Flight To Oshkosh, Wisconsin, July 2011

Sunday, July 31

I only blogged once from Oshkosh itself. Between running around looking for parts to fix the fried wiring, then running around to look for a new brake cylinder (I lost my brakes early in the flight and REALLY didn't want to fly home without any. When I landed at Oshkosh, a friendly volunteer got off her scooter to show me where to enter the ultralight parking area - I couldn't stop in time and wiped out both of her mirrors,) and the heat, heat, heat - I just didn't have the energy to blog. So now I'll tell you about the show itself.

First, it was HOT and HUMID. And the place is HUGE. When Randy, Gayle and I went into the city of Oshkosh to do laundry, it took us almost 15 minutes of driving to leave the airport grounds! Planes, people, tents and RVs everywhere.

I have NEVER met such friendly, friendly people. In spite of the sticky heat, everyone I saw was cheerful. There were long lines waiting for the trams to get from one area to another. I frequently took 3 different trams to get where I wanted to go - and standing in the hot sun waiting to board wasn't fun. Yet no one griped, people squeezed together so others could get on board, and folks started up spontaneous conversations.

(click on photo to view full sized image)

What was truly amazing to me was that every person I met who was working the show - in the restaurants, in the vendor booths, driving the trams and the busses, cleaning the showers - EVERYONE was cheerful and friendly. In spite of the heat and the humidity.

Some folks were lucky and had their own airshow-sponsored transportation. I fell in love with the cute bugs that seemed to be everywhere. They were painted various bright colors and were assigned to folks who had come long before the show to help set up.

(click on photo to view full sized image)

(One woman told me that she and her husband had come in early June to help get everything ready in the ultralight area, and didn't expect to leave until mid-August, helping break things down.

People come to see the planes, and there were thousands of planes. Hundreds of RVs (the planes, not the camping vehicles,) hundreds of Cessnas, hundreds of everything, it seemed. Here's a shot of some Cessna 195s - there were about 80-100 of them lined up next to each other, in 5 rows.

(click on photo to view full sized image)

As you know, we got in on Monday morning and my cockpit fire happened that afternoon. I spent Tuesday looking for parts - and the Emergency Repair Service Center volunteer, Ron White was going to help me put it all together on Wednesday morning. Didn't happen.

It started to POUR on Wednesday morning about 5:30 a.m. I love being in my tent when it's raining; it's such a cozy feeling. Soon I was feeling more than cozy. My tent is no longer rainproof. I got up to a huge puddle in the middle of the tent - everything was soaked. It rained most of Wednesday. When Randy, Gayle and I went that afternoon to do our laundry we stopped at Target for tarps.

Yet even with the rain, people put on all sorts of rain gear (including garbage bags,) and continued looking at the planes, the vendor booths, and everything else. People stood under the planes' wings to talk and share experiences. I can honestly say that the rain didn't dampen anyone's spirits.

It rained some on Thursday, but not much. I spent most of Thursday and Friday like everyone else - walking, gawking, and talking.

Saturday afternoon was horrible - a "straight line wind" (Wisconsin/Minnesota language) whipped up suddenly. I don't know how fast the winds were going - best guess is about 60-70 mph. (North of Oshkosh the winds were clocked @ 100 mph.) In the ultralight area it was a disaster. Five planes were almost totally destroyed. People grabbed for whatever plane they were standing by, holding them down - even though virtually all were already tied down. I saw a Casperwing go cartwheeling, and two Quicksilver MXs were sadly broken.

(click on photo to view full sized image)

(click on photo to view full sized image)

Tents were blown down and anything left out went flying across the area. I don't know what the damage was in the general aviation area - probably not as bad, since they are much heavier planes.

What else can I say about Oshkosh itself? The daily airshows were spectacular and there were several concerts. The last night (Saturday) there were TWO airshows - the usual afternoon one and then a night one, where the planes looked like meteors streaming fireworks. Absolutely incredibly beautiful.

Sunday morning while Wayne was shopping, Bob and I did some final flight planning.

(click on photo to view full sized image)

Now we're in Faribault, MN staying with friends and looking forward to continuing our flying adventure.