Oshkosh 2006...long...very long

A long-ish trip report on our adventure this year...

This marks the fourth year I've made the trek from the left coast to
Wisconsin for the big show. This year, it's me, my wife, my brother,
and his wife stuffed into our '71 Arrow. With four of us and 36 gallons
of gas, we can haul a grand total of 165 pounds of gear. Not a shred of
camping gear made the trek this year. Fortunately, I have a friend who
lives in the Twin Cities area and he delivered the camping goods.

Left coast to Oshkosh:

Day 1: Lincoln, CA to Elko, NV for first gas stop. We wanted to make
it to Wendover, UT but with a long climb to get over the Sierras and a
slight headwind (yes, despite the fact we were going East), KEKO was the
first gas stop. We were planning three hour legs with our limited fuel
carrying ability.

Elko to Ogden, UT for gas stop #2 and lunch at the Auger Inn restaurant.
Note to self: Next time, hit the self serve fuel pump on the North
side of the tower next time. The FBO topped off the tanks after being
told to fill to the tabs. End result: we stay in Ogden for the night as
it took them forever to defuel 14 gallons of 100ll. It was for the
better since the ride across the mountains to the East of the Salt Lake
area would have been quite bumpy. So...if anyone stops in Ogden for
gas, I can't recommend the FBO that resides on the South side of the
tower. Can't remember their name (nor want to).

Day 2: First leg is Ogden to Rawlins, WY. Wheels up just after sunrise
and the air was very smooth. Quick stop at Rawlins for gas and we're
off to Alliance, NE for gas and lunch. Last leg is to Iowa City for Jay
and Mary Honeck's pre-OSH bash at the Alexis Park Inn and Suites. Park
Inn & Suites. First Bratwurst of the trip...yum.

Day 3: Iowa City to Oshkosh as a flight of three with the Honeck's and
Edwin Johnson in his Maul. We manage to keep sight of each other all
the way.

I need to stop here a second and explain a bit about the Oshkosh arrival
procedure. It's spelled out very clearly in a NOTAM. When you're
approx. 50 miles away, you tune in the arrival ATIS and listen for the
weather conditions and which runways are in use. You then aim for the
town of Ripon (there is even a GPS waypoint for it now) and arrive at
1800 MSL and 90 kts (for our class of airplane). You look for other
aircraft and essentially get in line with 1/2 mile spacing between you
and the guy in front. You fly right over a set of railroad tracks at
1800 MSL and 90 kts. You listen to the Fisk approach controllers as
they identify aircraft by type/color and you don't speak on the radio
unless asked a question by the controllers. As they identify you, they
ask you to rock your wings so they know you hear them. Then, they
instruct you to proceed a specific direction for a specific runway (each
of which is spelled out in the NOTAM). You then switch frequencies to
one of two tower controllers (runway 9/27 or 18/36), depending on what
the Fisk approach controller had you do. If things get a little bunched
up, there are two possible locations to hold. There are two lakes.
Green Lake is outside of Ripon and Rush Lake is between Ripon and Fisk.
Sounds pretty simple, eh?

When we listen to the arrival ATIS, we learned they were holding over
Green Lake. Ok, no problem. We enter the hold and it's just no fun as
there are planes everywhere...a couple of miles from the shoreline
(you're supposed to be over the shoreline), flying slower than 90 kts,
and talking back to Fisk approach (and other pilots) on the radio. We
end up doing maybe 6 laps around Green lake before bugging out to Fond
Du Lac for gas/food/pee stop. I call Jay from Fond Du Lac and find out
that he made it through the gauntlet and is parked in row 558. After an
hour and a half or so, we find out that they're not holding so launch
from Fond Du Lac and the arrival goes pretty much ok. Well...until
we're just turning final for runway 9 and a Meridian is about a mile
away at our 3:00. Tower is talking to him and doesn't seem to see us.
I'm set for a go around but the Meridian zips by then tower sees us and
has us put it on the numbers. Welcome to Oshkosh (though I didn't hear
those words this year). We end up in row 575, just abeam the Hilton.

The camping gear soon shows up and we set things up. It's warm and
humid but everything is suddenly right in the world because, well, we're
at Oshkosh and we just setup camp next to our plane.

Stuff we did, in no particular order:

• Saw a pair of F-22 Raptors. Very cool demonstration!
• Watched the B-1 arrive. Also very cool.
• Walked around a British Lancaster. It's amazing how different that plane sounds when flying...almost like a flight of P-51s. Hmmm, must be those RR Merlin engines.
• Watched the ultralights come and go one morning in their little chunk of airspace.
• Sat one table away from Chuck Yeager while eating breakfast at the Hilton one morning. Later on, my wife made a comment to another guy at a nearby table...turned out it was Harrison Ford. Only at Oshkosh...
• listened to Bob Hoover give a talk about his flying days.
• Toured the museum (again)
• Hit the seaplane base (again)
• Got wet (again...rained like crazy one night and my bag was up against the side of the tent. oops).
• Generally walked ourselves silly in way too much heat/humidity. It was a ton of fun though.

The trip home was fairly uneventful. We made two nights out of it. The first night was Ainsworth, NE and the second night was Winnemucca, NV. I had the most wicked cross wind landing of my life at Winnemucca. Very gusty and shifting winds and I had to work pretty hard on that landing.

Ok, this was a really long post. Believe it or not, I could keep going...but I won't. I should have posted this a long time ago. Been meaning to, just never got it finished...until now.

33.4 hours flying time for the trip.