OSH '07 Redux -- Part I, The Arrival

Oshkosh 2007 Redux

Having just enjoyed a beautiful, uneventful flight home last evening,
I'm sitting in the afterglow of Oshkosh 2007 with my cup of coffee,
wondering how it could have gone by so quickly.

The week went by in a flash of noise and spectacle, with quiet
mornings spent near Atlas' flank interspersed with the thunder of
Raptors and the staccato popping of round engines thrown in for good
measure. To say it was heaven would not be an exaggeration.

But I'm ahead of myself. Let's start at the start.

The Arrival
Following our largest fly-in pool party yet (25 planes, 70+ people),
we departed Iowa City (KIOW) at 9:30 AM as a flight of seven - two
Arrows, two Cherokee Sixes, a Cherokee 140, our Pathfinder, and a
Grumman Cheetah. It was an exciting departure for Iowa City, with
aircraft departing at the count of five, one after another. I'm sure
someone complained...

The flight up was fun, with various folks coming alongside to take
pictures. With no training as a team we eschewed flying any Blue
Angels formations, but rather kept a safe distance from one another as
we experimented with different groundspeed settings. Initially 110
knots worked to keep us all together, but after Neal Howard and his
formerly "Checkerbird" (now repainted in more "normal" colors)
Cherokee 140 departed the formation (en route to meet friends and
family at another airport), we pushed it up to 130 knots and proceeded
uneventfully toward the FISK approach.

Chit chatting on 122.75, we were able to hear pilots from all over,
all grinding inexorably toward the same imaginary GPS dot over Ripon,
Wisconsin. It was fun, and the excitement built as we passed first
Dubuque, Iowa, and then Madison, WI. We were getting close!

Thirty miles out we all switched our transponders to "Stand By".
Fifteen miles from Ripon we bade each other good luck, turned on our
landing lights, switched to FISK approach, and fell into trail.
Flying up the tracks we (of course!) got stuck behind a Cessna driver
who insisted on flying 90 mph rather than 90 knots. Dropping flaps,
I maintained my position and prayed that everyone behind was spaced
out properly.

As lead plane, we flew over the air traffic controllers in the trailer
first, and they noticed that Jack Allison and I were close together,
so he asked if we were a flight. I keyed the mike at his request
(usually verboten) and said "Flight of six!" This worked out well,
as ATC immediately told the Cessna driver to head east and enter a
left base for Rwy 36 - which cleared our path for a nicely spaced
arrival into the right downwind for Rwy 27.

As we approached OSH it was easy to see the show, and it was stunning
how familiar it all looked after spending a few hours flying this
approach in the Kiwi (our flight simulator at the hotel). Say what
you want about Flight Simulator, getting some reps in the Kiwi is
excellent practice for this kind of visual flying.

As the tower cleared me to land on the green dot, the radio suddenly
erupted with a woman's voice, protesting that the tower "Can't do
that!" and that she was "on final for Rwy 27"! All four of us got
our heads wagging in all directions, and Mary soon spotted the Cirrus,
way out on a four mile final, no factor. I never DID see her, and
just kept coming around in the typical "Corsair carrier approach" that
they like to use in OSH.

The tower simply responded "Unless you're seeing something I'm not, I
don't see a conflict here" and just left it at that. I made my best
landing ever at OSH (they are usually thumpers, as I try to hit the
dot) and rolled out into the grass - we had arrived!

The tower told the rest of our flight to follow the Cirrus, which
resulted in a handful of planes being parked between us - but we still
managed to all get in Row 547 along the fence line together, the
perfect end to a perfect flight. (After the endless hold of 2006,
this was a welcome relief!)

The weather was pleasantly sunny and cool, but from years of
experience we immediately "gooped up" with sun screen, and pounded an
ice-cold water. Only then did we start laboriously unloading Atlas,
and everything we would need to make the North 40 our home for the
next 7 days.

With practiced skill we soon had our campsite set up. We were parked
next to a Cessna driving couple who clearly had never camped before,
and it was fun to watch the comedy of errors unfold as they cursed and
pounded their way into their new home. They eventually succeeded, but
you could tell it wasn't much fun for them, and they only lasted two
days and were gone - which opened up their spot for the Rec.Aviation
festivities - but I'm ahead of myself.

(The better one was the Mooney driver who started setting his new tent
up at sunset, after dinner. I found him the next morning, asleep in
his sleeping bag ATOP his tent, having obviously given up at some
point! This was the same guy who, later in the week, Jack Allison
spotted waxing his plane...in his bathrobe. Remember, we were all
parked on the fenceline, visible from the road!)

We immediately hiked over to the Goodwill Store to purchase our "cheap
wheels" for the week, only to find that someone had screwed up and not
sent enough bikes to Oshkosh. They had a truckload due to arrive the
next day, though, so we headed back onto the field and meandered over
to the show.

Even though the show wasn't technically open, everything was in place
and (mostly) running. Mary and I did our usual photos - the kids in
front of the 10,000 bomb in the Warbirds area, and the family at the
main Airventure gate. With our staffing at the hotel more precarious
than it's ever been before (3 out of 4 desk staff quitting when we
return) we knew we could get called home at any moment, so we wanted
to get the "required" stuff out of the way ASAP. This included
buying "The Pin" and especially "The Patch" - the coveted round "OSH
2007" patch to be sewn next to the 24 other patches on my soft-sided
luggage.

Once accomplished, we leisurely wandered the grounds a bit, not
wanting to really "get into it" yet but curious nonetheless. We soon
headed back to the site for "evening cocktails" with our group,
however, so that we could watch the REAL airshow at OSH - arrivals!

Montblack had worked his magic, as always, and the PMC (Pimp My
Cooler) was chock-full of various ice-cold adult beverages. Setting
up our chairs at the arrival end of Rwy 9 (as we did every night for
the next six nights) we were rewarded with some nifty flying, and some
fairly close calls - but, as always, everything worked out. We *did*
witness a Cirrus driver nearly become one with an MU-2, but they both
made it. (Although I suspect the Cirrus seats may have needed to be
cleaned after that approach...)

Then it was off to Friar Tucks as a "Flight of 12" for a night of
camaraderie and ice cold beer. The lines were long and the wait
nearly an hour, but no one cared. We were in Oshkosh, amongst
friends, and it just couldn't get any better!

To be continued...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message oups.com...
Oshkosh 2007 Redux

Thirty miles out we all switched our transponders to "Stand By".
Fifteen miles from Ripon we bade each other good luck, turned on our
landing lights, switched to FISK approach, and fell into trail.
Flying up the tracks we (of course!) got stuck behind a Cessna driver
who insisted on flying 90 mph rather than 90 knots. Dropping flaps,
I maintained my position and prayed that everyone behind was spaced
out properly.


Were you able to receive the 'new' ATIS? Never seemed to work...

Were you able to receive the 'new' ATIS? Never seemed to work...

I'm not sure what that means. It worked okay for us.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message oups.com...
Were you able to receive the 'new' ATIS? Never seemed to work...

I'm not sure what that means. It worked okay for us.
--
Jay Honeck

118.75 never seemed to work. Did you have any issues with bleed through to the FISKE controllers? Also, on (I think it
was) Sunday morning, the tower frequency went off the air for 18/36. Seemed like quite a few comm issues, at least at
the beginning...

They moved the ATIS to Fisk, so it wound up you couldn't recieve it on
the ground at Osh.

Blueskies wrote:
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message oups.com...
Were you able to receive the 'new' ATIS? Never seemed to work...
I'm not sure what that means. It worked okay for us.
--
Jay Honeck

118.75 never seemed to work. Did you have any issues with bleed through to the FISKE controllers? Also, on (I think it
was) Sunday morning, the tower frequency went off the air for 18/36. Seemed like quite a few comm issues, at least at
the beginning...

"John T" wrote in message ...
They moved the ATIS to Fisk, so it wound up you couldn't recieve it on the ground at Osh.

Blueskies wrote:
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message oups.com...
Were you able to receive the 'new' ATIS? Never seemed to work...
I'm not sure what that means. It worked okay for us.
--
Jay Honeck

118.75 never seemed to work. Did you have any issues with bleed through to the FISKE controllers? Also, on (I think
it was) Sunday morning, the tower frequency went off the air for 18/36. Seemed like quite a few comm issues, at least
at the beginning...

I couldn't pick it up in the air coming in on Saturday. Others reported the same thing...

They moved the ATIS to Fisk, so it wound up you couldn't recieve it on
the ground at Osh.

???

Mary picked it up in the N40 Saturday before departure, no problems..
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

The new ATIS caused some problems last week. They had boosted the
power and moved out to FISK so people could hear it further out.
(that's why it was a new freq. this year). The bleed thru was not live
from the FISK controllers, but actually just all the background
chatter when the ATIS was actually cut (if you listened to it over and
over, it was the same thing being said). After I landed last Sunday I
talked with our FAA liason and he said they were aware of the problem.
When I flew out on July 28th, and then back in and out on July 29th it
was fine...

This was only for the arrival ATIS, the departure one is still in the
tower as far as I know.

-Ryan

This was only for the arrival ATIS, the departure one is still in the
tower as far as I know.

Ah -- thanks for the clarification.

Must've been a transient problem, cuz we had no trouble hearing it
when we arrived, either.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article .com,
" wrote:

The new ATIS caused some problems last week. They had boosted the
power and moved out to FISK so people could hear it further out.
(that's why it was a new freq. this year). The bleed thru was not live
from the FISK controllers, but actually just all the background
chatter when the ATIS was actually cut (if you listened to it over and
over, it was the same thing being said). After I landed last Sunday I
talked with our FAA liason and he said they were aware of the problem.
When I flew out on July 28th, and then back in and out on July 29th it
was fine...

Ryan, any word on when FAA/EAA are going to have an email set up for
comments about problems?