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Oshkosh 2017 - The full trip report

bullojm1

Well Known Member
It's hard to believe it's already time for Osh 2017. It seems like just a few months ago I was there. In the past, I have always flown to Oshkosh either on Sunday or Wednesday. This year I didn't have anything really going on the weekend before Osh, so I decided to start my trip on Friday and head over to my College friend's house in Cleveland, and then head over to Oshkosh on Saturday. This plan worked out very well because there was a decent size storm moving across the Midwest. My plan would be to fly to Cleveland, let the storm pass over, and then continue onto Oshkosh.



Packing this year was about the same as years past, with the exception that I finally invested into an inflatable sleeping mat, and I brought a full sized pillow. Neither of which would really significantly change my CG or baggage weight. Of course the normal supplies consisting of good local IPA micro-brews and some Bourbon were onboard.
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It was HOT in MD this particular Friday. The OAT registered 102 degrees on the ground by the fuel pumps. Perfect time to jet out of here for some perfect Wisconsin summer days.
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Hmmm, on run up I realized my fuel flow wasn't working. I didn't know if this was the new Red Cube I installed in the spring stopped functioning, or my EIS was suffering some issues from my over-voltage event (See "Memorial Day Panel BBQ" entry). Well, out of all sensors to go bad, this is a good one! I will just have to check my fuel numbers on fillup against what I think the fuel burn is based on my EGT settings when running LOP.
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There were a few pop-up thunderstorms along my route - nothing to really be concerned with.
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This first cell I encountered had an interesting diagonal funnel formation just north of Gettysburg, PA.
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The cloud cover was quite nice to give me a break from the sun at 3,500'.
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Heading through the mountains of PA, I found a hole and climbed up to 8,500'. While at 3,500' I could of easily scooted above all obstacles, South West PA is relatively inhabitable and not a great place to plan an emergency landing.
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The views and temps (63 degrees) were much more pleasant up at altitude.
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Day 1 (continued)

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The clouds broke just as I neared Cleveland and I touched down at Lorain County Airport (KLPR) right around 6:35pm. By the time I tied down, gassed up and unloaded my night bag, my buddy (who is notoriously late) arrived just as I was walking off the ramp. Perfect timing!! We enjoyed a fun night of vinyl records, Mexican food and delicious margaritas. Great first leg out to Osh!
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Day 2

I woke up early today to see what the weather was doing. Ugh - rain was about the hit Cleveland, and there was another system behind it passing over Chicago currently. This could be an interesting trip.
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By 12:30pm the storms had passed Cleveland, and the storm over Chicago had quickly dissipated. It was time to blast off to Tyler Memorial (3TR) for some cheap gas before heading to Osh.
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There was a scattered layer at 1,500' just to the west of Cleveland.
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The layer quickly dissipated. as I approached the southwest and of Lake Erie.
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I had a pretty strong headwind - 17 kts on the nose at 2,500'. I decided to stay low.
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Hey, look who I met up with - Captain John and his "Aluminum Mistress". CJ was also staying the night in Cleveland with his cousin. We met up in the air about 30nm from 3TR.
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Tyler Memorial (3TR) had a cheapest gas I've seen in a while - $3.52/g!
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The place was DEAD. CJ and I thought the weather to our east was going to keep a lot of pilots from going to Oshkosh today, and it should be a walk in the park for us to arrive.
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Tyler's FBO was quite nice. Leather recliner chairs. free water and snacks. It was a great stop.
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Day 2 (continued)

Off we went again - our route was to scoot over the lake along the shoreline, stay outside of Gary, IN class D and Chicago airspace, then shoot right to RIPON for the arrival procedure.
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The winds aloft died down significantly as we crossed over the lake.
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CJ with downtown Chicago in the background.
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Ah Wisconsin - finally getting close. the clouds dropped as we headed north.
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Hmmm...well so much for my theory of minimal traffic going into Oshkosh today. My ADS-B traffic was lit up like a Christmas tree!
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Just as CJ and I were about to start the approach to the RIPON intersection (we were 5 miles south), we heard on the approach frequency that all aircraft who haven't approached RIPON should start doing counterclockwise turns at their current location. The approach would be closed for approximately 30 minutes to accommodate a mass Bonanza arrival of 100-150 airplanes. Green Lake's holding pattern was full, and CJ and I didn't feel like doing circles - so we headed due west for 15 minutes, and then we would turn around and head east for 15 minutes to join up with our original route.
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When they opened up the approach again, it was pure mayhem. Hundreds of airplanes were headed directly for the town of Ripon. CJ and I found some space to get in line before Ripon - however, it was TIGHT. The plane in front of me started to slow down to 70 kts. A highwing passed 50' under me. I could tell CJ had enough as he pealed off. I stuck with it a little longer, and then the controllers told everyone to peel off and rejoin at Ripon due to too many airplanes being between RIPON and FISK. I came back around and found a nice hole to rejoin at RIPON. No sooner was I following the tracks when someone was flying DIRECTLY TOWARDS ME, the opposite direction of everyone else - maybe 100' below me. The approach this time was much better in terms of spacing. The controllers were doing a good job of peeling everyone off between 27 and 36. However, before I got to FISK, they stopped doing 27 approaches and everyone was to land 36. On the base for 36 everyone was very SLOW. I was down to 65 kts. The controller for 36 couldn't keep up with all of the traffic. For some reason, everyone was landing 36R even though there was no specific instruction given. I looked left and right and didn't see anyone for the 36L approach, so I took it. I landed long and rolled off the end of it. I wasn't about to put myself in danger with the cluster that was happening on 36R.

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Day 2 (continued)

The new version of Garmin Pilot has a great tracing feature on it. You can fully see the path I took to arrive at Oshkosh. This was definitely the most crazy approaches and dangerous I have experienced flying into Oshkosh.
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You know you're at Oshkosh when your oil temps are SCREAMING!
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Finally here, and I ended up taxiing right behind CJ. We had a great parking spot this year close to the show and the showers, with the privacy of a drainage ditch behind it. Definitely the best parking spot I've ever had in Homebuilt Camping (HBC). Let the fun begin!!
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Day 3

The weather on the Sunday before the show started was perfect - a nice overcast layer and the temps were in the 70's. It was nice to talk around the grounds before the public was allowed in.
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Walked by the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. It is the first rocket to ascend above the Karman line and successfully return to Earth for a vertical landing.
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Not much free time was had today as I was hosting the Second Annual Oshkosh HBC Beer Tasting. The amount of people and beer this year was overwhelming. Easily 250 people. We needed to get creative with containers to keep beer cold in. We even needed to resort to thick plastic garbage bags.
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I had an outstanding group of volunteers who really made this possible to be a success. Rob Schroer came back to help out for a second year.
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Frank "Knarf" Smidler helped out also with setup.
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Paul McCurdy really saved the day. He saw we would be short on beer containers and flagged down the EAA "Pope-mobile" to get a ride over to North-40 to grab some bins from Target. Thanks Paul!!!!
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Does anyone here look like they are having fun?
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Finally, time for me to enjoy one!
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Beer from all over the world made an appearance here. Castle Lager courtesy of Arie from South Africa.
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Day 3 (continued)

Not too impressed with the Steel Reserve. This is a CRAFT beer event...not **** beer. Some people will bring anything to get in the door - 80/20 rule proves to persist even at the HBC beer tasting.
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My good friend Jim Buechler always steels beer from my at SNF and other Osh's....finally I get even!
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Jim brought a "Bad Hombre" beer from Independent Brewing Company of Bel Air, MD for me - his "Bad Hombre"!
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With all of the work out of the way and the party on autopilot, all of us volunteers and coordinators were having a lot of fun.
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And so was everyone else!
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Day 3 (continued)

The last remaining item to tackle after we ran out of beer was cleanup. Captain John's domestic capabilities really shined!
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My event also made front-page news on VAF. Thanks to all of the volunteers and Jerry Fischer to make this event happen! Looking forward to next year!!
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Day 4

Today was the opening day of Oshkosh. I didn't really have anything I particularly wanted to see at the show. This year was more about hanging out with the friends who I have made over the years at Oshkosh.

CJ and I stopped in to Vertical Power to visit Chad and Jeff. They showed off their new integration of the VPX and the iLevel3 EFIS running on an iPad.
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One of the neatest homebuilt aircraft on display at Oshkosh was from a South African company - Whisper Aircraft.
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They had some unbelievable speed claims - 200 MPH running at 75% power on a IO-360.
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The interior was very nice. Center stick. lots of baggage room and extremely comfortable to sit it.
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It was tough to get CJ out of the airplane!
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This airplane not only made CJ and me smile...but also the sky :)
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A lot of thought was put into the design of the Whisper. The wheelpants even had nice doors on them for checking tire pressure. I hope the best for this company and their current ramping up to enter into sales in North America. Once the company proves to be successful and sustainable, I could easily see myself building one of these sexy speed daemons!
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Ran into the guys behind Flight Outfitters bags. They especially enjoyed some of my stories of their bags. Their products are made well, designed smartly and are super durable.
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Day 4 (continued)

Ran into Jim at Champion Aero and let him know how good his seminar was on Slick Magnetos last year. If you own a set of Slick's, make sure you catch his seminar. He is an excellent technical speaker.
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B-1B Bomber in Aeroshell Square.
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CJ and I enjoying a peaceful picnic in Alaska. Nothing out of the ordinary here...
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Next up was the "Beer Fairy" Monday night event.
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Got to meet Van finally and chat briefly with him. What an honor. Meeting him was by far the highlight of my show.
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Ran into my friend Ulf from Sweden. Years ago he stopped by my homebase and we went for a ride in my RV.
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My buddies Brian and his wife Shantel.
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Day 4 (continued)

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Some of the MD boys (Bruce and Bill) and Frank and I.
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The beer event ended, but we were still hungry and ready for a little more action. Shouldn't be any surprise where we ended up.
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The band Hyde was excellent.
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I was able to score a nice hat for my new South African friends, Arie and Kian, found in Captain Johns's backpack!
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The stumble home from SOS brothers was about normal to include the shimmy under the gate.
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Day 5

I wanted to get a look at GRT's new HUD. Wow! What a bright screen. I tried to talk to some of the staff from GRT, but the booth was mobbed. Their stuff seemed to be a hit!
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I took a look at the new RV-12is.
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This Just Aircraft Super STOL with the Viking engine and a 5-blade Whirlwind propeller looks like a fun airplane! It really stands out on the ground.
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Camp Bullock/CJ for the week.
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CJ introduced me to his friend Jack from Massachusetts. CJ nicknamed Jack's RV-9A as the "Millennium Falcon" because of his instrument panel. GRT EFIS, Garmin 696, Dynon D10, Zaon XRX, Stormscope, GNS430, etc.. The list went on and on of all of the avionics he had installed.
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I ran into Ulf and his colleagues from Sweden again, but this time they came with 12 beers from Sweden they shipped over just fior me. Thanks Ulf!!!
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Next up was dinner at Roxy's in town. This place was fantastic. Great food and very reasonable prices. CJ , however, wasn't feeling up to dinner and elected to nap in the car. We think he had a little too much fun as SOS last night.
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I got to finally meet Kevin Johnson (Callsign YaDude) - CJ's friend from Massachusetts and proprietor of the website http://www.kevinsrv7.com/. This was his longest flight ever in his RV and first time at Oshkosh with it.
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Day 6

We woke up to a cool overcast day on Wednesday morning. YaDude is waiting form judges to come around to get his RV-7 critiqued.
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I stopped by the Dallas Avionics / NavWorx booth and spoke with Scott Davis about my options with my ADS600-EXP ADS-B Transceiver.
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NavWorx came out with a "backpack" GPS receiver. Installation is very simple and straightforward. The "backpack" plugs into the DB9 connector on the original unit, and the old DB9 connector plugs into the GPS "backpack". The only other change needed is the GPS antenna plugs into the "backpack" instead of the ADS600-EXP box. Both Scott and Bill Moffitt were very much behind continuing to support this unit and make it legal again.
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Next up was some Hypoxia training at the FAA booth.
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We were entered into a chamber where the oxygen level was about 1/2 of what it at at sea level, simulating roughly 28,000'. The purpose of this is for pilots to know how they react when put into a hypoxia situation. Like alcohol, hypoxia affects everyone a little differently. The purpose of this was to experience and recognize 3 signs of hypoxia. I highly recommend all pilots go through this. The staff at the FAA was extremely professional and great instructors.
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Playing "Paddy Cake" with Larry after 4 minutes in the changes the my O2 level nearing 60%.
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After all of that training, we were all hungry. Time for the annual RivetBangers.com prime rib dinner at the Block Otter Supper Club. We had quite the crew this year!
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Arie and Kian joined us and had a blast!
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Day 6 (continued)

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Painless trying to figure out how to get out of speeding tickets with Eric the sheriff. I don't think he got any good pointer....
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This picture was coined "Beavis and Butthead" on Facebook by an unknown funnyman.
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CJ is not impressed with WI's hack of Clam Chowder.
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18 of us chowing down on perfectly cooked prime rib.
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Brian is a happy camper!
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Ha! http://www.RivetBangers.com strike again!
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No one leave the Black Otter hungry!
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Day 7

We got a little rain on Wednesday night. It was easy to pick out the boys from the men when it came to preparedness for weather! CJ's RV-7 doubled nicely for a drying rack.
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We decided to do another pass at the Hypoxia chamber knowing what to expect.
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We were the first ones in on Thursday morning and the simulated altitude was 28,000'. Another good experience. It was great to go back and to know what to expect.
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Arie and Kian stopped by as I was closing down camp. Kian has one heck of an RV grin!!
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All packed up and ready to head our own ways. Just like last year, I am heading out to Minneapolis, MN to visit some college friends.
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Cya Oshkosh!
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It was a great day to fly. Beautiful puffy WI clouds filled the skies.
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Even a little tailwind heading west. Gotta love it.
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Rock star packing at Flemming Field (KSGS). Definitely a great, friendly FBO.
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I had a great day catching up with my friends from MSP. As you can tell, they're perfectly normal and well grounded....not.
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Day 8

Once again the weather gods were smiling upon me - another beautiful, perfect flying day. This is a view of the Mississippi river just south of KSGS.
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Hmmmph, my #2 CHT seems quite low.
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After some diagnostics, I concluded it was most likely the sensor gone back...again. This sucker was just replaced in the fall for the same cylinder.
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Passing by the small town of Webster City, IO
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And approaching Ankeny Regional Airport (KIKV).
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Day 9

I had a wonderful with visiting my college friend Rene and his lovely wife Monika in Des Moines. Their son has a thing for airplanes and we all got a kick out of him flipping switches on my airplane and touching the control surfaces.
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Off I head east, direction of the guaranteed tailwinds....except today. 7 kts on the nose! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! I knew I didn't feed the wind gods enough Pirate Coffee at Oshkosh!
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The trip back east wasn't very long today. I was going to refuel in Burlington, WI (KBUU) and then head down to Westosha (5K6) to meet up with my friend "Rose" for some pontoon fun at her lake house.
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Back over the Mississippi crossing into Illinois. This could be the first time this trip my airplane has overflown the Land of Lincoln.
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ADS-B traffic showed a scatter of some traffic heading back from Oshkosh looking to fuel up on the cheap at KBUU also.
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I hit KBUU at the right time! I was able to pull directly up to the pumps without anyone in front of me. On takeoff, someone on the ground let me know my right gear leg looked like it had a good shimmy as I taxied by. I thanked the guy and figured I'd look at it on the ground. The flight to Westosha was a quick one as it's only 5 or so RV minutes south of Burlington.
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Wait..let's get a closet look at that track. Yup, it took me 3 tried to land at Westosha. The wind was gusty direct crosswind from the south-east, and it created some interested bubbles as it passed by tall trees and an assortment of hangars right around the landing threshold. On the third attempt I was worried I might not be able to make it!
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Tied down for the night I was happy to be on the ground!
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Day 9 (continued)

"Rose" and I had a wonderful day out on Powers Lake.
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We had a real treat when around 7pm 4 hot air balloons came in our direction.
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We quickly fired up the pontoon board and joined in on the fun.
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Simply an amazing day! The hot air balloons were the icing on the cake to a perfect day. Love this lake and all it offers every year I come to visit.
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Day 10

Another perfect flying day today! As I was dropped off at Westosha Airport, I saw 3 AirCam's parked there! Wow, I haven't seen this many AirCam's in once place since 3 days ago at Oshkosh! But why are they all gathered here at 5K6? The fuel is only available to club members? I walked around the airport and found all of the AirCam guys gathered around an AirCam in a hangar that had a hard landing on the water. The 3 AirCam's belonged to the factory and they were on their way home from Oshkosh and stopped by here to evaluate the AirCam in need of help. I was in heaven - this is my next build, and to have so many around unexpectedly was just a delight. They had every configuration I could think of - floats, tundra tires, canopy, fuel injected and carburetor.
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Nice glass on all of them - Almost all of them had Dynon HDX EFIS's.
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Those AirCam's definitely don't make my RV look exciting!
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Hmmmm, on preflight I discovered what the guy at Burlington was talking about with my right wheelpant being loose. The screw I had holding it on had pulled through.
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Hmm, and a fiberglass spacer fell out when I took the wheelpants off.
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Luckily all of this was remedied by some blue painters take and some #8 washers I was able to find around some of the airport hangars.
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Day 10 (continued)

The fix was done just in time to see the AirCam's take off.
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Their ground roll is amazing. Airborne in less than 100'.
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Their climb rate was incredible also. All of the pilots told me they hadn't climbed higher than 500' AGL on their entire trip - where should they - it's an AirCam!
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My weather forecast was severe CAVU for my entire trip home.
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Lake Michigan always surprises me with how blue it is in the summer - looks like the Caribbean.
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Flew by Chicago.
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Once clear of the Chicago airspace I climbed up to 5,500. No real winds today - 2 kts on the tail here.
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Let's see what happens up higher. 6 kts headwind at 9,500'.
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Day 10 (continued)

As I leveled off at 9,500' I heard two loud POP noises. I scared the **** out of me. It took me a little bit to realize it was my chip bags busting open!
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With that mystery solved, up to 11,500' to clear some clouds I went. I picked up a little tailwind up here.
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11,500'....crazy....so high in something I put together in my garage. My RV continues to amaze me.
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And my full track home - it couldn't of been any easier. Another great Oshkosh/Midwest adventure trip on the books. Love this airplane.
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Excellent write up. A group of us arrived in that flock of aircraft Sat. afternoon maybe 30min ahead of you. Never have seen so many aircraft fighting for space at RIPON before - its amazing there were no incidents this year. Suspect fewer and fewer pilots are paying attention to the NOTAM as we saw aircraft left & right of the railway tracks, above and below 1,800 feet and several flying a lot slower than 90 kts making it incredibly difficult for the rest of us to adhere to the NOTAM. Controllers must loose a lot of sleep working OSHKOSH.
 
Great writeup! Sounds like you really maximized the AirVenture experience. What time did you arrive on Saturday? We flew in right around 6 p.m. and traffic was very light...only 4 to 5 planes converging on Ripon in the immediate area. The farther you zoom out on the GPS, the scarier it looks!
 
Mike thanks. You are the Master of Trip Writeups. Seriously man you got a talent every trip is written in one shot unlike us draggers. As soon as I start reading I can't stop till done. Was late to work today blamed you. And Bob Hoover :)


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When they opened up the approach again, it was pure mayhem. Hundreds of airplanes were headed directly for the town of Ripon. CJ and I found some space to get in line before Ripon - however, it was TIGHT. The plane in front of me started to slow down to 70 kts. A highwing passed 50' under me. I could tell CJ had enough as he pealed off. I stuck with it a little longer, and then the controllers told everyone to peel off and rejoin at Ripon due to too many airplanes being between RIPON and FISK. I came back around and found a nice hole to rejoin at RIPON. No sooner was I following the tracks when someone was flying DIRECTLY TOWARDS ME, the opposite direction of everyone else - maybe 100' below me. The approach this time was much better in terms of spacing. The controllers were doing a good job of peeling everyone off between 27 and 36. However, before I got to FISK, they stopped doing 27 approaches and everyone was to land 36. On the base for 36 everyone was very SLOW. I was down to 65 kts. The controller for 36 couldn't keep up with all of the traffic. For some reason, everyone was landing 36R even though there was no specific instruction given. I looked left and right and didn't see anyone for the 36L approach, so I took it. I landed long and rolled off the end of it. I wasn't about to put myself in danger with the cluster that was happening on 36R.

Yikes!!! Too dangerous for me. I last flew in 5 years ago in my RV-7, but now park at Racine or Kenosha and rent a car.

Enjoyed your write-up.

Thanks, Mike
 
Missed Black Otter

Had a great time, Mike glad to see you and John again, don't ever act your age. Always great to meet so many new people from around the world. Next year I plan to be there all week so I won't miss the Black Otter.
 
Very nice write up Mike!.........Also, I enjoyed that beer party!...Maybe a little too much! :eek:
Mike,

You're not the only one who enjoyed the beer party too much! The biggest issue with being the founder is everyone wants me to sample their flagship beers, and I can't say no! :D

beechrv9a said:
Great trip report Mike...and as always, next beer is on me....but maybe for me

Jim - not holding my breath. My beer guard is on high alert when you're in the vicinity.

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rightrudder said:
Great writeup! Sounds like you really maximized the AirVenture experience. What time did you arrive on Saturday? We flew in right around 6 p.m. and traffic was very light...only 4 to 5 planes converging on Ripon in the immediate area. The farther you zoom out on the GPS, the scarier it looks!

Doug - Garmin Pilot indicated wheels down was at 4:15pm on Saturday. Silly me thought it would be a breeze flying into Oshkosh since weather blocked a lot of traffic to the east. I didn't count on everyone waiting out the low ceilings in Southern WI that cleared out in the afternoon.

Vlad said:
Mike thanks. You are the Master of Trip Writeups. Seriously man you got a talent every trip is written in one shot unlike us draggers. As soon as I start reading I can't stop till done. Was late to work today blamed you. And Bob Hoover

Vlad,
I cheat a little in my trip reports. All my pics get automatically uploaded to my site, RVPlane.com. I then just write a quick blurb about them, and have a script to "VAFify" them.

Frank Smidler said:
Had a great time, Mike glad to see you and John again, don't ever act your age. Always great to meet so many new people from around the world. Next year I plan to be there all week so I won't miss the Black Otter.

Frank - great to see you again. We should make sure George books Derek to work the week of Oshkosh next year. Salt in the wound! You'll love the Black Otter - I turned some of my local Maryland RV guys onto it and they loved it.

Captain_John said:
Nice write up Mikey!

Lots of good times and great pictures!

See you again soon!

CJ - Great to spend all week parked next to you! Maybe next year you can figure out how to configure your camera to take pics larger than 640x480? :D

kevinsrv7.com said:
Mike, Great trip report. Can't wait for next year. Good meeting you.

YaDude! Great to meet you too. You've got a beautiful airplane. Ever get all the water out of the avionics???? :confused::confused::confused:
 
Yes

Yes the water drips coming from my gtx 327 the night before didn't seem to be a problem on the next power up. I will be prepared for next year though. Just bought a canopy cover and folding chair.:)
 
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