Going to Air Venture
At Oshkosh, WI
After a lifetime of planning, my wife and
I left home on July 26, 2003, from the Nampa airport, headed
for AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We flew to Driggs, on the east side of Idaho, right up against the Teton
Mountains, which took us 2.6 hours. Originally we had
planned to leave Saturday afternoon, but because the weather
forecast was for rain in the afternoon, we decided to leave
ahead of it and left in the morning.
While we ate our lunch at the
restaurant in the terminal, we watched a glider flying the
thermals coming off the mountain range. It glided for as
long as the pilot wished to stay up and then he would come and
land at the airport. A pilot waiting to go up next sat
and visited with us while we ate. The Driggs airport was
our favorite airport on our entire trip.
We stayed at the cozy family-run
Pines Motel. The owner, who is also a pilot, was kind
enough to pick us up and return us to the terminal.
We spent the afternoon and evening wandering around the small
town, getting acquainted with the area, and getting rained on
in the process. It’s a good thing we changed our
plans!
Driggs Idaho. A very nice airport
just west of the Tetons
Sunday morning we got up early and had
breakfast at the airport. It was a beautiful morning with
low clouds hovering around the peaks of the Tetons. We spent
some time trying to decide where to cross the mountain range.
The pass we had planned to fly through which we could have gone
through at about 8000 feet was filled with clouds, so we had to
climb and go over the top. We topped out at just over
13,000 feet, but stayed up there as short a time as terrain
required.
The flight was gorgeous with huge billowy
clouds. We saw airplanes flying beneath the clouds,
through the pass, and had we known the territory, we could have
done the same, but hadn’t wanted to get boxed in
someplace.
Trying to decide if we can get through
the pass east of Driggs
Decided not to go through, but go over
the top. This is at 13,000 feet and can still climb at about
300 to 400 feet a minute at gross weight.This part of the
flight was beautiful.
Leaving the beautiful scenery of the
Tetons, we entered the drab desert of Wyoming. It was
interesting for about 2 minutes, and then we were looking
forward to another change. It took us 2.6 hours to
get from Driggs to Buffalo, Wyoming, where we experienced the
strongest and squirelliest crosswind I have ever experienced.
I am being really thankful I built a tricycle and not a tail
dragger! My plane is phenominally stable in a crosswind,
unlike its tail dragger brothers. Not only was it very
windy, but was also hot.
Miles and miles of desert. Gets
boring after the first 10 minutes.
Our next stop was in Spearfish, South
Dakota, one and a half hours after leaving Buffalo. I was
beginning to feel the effects of flying at 13,000 feet that
morning, without oxygen. I felt tired, but was still
alert and fully capable of focusing on my flying, so it was
nice to have a break often.
We flew on to Pierre, South Dakota, where
we had reservations to spend the night at King’s Inn.
The motel owner, who was very “pilot
friendly” came and picked us up at the airport and then
took us back the next morning. They were very
accomodating.
We learned from the natives that the name
of their city is “peer”, not “pee air”.
Cut wheat fields in South Dakota
After a refreshing evening and good night’s
rest I felt fully recovered from my flight of the day before.
(More about oxygen later.) We continued on to Marshall,
Minnesota, a 2.1 hour flight. This day’s scenery
was much more varied and interesting than the flight across
Wyoming and South Dakota. The farmland was green and lush
and there were pockets of trees throughout the landscape.
We flew from Marshall to Fairbault in
about 1.2 hours, and landed to refuel.
Minnesota is much prettier with lots of
lakes. It is obvious why Minnesota is called “the
land of a thousand lakes”.
After another 1.7 hours from Fairbault to
Wisconsin Rapids, we landed, had a wonderful Italian dinner and
retired for the night. This last leg of today’s
journey was fascinating, seeing the changing scenery and
getting into Wisconsin, where I was raised. I had never
seen it from the air, and so was fascinated to see that part of
the country from above.
In hindsight, I wish I had taken a 60
mile detour and seen my hometown and the family dairy farm that
we left when I was 16 years old, from the air. But I was
so intent on the goal of getting to Oshkosh, I didn’t
consider it at the time. Maybe if I go again???
Another view of of the beautiful farmland
- either Minnesota or Wisconsin.
We could have continued on into Oshkosh ,
but it would have made our arrival time in the afternoon, and
we decided we wanted our arrival to be early in the morning,
when we thought the airspace around Oshkosh would not be so
busy, with everyone else getting there. (Not to mention, my
wife thought an additional night at a motel sounded more
desirable than an additional night in a tent!)
We got up Tuesday morning, anticipating
our short hop into our destination, Oshkosh! I had
studied all the information I had collected before the trip, as
I didn’t want to make any mistakes.
We approached Ripon, as instructed, and
saw airplanes converging from every direction. Quite a
sight! We fell into line and followed along the railroad
tracks, and as we approached the spotters on the ground, they
gave us instructions to rock our wings to acknowledge they had
identified us, and we understood they meant us.
When we heard the controller talk to the
plane ahead of us and he rocked his wings, I knew I was next.
But when he called me a Cessna, I knew I had to correct such a
misconception, and said “I’m an experimental, Avid
Magnum”, even though we were not supposed to talk. After
that he called me the “high-wing white experimental”.
Much better! After all, this whole event is
sponsored by EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) and aren’t
WE the stars?
The controller assigned us to land on the
runway the very farthest from the camping area that was our
destination. Two and three airplanes were often assigned
to land simultaneously, on different colored dots or on the
numbers on the end of the runway. We were assigned to
land on the blue dot in the middle of the runway, and as we
touched down, my wife says I said “Got it!”)
We spent more time, then, taxiing on the
grass along the runways and taxiways, to where we were assigned
to park, than we had spent in the air that morning getting
there from Wisconsin Rapids.
Wisconsin country, close to where I grew
up.
Here we are at last