forward. Darwin award candidate?] We wait about 20 minutes before we are finally cleared to depart. We listen to Fisk Approach while we are leaving and hear that the airport is closed to arrivals for about 25 minutes so they can get departures out.

We fly shore line again and pass Chicago. It is very busy with north and south bound traffic. Chicago Approach does a great job handling the traffic. Our first stop is Goshen, Ind., a great GA airport, for fuel and a pilot’s lunch (trail mix, mm’s, peanuts). [Our most expensive fuel for the trip - $3.15] George flies the next leg. We fly along the shore of Lake Erie. The Cleveland controller sent us off shore a bit to stay clear of Cleveland Hopkins traffic but then brought us right back near downtown. He coordinated with Lakefront Airport so we didn’t have to call them.

All of the controllers we worked with were great during the entire trip to Oshkosh. Everybody knows how good the Oshkosh controllers are. The Chicago and Cleveland Approach controllers were also very helpful and friendly. We fly over the hills of western PA and land at Bradford, PA. [Really nice airport, US-Air terminal and restaurant. Security was about like Fitchburg. No ID checks, no questions.] We get a sandwich for lunch and fuel for the plane. [We waited almost 1/2 hour to pay the fuel bill, as nightime approaches. Grrrr. I ask for an "Oshkosh Discount" and they lower the price to $2.78/gal.] I fly the last leg home. It starts to hit us that our trip is almost over and the flight is quieter than usual. I did find out that I can’t pronounce “Binghamton” when anybody is listening. We have uneventful arrival at Worcester (right George?).

[Yeah… it was a bit sad. I would have liked to stay another day or two, but we didn't want to pass up the good weather for the return. Good to leave on a high note. Just because I can file IFR doesn't mean I want to do so in thunderstorm season. I just need to wait for my Garmin 396 to arrive. I never get away from OSH without buying some gadget. Last year was the "Clarity Aloft" in-the-ear headset. That is by far the best headset I've ever tried. 10 hours of flying on the way out without a bit of discomfort. But the gadgets seem to get more expensive every year. Er… about next year, Karl - I had better leave my credit cards behind.]

We’re already planning for OSH 2006. [See you there!... George]