OSH 2007

OSHKOSH 2007 ? When people ask which holiday they like the most, the typical answer is 4th or July, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and sometimes you hear Memorial Day or Labor Day. For me, that answer is easy, my favorite holiday is Oshkosh. It is the longest holiday of the year at over 1 week, it has the largest gathering of people in one place than any other holiday, it has a ?service? every night at Theater in the Woods celebrating different aspects of the holiday, and everyone at Oshkosh is happy to be there (unlike some holidays).
I expect this year to be reported as the biggest Oshkosh ever recorded. For a couple of days the airport was totally full and did not accept new arrivals unless you were a warbird, homebuilt or vintage aircraft. I have also never seen the campgrounds so full. Camp Scholler was busting at the seams by Sunday night. Thanks to the efforts of the RV-10 camp group, we had spots right up front which made it a short walk to the showers and entrance to pilot?s paradise.
This was the first year I would be flying into Oshkosh. My first visit to Oshkosh was in 1996 when my dad and I went for the first time on TWA airlines into Chicago. We rented a car that first year, drove up to Oshkosh and stayed with relatives in Appleton WI. Over the years, I started to figure it out and eventually tweaked it as best I could to experience what Oshkosh really is by flying commercial into Appleton, renting a car and camping in Camp Scholler. The only thing missing was flying myself into Oshkosh in a plane I built and camping in Camp Scholler. Well, I made it and RaNae and I had a blast.
On Saturday, we departed KBTF (Salt Lake City) and headed for Custer SD. for our first gas stop. Custer is home of Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore. This is a town we want to come back to and do some exploring. We fueled up, departed and flew around the two monuments and took some pictures before heading to Albert Lee MN for our second gas stop before landing at Oshkosh.

Flying over MN and WI was beautiful with all the corn and soybean fields below.

Albert Lee was a great stop with a river nearby and some of the cheapest gas around. A Lancair Turbo Prop landed right behind us and we knew we were getting close. After departing Albert Lee, we had approximately 1 hour to Oshkosh. I was prepared for the Ripon/Fisk transition to Oshkosh and RaNae and I were really looking for all the planes I had been hearing about for the previous 11 years of attending Oshkosh. We were within 10 miles, keep looking, 5 miles, 1 mile???We approached Ripon which was preloaded in the Chelton with the next fix at Fisk. The controllers were not talking much. I easily spotted the railroad tracks and started flying up the tracks at 1800 ft and 90knots, no planes. Got over Fisk and was asked to rock my wings and fly east bound to runway 36L, still no planes. Switched to the tower frequency and was cleared to land runway 36L. We were having a blast as we approached Oshkosh and saw all the planes that had already arrived.


I lined up on the huge 36L runway land landed half way down. We have arrived! I held up my HBP (homebuilt parking sign) and we were directed to the RV-10 row with ease by way of a scooter escort.

We pulled into our spot, shut down the engine and we both could not believe that after all those previous trips, thousands of hours on the internet doing research and 3000 hours of building, we had made it to Oshkosh and accomplished one of the biggest goals I had ever set up to this point in my life. The first flight was a big achievement but the project really wasn?t complete in my mind until the plane was sitting in the grass at Oshkosh.

The Ripon/Fisk approach was nothing like people talked about. We did not see one airplane on that approach which I know is pretty rare. The controllers did a great job and it really was stress free. Later in the week I did get the chance to approach Ripon when the airport was shut down to arriving traffic and both lakes had planes in the holding patterns. There were planes everywhere but I never considered it dangerous. The controllers did a very good job getting everyone lined up and safely to the airport, now that was the real Oshkosh experience.
The whole week was a blast. Sunday my wife did chip her tooth and we spent the first half of Monday getting it fixed at the dentist, but other than that it could not have been better. Right off the bat I got to meet Mr. Doug Reeves. I really appreciate all the work he does on this site. Tim Olsen and his awesome family parked on our right and we just had a blast taking people flying. It was really fun for me to give my family the full Oshkosh experience and take them for rides in the morning. The view from the air of the huge gathering is a site you never forget. I had never had any pictures taken of my plane in flight and we were able to get some this year. On one of my flights, we approached downwind for runway 27 and pulled in behind Glacier Girl (P-38), pretty cool. She was flying a little too slow for us (ok she really pulled in between us and the Tri-motor) and the controllers made us do a 360 for spacing. I spent a lot of time at the plane talking with all the great RV-10 flyers, builders and dreamers. We even spent some time with a group (as I?m sure many of you did too) that is shooting a documentary on homebuilding and flying. Tim and I took them up for a beautiful flight over a low cloud layer with bright sun above. Hopefully they will get it picked up. On Friday I was able to fly in the homebuilt review but unfortunately, they must have lost my information because when I did my fly-by they jumped to the plane behind me. Oh well, it was still fun.

Inside of Tim Olsens RV-10

We left on Saturday morning and headed back to Salt Lake with the addition of my older brother Todd. It took us around 6 hours flying time each way. We were home by 3pm on Saturday. This plane really is awesome. We averaged over 205 mph for the flights to and from Oshkosh thanks to a little tailwind both ways (which is very rare). No weather problems at all the whole week other than a little scare Thursday night as some storms looked like they could have been bad but just brought some rain. The nights were cool and days were just about right. I should have used my XM Weather to turn down the humidity a little but it wasn?t bad.
It was great to meet many of you and it really was the best Oshkosh ever. I look forward to seeing you all again at OSH 2008 or another fun fly-in.

You sir, are truly an inspiration

Perfect write-up. Great pictures. Beautiful airplane.

I love the comment (paraphrased), "It wasn't really done until it was tied down at Oshkosh."

Great Pictures, as usual Scott!

Your arrival "traffic" experience paralleled mine....do you think they heard we were coming and cleared the airspace in advance?!

Paul

Ironflight said:

Great Pictures, as usual Scott!

Your arrival "traffic" experience paralleled mine....do you think they heard we were coming and cleared the airspace in advance?!

Paul

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I think they knew the rookie was coming. That is probably why they gave me the big runway too. They figured I could hit that one and stop before the end.

Beautiful plane and excellent write-up. Thanks also for info on Custer, SD.

Have fun is South Dakota!

rodeomanny said:

Beautiful plane and excellent write-up. Thanks also for info on Custer, SD.

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Your welcome. Have a blast over there. I've heard some great things about Deadwood SD and I'm planning a visit there but Custer has the closest airport to Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore.