EAA Air Venture – Oshkosh Air Show

One of the biggest aviation events in the world is EAA Air Venture which is held in Oshkosh, WI each July. This is the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual major event and this is a must see for any pilot. I think I am one of the few pilots that I know of that has not attended this event (and I plan to go next year).

It is hard to describe Oshkosh to somebody that has not been there and I will not try to describe it here. But I will say a few things that I have heard and read about. Thousands of privately owned small airplanes fly into Oshkosh from all over the country each year just to attend. People camp out with their tents and sleeping bags next to their airplanes for a week to enjoy the air shows, the exhibitions, the various manufacturer presentations, visit with long lost pilot friends and view all the airplanes parked all over this large airport. If you have seen a photograph of the airport from overhead you will see rows and rows of parked airplanes on every inch of ground except for the runways. I have been told that pictures do not do it justice. I will have experience it myself which I plan to next year.

I was able to experience Oshkosh on a small scale recently. Our local airport sponsored fuel at a discount price for Oshkosh bound aircraft stopping here. Our location is just the right distance for most aircraft before arriving at Oshkosh. This allows most planes to stop, refuel and take a break.

Our local pilots association uses this opportunity to raise money to help our airport. We cook hamburgers, brats and hot dogs as well as offer sodas, water and snacks to the arriving pilots and their passengers. We ask for donations for the items provided and most pilots are quite generous. We do this on the weekend before and the weekend after Oshkosh. Through our efforts and the donations of the many aircraft passing through, we have raised a large amount of money to be spent on improving our airport.

Along with a dozen or so other local pilots, we all parked ourselves in front of the pilot shack (or FBO as it is called in the aviation world) to watch the show. We take turns cooking the food, taking donations, talking with pilots and enjoyed the arriving and departing aircraft.

We watched all kinds of planes from slow 2 seat Piper Cups to War Birds coming in, refuel, take a break to enjoy our offerings, and then give us a quick mini-air show on their departure. We get to peek in the plane, talk to the pilots and learn some little know secrets of these unique aircraft. Many of these planes return here year after year to enjoy our food and company. Each plane left its own story to tell.

We had a War Bird show up and give us a mini- show. First, the plane did a slow roll over the airport. Then the pilot flew down the runway with smoke coming out of the back, just like an air show. On the ground we said we enjoyed the show and we asked him why those particular maneuvers. He said, “I had to roll over to see the airport and then I had to mark the runway so I could land.” Well, any excuse to show off I guess. We all enjoyed it.

We had a flight of 3 Piper Cubs come in. The pilots fly from the back seat and the front seat was full of sleeping bags, tents, clothes and other supplies for a week of camping. These are not known for speed and we saw them coming in from a distance. And we watched, and watched as they slowly approached.

We had a small home built experimental aircraft show up. I could not remember the name but it was so small that I thought it was a large radio controlled airplane. And boy it was fast. It flew down the field at well over 300 mph (as reported by the pilot). Just watching it go down the runway at 100 feet and you knew it was fast.

We had the regular run of Cessna, Piper and Beechcraft aircraft visit, refuel, enjoy our food, talk to us and fly off only to return the next week on the way back. Some only had the pilot in it while others had every seat full. We saw complete families and even a couple of grandfathers with their grandkids. Overall we had a couple of hundred planes stop by and enjoy our airport. Many said they have been here before and many first timers said they will be back next year.

This is what we, the local pilots, want. We want these pilots coming back here and enjoying our airport. We are trying to make our airport better, one pilot and airplane at a time. Someday, I want to be at another airport and say I am from Kirksville and hear somebody say, “Kirksville? I have been there. Boy, you have a nice airport.” We are working on it.

Everything Went Wrong – And It Was Still Good

Our local airport held its annual Airport Day the other day. I have been excited about this for several months now, especially since I was helping to plan this upcoming event. If you read my blog entries you know I have enjoyed these events in the past. With the opportunity to help plan this event really added to my enjoyment for this year.

Our planning committee continues to work hard at changing Airport Day from a day at the airport watching airplanes and getting airplane rides into a full scale air show complete with performing aircraft. This year is the first step by having an aircraft acrobatic club come down and perform a practice competition. This will not be a full air show but it will be aircraft doing acrobatic routines to enjoy. So we planned and planned and our planning appeared to be going good.

Unfortunately there was only one person we could not plan on, Mother Nature. She decided we should have 20+ mph winds at the airport. Where the acrobatic planes were coming from she provided low clouds and coming rains. Due to the weather at their departing airport, the acrobatic planes could get here but they could not get back home so they had to cancel.

So, with our acrobatic competition cancelled; the high winds canceling our skydivers, our Ultralight aircraft flights and our Radio Controlled Aircraft flights; we wondered how the attendees to our Airport Day would respond do all of these lost events. And we were surprised.

Many of the people showing up understood the weather problem yet they remained and explored our other offerings. They attended our sessions with our NASA speaker talking about flight from the Wright Brothers to space and beyond. They looked at the dozen or so airplanes on display and they took airplane rides all day long well beyond the times published. And they ate all the food we cooked and explored the rest of the airport.

We estimated that we had more that 1,000 people attend, and we considered that a success despite all the cancelled events. I should point out that the proceeds of the airplane rides and food sales go to help the airport pilots association improve the airport. The airport association has already done a lot to help furnish the airports new pilot lounge, briefing room and training room.

We hope to make our airport a rest stop of choice for small planes flying back and forth across the country. Most small airplanes that travel hundreds of miles need to stop, refuel and take a break now and then. With out proximity to two large metropolitan areas where small planes many times prefer to stay away from on long cross country flights, we hope to attract them to stop here. Just as the ground traveling public likes to stop at a clean and nice rest stop, we want our airport to be that rest stop for pilots.

During our Airport Day I was expected to fly my Ultralight with a few other pilots to entertain the crowd. After that I was expected to fly my radio controlled model airplanes to entertain the crowd. The high winds prevented both activities.

Beyond my expected flight performances I was responsible for crowd control and parking. With volunteers helping with the parking we kept the vehicles neatly parked and under control. I spent most of the day riding back and forth on a scooter running up and down on the flight line to insure people stayed within the barriers and away from operating aircraft, and then off to the parking lots to check on my crews directly the parking cars (which was going very smoothly, my thanks to the volunteers).

I can say I had fun. I did not get to fly, but I can fly most other days. I did get sunburned despite the large application of sunscreen, but that was only minor in some small spots I missed with the goop.

I call Airport Day a success even with the weather cancellations. We are already talking about next year and the year after that. We hope to have more to offer.

Fly Safe!

I am on Vacation!

I saw a friend of mine the other day and I was asked if I had a day off. I told him I just started a two week vacation.

"Are you going anyplace?” he asked.

"Nope,” I replied.

“Why not?”

“I did not want to.”

“Well, that’s stupid.”

Hmmm. I got to think about that. I did not think that taking a vacation and not doing anything was stupid so I sat and thought about it for a while. While thinking about whether taking two weeks vacation was stupid or not, I soon decided there are different types of vacations.

The first type is the “Family Vacation” (of course). This is the first type of vacation you experience as a kid. This is where the entire family heads off to some grand vacation location to spend way too much money, stay way too busy and come back tired and exhausted after a schedule that involved too much activity without enough time to relax. For kids this is not a problem. First, most kids have too much energy to start with and second, this vacation usually happens in the middle of the school summer vacation period so the kids have a few days, if not weeks, to relax after the vacation is over and before school starts. Adults, on the other hand, are not ready to go back to work the next day. They still need a vacation from managing the trip and putting up with the kids the entire time. I have done a few of these vacations and I decided a long time ago, “Never again”. Since the kids have grown up and moved on, “Never again” is a good possibility.

The second type of vacation is the “Honeymoon vacation”. This usually involves young and/or newly married couples, sometimes just couples, who go off and enjoy themselves in a different setting. Sometimes these may be a cruise, a visit to a vacation location, or just a cabin in the mountains. These types of vacations usually stop after kids arrive. I have been on a few of these.

But after you pass a certain age, you normally want the third type of vacation. This is the “Sit Around and Relax” vacation and that is what I am doing right now. I have nothing planned for most of the vacation and no schedule to keep. Oh, I do have a couple of planned events but they would be planned regardless if I was on vacation or not, so I do not count those events.

I have done the “Sit Around and Relax” vacation a couple of times in the past and boy they do the body good. One in particular happened about 6 years ago. I visited my in-laws and my father-in-law and I spent most of the vacation sitting on the porch. My kids were more involved with their cousins, aunts and uncles who gratefully kept them busy most of the entire vacation and kept me free to "sit around and relax".

As the sun moved across the sky each day and changed shade we had, we moved to another porch to continue to enjoy the daily shade. With a big house and three porches, we always found some cool shade to relax in. And during those times we had some good heart to heart talks on many subjects. I will always remember those conversations especially since my father-in-law passed away recently.

But now back to this vacation. I am planning to sit around and do nothing for most of the two weeks. I get up when I want to, eat when I want to, do what I want to and go to bed when I want to. The other day I sat on the front porch for a couple of hours watching the cars go by and the kids in the park.

So, why am I writing a blog on vacation? What better time. I enjoy writing and vacations are for doing things that you enjoy. Since it has been raining for the last couple of days I used this opportunity to do a few thing I like indoors instead of outdoors. As long as I am enjoying myself, does it matter what I do?

I hate to end with a cliché but I will. Life is too short not to enjoy it. Take the time and enjoy life, especially your vacation. Do what you like and do what you want. At all costs, enjoy yourself. I am enjoying mine.