Oshkosh 2007

Time again for thee airshow of the year, Oshkosh. Many of my normal typical traveling buddies were either not going this year, or were going to the formation clinic on the way to OSH, so I made this trip solo. I left Saturday morning. Weather along the way could not have been better -- clear and smooth. It was great to have a couple days before the show to visit with family. Zipping around the state in a private plane made it possible. Many thanks to my brother and his family for putting me up for two nights. And congrats to Brandon, my second cousin, who was eager to take a quick flight. He liked it.

Monday morning, the official opening day of the air show, I made had a quick flight from West Bend to Oshkosh. It was nice to be arriving after a good night's sleep and in the cool morning air. The FISK arrival went smooth. I was listening to the wrong frequency for the first half of the approach, but I corrected that just as they told me to turn inbound. Whew! So I'm inbound behind a Citabria or something at the standard 90 knots. Everything is going well until the Citabria is on crosswind for 18R and he slows to about 60 knots. I was able to hang with him, but we were so close the tower asked if we were a flight of two. "Negative!" Anyway, it worked out fine as you'll see on the video.

I spend two nights camping at the show and had a great time, though I had no particular agenda. I checked out the planes, the vendors, etc. All the standard stuff. Camping was great as the humidity was low and by morning it was cool enough for a light blanket. I caught up with a lot of familiar RVer's and a couple new ones. It was good to see them all.

Wednesday morning I packed up the tent and headed north to see more family. ATIS said departures were using runway 27, which fit my plan nicely. However, the volunteers directed me to 36. This was disappointing because it was a much longer taxi, longer line, and departure procedures have you turn to the SE until clear of the OSH airspace. Not a big deal, just weird.

So I cleared Oshkosh's airspace and started to head north for Iron Mountain, MI. It was still relatively early, so I had to contend with the typical morning fog and low clouds. While it was fine departing OSH, the weather got a little lower the further north I went. I ended up stopping at Piso Airport in Suring, WI for a weather break. This is a little grass strip where, apparently, they breed the world's population of horse flies because there was a bunch of them. I walked to the gas station next door and had some coffee while the weather lifted. A short while later I flew to Iron Mountain and was greeted at the airport by several relatives who marveled at the airplane. No takers on free rides though...

Thursday I headed back to North Carolina. There was a lot of weather to contend with. I had to go south and west to clear it all. I went up to 11,500 on the last leg to stay above the haze. Doing so allowed me to keep an eye on the afternoon storms. Of course the XM weather on the 396 was a big help too. The sun was setting as I flew over the house to see Pam and the dogs in the yard. Eight hours earlier I was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, on the other side of a lot of weather. Quite the day...

Then, to add to an already good trip, after I returned home I learned that I won an award for outstanding workmanship. What a great surprise!!

Here was my route for the whole trip.