2001 Trip to Oshkosh, Wisconsin
The world's largest gathering of airplanes happens for a week each summer in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. There are few things as rewarding as flying your own airplane a couple thousand miles to join fellow flyers in a celebration of this size. Close to one million people attend this show each year, making lodging pretty hard to find, so camping under the wing of an airplane is definitely the way to go. That means the baggage compartment needs to hold eight days worth of clothes, food, tent, sleeping bag, ice chest, and camping gear.
I'd been drawing possible routes on charts and planning fuel stops for several weeks when the day finally came for Blue and I to start our big adventure. We left the Medford, Oregon airport just before sunrise to enjoy the still morning air and get as far east as possible before sunset. I always like to keep a landing spot in sight and that's hard to do in the dark. Central and eastern Oregon are beautiful and very desolate.It's a long way between gas stations in an older airplane. If I'm easy on the throttle I can fly for about four hours, and it takes about that long to cross the state. The route I chose took me over the Snake River in Idaho, then through some very high mountains in Utah and Wyoming to my first overnight stop near Scottsbluff, Nebraska. We covered about 1,100 miles that first day, with several stops for fuel and food it was a very full (sunrise to sunset) 12 hour day.
The sky was gorgeous just after sunset in western Nebraska. It was too dark for pictures but I had to take this one anyway. The tent went up under the left wing as the clouds turned to orange and my camp was set up before the evening's red glow had faded away. As the stars came out I sat quietly on the soft grass enjoying my chewy granola bar dinner and a delicious cold beer. This grassy field was very desolate, the perfect place to lay back and watch for shooting stars. The clouds disappeared after sunset and there were no mountains on the horizon).
The second day of our adventure promised to get interesting with the usual summertime thunderstorms forecast all along our route. We made it most of the way across Nebraska before having to detour around a group of storm cells which looked pretty dark and avoidable. South Dakota and Iowa passed quickly underneath as I focused on staying out of clouds while monitoring weather and air traffic frequencies. Just before noon I saw the Wisconsin border appear on the GPS and couldn't help but let out an enthusiastic "Yeah!" as I crossed the Mississippi River into Wisconsin. With serious thunderstorms closing in behind us, I found a nice little airport to set down for the afternoon and even managed to get Blue into a hangar, just in case the storms started to throw hail at her fabric wings.
While most of the airplanes were directed the long way around to the North end of the airfield, our group of classic rag-wings was allowed to land from the South on the main runway, three planes at a time. I was instructed to land "on the numbers" and Blue made that perfect touchdown which almost never happens with such a large crowd watching. She always makes me look like a better pilot than I really am. Once on the ground we were led by some brave guys on little scooters to a grassy parking area just about in the middle of everything.
The grass fields all around the airport are covered with airplanes, tents, motor homes, and people. It's quite a sight. The local experimental airplane association has set up showers, tented restaurants (carnival food), vendor buildings, exhibit areas galore, and one of my favorites...the flea market. I found several hard to get parts that I needed to finish Blue's interior, at a very low price.
There were several rows of Pacers and Tri-Pacers scattered around the show area. Some of the planes are in perfectly restored condition or look better than new, with performance modifications to make them safer and/or faster. Some have 25 year old paint jobs (like Blue's) and are looking forward to some extra TLC in the near future. I'd love to have one of those newly refurbished planes in this row, but some of my favorites at the show were old and faded with many hours of fun adventures shining through a slightly rough exterior. These are a hardy, "go almost anywhere" breed of airplane and its heartwarming to hear the owners tell of trips to Alaska or other far off the beaten path destinations.
The flight home was another lesson in avoiding thunderstorms which took me south to Texas across to Arizona and up through Nevada. The first day I only made it from Wisconsin to Oklahoma following hazy alleys between rows of big, black clouds, occasionally setting down to let some bad weather pass overhead. Rows of storms just kept coming at us across the western states. By taking the southern route I added about five flying hours in detours, but I saved two or three days of waiting for storms to pass. The Red Rock areas around Sedona and the Grand Canyon were spectacular. Next time I pass that way I'll spend more time sightseeing and get some pictures.