OSH '08 Redux -- The Torch Has Been Passed, Part I

This was to be the year of the great attendance crash at Oshkosh. With GA
flying down 50% in many parts of the country, attendance at other major
fly-ins down, and record gas prices, it was only natural to assume that
Airventure attendance would plummet, too. Even Tom Poberezny referred to
it in his introductory remarks on the first day of AirVenture.

Well, we're just back from 7 glorious days camped with our planes, and I'm
here to tell ya that Airventure attendance was UP this year, with on-field
airplane camping full by Monday night, and thousands of drive-ins camping in
Camp Scholler! The crowds on the grounds and in the exhibit hangars were
constant, and all of the vendors I queried were pleasantly surprised by
their strong sales. Without exception, NONE of them expected to come close
to last year's numbers...but match them they did.

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

Wednesday, July 23rd
With just 70 hours under his belt, our 17-year-old son, Joe, wasn't ready
for "prime-time Oshkosh" just yet. Still, he wanted to fly our new (to us)
'48 Ercoupe into Airventure -- a place he's literally grown up exploring.
What to do?

Solution: Send him in before the show starts, and avoid the craziness of the
FISK approach! So, four days before we arrived, Joe flew the 'Coupe into
Oshkosh, with enough camping gear and money to survive. Flying into OSH at
this stage is no different than any other sleepy Class D airport in rural
America, so he had no troubles.

It was sort of funny -- a couple of "old hands" in Vintage took him under
their wing, only to discover that Joe knew the grounds and procedures as
well as they did! What he did those next four nights is a mystery, but the
gendarmes never showed up at my tent, so I guess he was fine. This was
Joe's 18th consecutive Airventure.

Saturday, July 26th
Our 6th Annual Fly-In Pool Party started at 3 PM that day. As always, we
were on pins and needles, rushing around to get the food, beer, pop, and
grounds ready for the hoped-for onslaught of attendees. But would anyone
come this year? Fly-in business has been way down, both at our FBO and at
the hotel, so we were concerned that this would be the year we took a lot of
extra food home with us...

Ha -- that was a pointless worry! In fact, we ran out of food AND beer
TWICE, and had to make "emergency runs" to keep up. The airport ramp was
full the whole day, as a steady stream of "beer/pop and a brat/burger" folks
stopped by, and we had a stellar turn-out of folks spending the night. We
even had one guy camped on the hotel grounds, and one guy stayed in our
nearby college dorm -- so that's as full as it gets.

This was our first indication that MAYBE Oshkosh would "normal" this
year...and our spirits soared from this point on....

Sunday, July 27th
After a good (if short) night's sleep, we headed back down to the Inn to see
who would join us for the flight through the FISK approach into Airventure.
At the appointed time, eight pilots were in the lobby, ready for our short
briefing on procedures and comm frequencies. We've done this enough times
now to have everything fairly well codified, so this only took a few
minutes -- and we had a good mix of "veterans" and "newbies" in the flight.

By 9:30 AM we were all running up together on the taxiway, making lots of
noise and living out every pilot's dream of launching on "dawn patrol" in
squadron strength. (Well, okay -- a somewhat short-handed squadron...)
Everyone took lots of pix, and then it was time to launch into a
hazy-but-cloudless morning sky. Count to five after the guy ahead of you,
then advance the throttle and GO!

Mary was flying into OSH this year, so she was "leader of the pack" made up
of Pipers and Cessnas. This is, of course, the easiest position to fly (for
which she was grateful), but we don't do any "Blue Angels Stuff" anyway --
we just keep each other in sight. Setting our initial speed at 120 knots
turned out to be a bit slow for everyone except our "tail-end Charlie" -- a
fellow in a 145 horse Cessna 172. He couldn't get 'er over 105 knots, but
he was going to land in Platteville for gas, anyway, so he just kept up as
best he could. We bade him "farewell" at his fuel stop -- and never ran
into him again at OSH, so we wonder if he ever made it in? We then bumped
things up to 125 knots (ground speed), and everyone was happy.

Shortly after this, we realized that our comm radios weren't transmitting.
We could hear the carrier wave through our headsets, but no voice, from any
PTT position or the microphone. This wasn't good, since (as lead) Mary
needed to announce any altitude or speed changes -- so I dug out my
hand-held ICOM, only to discover (of course!) that the batteries were dead.

No worries -- we always carry a boat-load of AA batteries -- and I was even
able to find my headset-to-hand-held interface cable (a friggin' miracle,
mind you) -- so I was soon telling the group what was going on.

I started trouble-shooting, and figured the ONLY thing that all the radios
shared was the audio panel, so I started dinking around with our old Narco
CP-136M. Pushing buttons, prodding, shoving, and generally hitting things
eventually had the desired effect, and within 15 minutes we were back "on
the air" -- and I haven't been able to duplicate the problem since. (Of
COURSE we had recently had work done under the panel, so the old adage about
"maintenance-induced trouble" continues to hold true...)

Thirty miles out from RIPON we told the group to turn their transponders to
"stand-by", and switched over to the approach frequency. As we approached
RIPON we stepped down to 1800 feet, dropped to 90 knots, stayed in line over
RIPON, and headed up the railroad tracks toward FISK -- the approach is
simplicity itself. The only other glitch of the approach occurred when the
controller at FISK was ASKING which runway a pilot might prefer -- and
receiving radio responses. This is unheard of (strict radio silence is the
norm), and was actually nice -- but when it was our turn and we announced
"Flight of seven, prefer Rwy 27" he cleared us all in and told us to switch
to the Rwy 27 tower frequency -- which we did.

Unknown to us, they switched FISK controllers in the middle of our flight,
and the new guy directed the last three planes to Rwy 36, countermanding the
clearance already issued to Rwy 27 by the previous guy. When our tail-end
Charlie piped up that he'd already been cleared to Rwy 27, the new
controller ripped him a new you-know-what for (a) breaking radio silence,
and (b) questioning his orders. He declared that there was a Mooney
climbing up his butt and he needed to break right NOW for Rwy 36 -- which
(of course) he did.

We eventually linked back up with him in the North 40, but those last few
guys didn't arrive until after a 20-minute taxi from the very south end of
Wittman Field. It all worked out in the end, as it always does -- but it
sure would've been nice if the FISK guys were on the same sheet of music.

As we shut down, we were gratified to be met by this group's own Montblack,
beer in hand. Despite the early hour, I dug one out and gratefully pounded
it down -- we had arrived on the hallowed ground for our 26th consecutive
OSH!

Our daughter tied Atlas down as Mary and I set up camp. To say that were
glad to be there would have been the understatement of the century. After
all of our flooding, and employee travails, and any of a hundred other
things that could have nixed the trip, we were, at last, home in the North
40. We soon settled down to an enjoyable welcoming from (and to) this
group's own Jack Allison, Jer Eberhard, John Smith, Montblack, Jim & Tami
Burns, and a host of others who saw our hotel banner and stopped by for a
cold one... Amazingly, we were parked in almost the same spot as 2007, so
everyone kinda knew where to find us!

We called Joe to let him know we were there, and he rode out to greet us.
It was a very, VERY strange feeling to be greeted by your kid at
Airventure...

As always, after settling in we headed off to the nearby Goodwill store to
purchase some used bicycles (Joe had done this days ago), which really helps
to cut down the walking out in the North 40. Thankfully Montblack was there
to give us a ride to the store, and to Pick & Save (for beer and ice), and
to Target (for some forgotten camping items) -- so our first hours in
Oshkosh were spent shopping off the field.

Once we found three bikes that had tires that would hold air, we were in
good shape, and headed back to the airport. We spent the day hanging out
with friends, getting acquainted with our neighbors, and generally relaxing
after a couple of very stressful days. In the evening we toddled off to
Friar Tucks to meet friends for the first of many enjoyable meals to come --
and then it was back to the campsite for cocktails... We called it an early
night, though, knowing that tomorrow would be a big day...

Monday, July 28th
First day of the show, and it was GREAT. The arrivals and crowds were
really picking up, and the exhibit hangars were really getting going. After
so many years of attending we have a pattern of activities that we stick to,
which includes (a) Get the 2008 pin and patch, (b) take the family picture
under the main entrance, and (c) get the picture of the kids with "The Big
Bomb" in the warbirds section. (We've got pix of them with it each year,
going back forever!) By doing all this up-front, we've covered the basics
in case we get called back to the hotel for some emergency.

We then cruised down to the "Vintage" area, to check out Joe's campsite.
Everything looked ship-shape, and Joe was off doing his own thing -- so we
moved on...but not before answering a zillion questions from people who
wandered up to the Ercoupe. Today was the day that Joe's article hit "EAA
Today" -- the on-field newspaper (see it he
http://www.airventure.org/2008/2mon2...irventure.html ), so his
celebrity was now spreading beyond the borders of the Vintage area, and
people far and wide were asking about him. Needless to say, we were happy
to oblige!

Next step is to always "cruise the exhibits", giving everything in the big
hangars a cursory once-over. I've learned not to buy anything right away,
as the prices become a bit more negotiable by mid-week, but I always like to
see "what's hot" early in the week before the crowds are too thick. This,
of course, means LOTS of walking, but we were still fresh at this stage of
the game...

I found where LightSpeed's head cheese, Alan Schrader, was working (Aircraft
Spruce), and stopped by to say "hi". We've known each other for years now,
and I told him that I was in the market for his latest offering, the "Zulu".
He allowed that he'd work me a good deal later in the week, and we bade a
temporary farewell. Alan is truly one of the "good guys" in the aviation
world, and will give you the shirt off his back to make sure you're happy --
so I knew he wouldn't let me down....

With the size of the grounds, this cursory look around filled the entire
day, and soon it was time for EAA's annual kick-off concert on Aeroshell
Square. This year they blessedly retired the Beach Boys (two years of them
was enough) and moved up a generation to Foreigner. They really rocked the
house, and -- combined with the arrival of the awesome Boeing DreamLifter --
the concert simply couldn't have been better. This was the music of our
high school and college years, so we knew every word, and sang along without
prodding! After shouting ourselves hoarse we toddled off to meet friends
for dinner at the Charcoal Pit -- a nearby favorite for many years.
Unfortunately, after waiting over an hour we were still ten groups from the
top of the list -- so friends with a van drove us off-site to Kodiac Jacks
for a fantastic lake perch (a Wisconsin specialty) dinner! It was waaaay
too late by the time we toddled off to bed, but it was a great first day!

Tuesday, July 29th
We started this day with a bang, when a P-38 Lightning (Ruff Stuff) landed
low right over our tent! Luckily I saw him coming, and managed to get a
couple of great pictures. This is one of the truly fantastic things about
camping in the North 40 (and is something Joe later complained about lacking
in the Vintage area) -- the ability to watch the "other airshow" coming in
(or taking off) on RWY 9/27. We spent the entire week with incredibly rare
aircraft flying directly overhead, often so close that we could see the
expression on the pilots face, and this alone was worth the price of
admission.

Having stayed up too late, we slept in and got a fairly late start. No
worries -- today was the day for the "Fly Market", in search of aviation
"stuff" for the hotel, and we could hit that entire area in a matter of
hours. (The Fly Market is an outdoor area of tents where the low-budget
vendors are allowed to display their wares, and we often find hidden gems
here.) This year was no different, and I was soon playing "pack horse" to
haul all the goodies and decorations that we found in this very down-home
vendor area. We barely made it back to the site, on our bikes, with so
much to carry, and gladly made use of a friends offer to haul all our stuff
home in their van.

Then it was time for cocktails and the "arrival airshow". I must say that
this year we saw very few close calls -- everyone did a great job. We saw a
fair number of go-arounds, though -- so perhaps the controllers had been
instructed to "pull the go-round trigger" a bit quicker this year? Either
way, it was great fun watching the hordes arriving (and departing) after the
airshow...

(To be continued....)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:Hqulk.228225$TT4.45450@attbi_s22:

This was to be the year of the great attendance crash at Oshkosh.
With GA flying down 50% in many parts of the country, attendance at
other major fly-ins down, and record gas prices, it was only natural
to assume that Airventure attendance would plummet, too. Even Tom
Poberezny referred to it in his introductory remarks on the first day
of AirVenture.

Well, we're just back from 7 glorious days camped with our planes, and
I'm here to tell ya that Airventure attendance was UP this year, with
on-field airplane camping full by Monday night, and thousands of
drive-ins camping in Camp Scholler! The crowds on the grounds and in
the exhibit hangars were constant, and all of the vendors I queried
were pleasantly surprised by their strong sales. Without exception,
NONE of them expected to come close to last year's numbers...but match
them they did.

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


Barf.


Bertie

On Aug 3, 10:10*pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
This was to be the year of the great attendance crash at Oshkosh. *With GA
flying down 50% in many parts of the country, attendance at other major
fly-ins down, and record gas prices, it was only natural to assume that
Airventure attendance would plummet, too. * Even Tom Poberezny referred to
it in his introductory remarks on the first day of AirVenture.



Thank you Jay for a great posting! I was at Oshkosh on Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday and I agree. This was the best Oshkosh yet!!

Steve Job

Thank you Jay for a great posting! I was at Oshkosh on Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday and I agree. This was the best Oshkosh yet!!

Weather-wise, I've never seen such a wonderful Airventure. From start to
finish, it was never too hot, never too cold, and it never stormed!

In fact, we were all remarking that the weather at Oshkosh has really
moderated since Algore invented "Global Warming". I remember in the 1980s
it was so bloody hot at OSH that we couldn't sleep at night...even outside
our tents.

Bugs, on the other hand, were ferocious this year -- actually for the first
time in our memory. OSH received a ton of rain (as did all of the Midwest)
this spring, and the mosquitoes came out in force each night, right at civil
twilight. Luckily, Deep Woods Off! still works well, and it doesn't stink
anymore.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Aug 4, 6:36*am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
Thank you Jay for a great posting! *I was at Oshkosh on Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday and I agree. *This was the best Oshkosh yet!!

Weather-wise, I've never seen such a wonderful Airventure. *From start to
finish, it was never too hot, never too cold, and it never stormed!

In fact, we were all remarking that the weather at Oshkosh has really
moderated since Algore invented "Global Warming". *I remember in the 1980s
it was so bloody hot at OSH that we couldn't sleep at night...even outside
our tents.

Bugs, on the other hand, were ferocious this year -- actually for the first
time in our memory. *OSH received a ton of rain (as did all of the Midwest)
this spring, and the mosquitoes came out in force each night, right at civil
twilight. * Luckily, Deep Woods Off! still works well, and it doesn't stink
anymore.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

The weather gods smiled on you guys. OSH is gettin pounded right now
by level 4-5 storms.... That is good karma for sure..

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:2JClk.228789$TT4.101194@attbi_s22...
Thank you Jay for a great posting! I was at Oshkosh on Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday and I agree. This was the best Oshkosh yet!!

Weather-wise, I've never seen such a wonderful Airventure. From start to
finish, it was never too hot, never too cold, and it never stormed!

In fact, we were all remarking that the weather at Oshkosh has really
moderated since Algore invented "Global Warming". I remember in the 1980s
it was so bloody hot at OSH that we couldn't sleep at night...even outside
our tents.

Bugs, on the other hand, were ferocious this year -- actually for the
first time in our memory. OSH received a ton of rain (as did all of the
Midwest) this spring, and the mosquitoes came out in force each night,
right at civil twilight. Luckily, Deep Woods Off! still works well, and
it doesn't stink anymore.
--
Jay Honeck

The state of Wisconsin recently signed a bill making the mosquito the
official state bird of Wisconsin.

The weather gods smiled on you guys. OSH is gettin pounded right now
by level 4-5 storms.... That is good karma for sure..

For sure. It's been near 100 degrees here today, with God-awful humidity.
We've had Oshkosh's like that in the past, and it's absolutely no fun at
all....
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:LOOlk.284152$yE1.236398@attbi_s21:

The weather gods smiled on you guys. OSH is gettin pounded right now
by level 4-5 storms.... That is good karma for sure..

For sure. It's been near 100 degrees here today, with God-awful
humidity. We've had Oshkosh's like that in the past, and it's
absolutely no fun at all....


Good grief.

Bertie