On 25 May 2005 10:57:02 -0500, Mike Johnson
wrote:

Wife and I want to go to Oshkosh this year in our '46 Champ.
It's about 850 - 900 miles from the east coast, and we'd
like to camp along the way and after we arrive.

I'd love any suggestions

I flew to Oshkosh in '95 in the front seat of a UPF-7 Waco from
central Vermont. We basically just headed east till we passed
Chicago, then turned right. We did have a radio though, and two hand
held GPS's

Several things stand out in my memory of that flight: 1. Weather was
definately a factor. This route is known as the northeast corridor and
if you want to understand how bad the weather can be, just read "Fate
is the Hunter" by Ernest K. Gann. The next time I go, if I ever do
again, I will try flying north of the great lakes (in Canadian
airspace) and turn south after lake Michigan. Flying north of the
great lakes will hopefully avoid the numerous extremely violent
thunderstorms we had to dodge, which build up over the midwest and
drift eastward right through the airspace you want to fly in, and
which held us up frequently. 2. A hand held GPS is practically
invaluable. The rolling hills of central PA all look alike and the
checkerboard pattern farms and communities of Ohio and Illinois all
look the same too. Plodding along into the wind making all of 85 mph
ground speed, I had plenty of time to study them. 3. At 6' 2", I do
not fit well in the front cockpit of a Waco UPF-7. The little bit of
legroom forced me to sit like a budda for hours upon hours. I nearly
needed help exiting the airplane by the time we got back to Vermont,
and I didn't stop hurting for three days.

I would add that having a hand held radio is probably the second best
piece of equipment you should carry. The flight into Oshkosh likely
can be done nordo, but I believe you'll have to call ahead and make
plans (haven't read the current approach information this year). It
would be SO much easier for you and all involved if you could
communicate when you approached Wittman airfield though. There are a
LOT of airplanes in the sky around Oshkosh and it's comforting to know
that you've been identified and are in the right place.

Finally, much as I enjoyed being there, after three days I realised it
was time to go when I heard the blatting moan of high power engines
revving up for takeoff and turned towards the runway to see two P-51's
taking off side by side and said to myself: "Oh, just two more
Mustangs..."

Corky Scott

PS, The Waco I flew in has got to be one of the fastest of it's type
on the east coast, if not in the whole US. It cruises faster than any
other Waco or Stearman I've heard of. But one old timer who also
owned a UPF-7 Waco and lived nearby, who took off into the same gloom
that bedeviled us nearly the entire trip, beat us by a whole day to
the assembly airport ('95 was a Waco gathering year) south of Oshkosh.
We asked him how he managed that and he told us he just used an old
airliner pilot trick: When he encountered the really crummy weather in
eastern NY (mist, low clouds, rain showers, terrible visibility), he
flew out over lake Erie, turned west and dropped down to several
hundred feet. He just chugged along there knowing he would not be in
danger of terrain and avoiding, or flying through the conditions, that
turned us around and prevented us from taking off several times. He
knew of this technique because he was an old airliner pilot who had
used it to get through when the weather was terrible. Don't think we
would have used that technique even had we known of it...