Semi - NORDO in a Champ to Oshkosh - Misc questions

Most of all, IMHO, think of Oshkosh as an interesting vacation - not an
outdoor convention where you must get to every exhibit. Relax, have fun,
explore, and enjoy being surrounded by friends and airplanes for a week.

This is excellent advice.

This will be our 23rd consecutive OSH convention (God willin' and the crick
don't rise...), and every year I regard it less as a "convention" and more
as a "vacation" -- even though we do use it as our primary "shopping trip"
of the year for our aviation themed hotel.

It's a good idea to go into OSH with a plan of action, lest you fritter the
week away haphazardly. We usually get there a day early, and spend the
first day setting up camp and just casually scouting out the joint, to see
what (if anything) has changed from prior years. (Some years nothing
changes; other years, EVERYTHING changes...)

The second day (while we're fresh) we'll hit the Warbirds, Fly Market and
the four big exhibition hangars (A, B, C & D). We won't buy anything big,
yet -- but we'll not the location of stuff we want, and we will purchase
stuff that appears to be unique and might be gone by mid-week.

Third day is the flight line and (if our feet make it) the ultralights.
It's always fun to watch those crazy guys and their flying machines.

The fourth day is serious shopping for the inn. We load up on anything and
everything, from wing ribs to Stan Stokes prints, to key chains to
afghans...

This year it (Wednesday) will also be our annual cookout/party at our
campsite, with Montblack and Jim providing grills, etc. Simply go to one of
the good EAA folks at the entrance to the North 40 (do this earlier in the
day -- don't wait till after the airshow!) and ask them for the location of
our campsite. They can search by our last name, but our "N" number works
best, and then hoof it on out to the party to rub elbows and tip cold ones
with many of the folks you've "met" here in rec.aviation.

Day five will be shopping for Atlas (our plane), with side trips to the
smaller tents around the four big exhibition hangars. This is our most
laid-back day, but can also be our most expensive! ;-)

Day Six will be the Seaplane Base. Don't miss it, or the Friday Fish fry.
We also usually visit Mary's relatives who live in nearby Neenah.

Every afternoon we try to catch some of the airshow (although that's the
best time to really shop), and every evening we plop ourselves out in the
North 40, right alongside Rwy 9/27, to watch the REAL airshow -- the
arrivals and departures. They are WAY more fun than the performers!

See you there!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

It's been several years since we called it "Antiques & Classics".
Vintage Aircraft covers everything from 1903 to 1970.

Jay Honeck wrote:
[snip]
The guys in one of the smaller type-buildings ("Antique/Classic" methinks)
[snip]

Mike Johnson wrote:
You can go the shoreline. There is one airport north of Chicago (Racine
WI?) whose CDAS extends out into the water, but you can go around it to
the south and then swing north. You can also fly beneath the CBAS
around/over Chicago then north and follow the DuPage River north to the
highway and on to OSH. Clow International used to have a nice restaurant.

It looks like I'd cross Gary CDAS between 3100' and 3600,
below 3000' within 15 nm of ORD, follow shoreline until
greater than 15 nm of ORD, then west of Waukegan or over it
between 3200' and 3600' and on to Oshkosh.

That's right, Racine is farther north. South of Gary and west of
Waukegan will keep you clear of CDAS.

If I wasn't flying the family, I would accompany you in the 1945 7AC
that I fly. Last time I flew it to OSH was 1986. I flew it to Sun N Fun
two years ago. OSH is eight hours and three fuel stops flying time from
Columbus OH. (Huntington IN, Clow IL, Fond du Lac WI)
You will want to land short of OSH for fuel and telephone OSH for
information on when NORDO's will be admitted. They limit the access times.j

Wow,
Sounds like Osh is a real hoot! All my years working on planes and
hearing about it I have never been. Was working as a contractor at Midwest
in Milwaukee a few years ago and thought I was finally going to make it, but
lo and behold had to leave before the big event.
And it sounds as if you have a mighty long ride in the Champ But it
will be fun!

Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech

("Jay Honeck" wrote)
[snip]
Every afternoon we try to catch some of the airshow (although that's the
best time to really shop), and every evening we plop ourselves out in the
North 40, right alongside Rwy 9/27, to watch the REAL airshow -- the
arrivals and departures. They are WAY more fun than the performers!


P-51 buzzing the tent was ...unexpected! g

Air Show ...or Airshow???

http://www.airshow.com/blueangels.htm
Even this website (web site?) is all over the map with air show / airshow.

Is there a rule? I like airshow, but I keep seeing air show...???


Mont Black

P-51 buzzing the tent was ...unexpected! g

That was the greatest buzz job, ever.

Of course, it helped that our tent was set up along the clear zone at the
end of Rwy 27.

Well, I probably wouldn't have been so thrilled if there had been a
mishap...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

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...

On Thu, 26 May 2005 13:34:38 -0400, T o d d P a t t i s t
wrote:

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.

I've thought about via Canada, but that would add 150+ miles
for me. Do you have reason to think better weather would
make that a good tradeoff?

It makes sense for me up in central Vermont to consider that route
because I only have to head a few points north of west to pass north
of lake Erie from where I live. You'd have to pretty much head
directly north to pass east of the lake before turning west.

I kept hearing that the thundercells we encountered pretty much stayed
south, or over the lakes due to the prevailing northwest wind. That's
what appealed to me about flying west in Canada. On the other hand, I
haven't done it yet, so I'm making what amounts to a WAG.

We did not get to see much of Chicago when we passed it to the south
because the mother of all thundercells was sitting directly on top of
it.

We saw it from many miles away as we approached Chicago, and edged
south to go around. When we were directly opposite the city, we were
under the anvil by many miles, but flying in calm air, or so we
thought.

To our right, the sky was a vicious and evil looking dark blue green
from the sky to the ground. Right in the middle of the darkest part
of the storm, the sky was absolutely white with falling water. It
looked like we were watching an ocean dumping right on the center of
Chicago. I half expected to see waves cascading down the streets from
the center of the storm. And all the while, lightning bolts were
striking down all around the column of water. It seemed like the
lightning strikes were occurring at least once every several seconds.

Suddenly the Waco was blasted by a sudden violent gust and the pilot
instantly yelped, reduced throttle and banked away to the south.

Guess we weren't as far away from the storm as we'd thought.

The time of the day was late afternoon. We encountered one more
monster as we closed on our rendevous stop and managed to fly around
that one without much difficulty. Using the GPS made flying over
southern Wisconsin a piece of cake. We'd just alter our course west,
hold that till we'd passed the storm center and then punch in direct
to our destination and come back on course. The sameness of the
landscape made map reading ridiculously difficult. But we had them in
our laps none the less.

Corky Scott

Jay Honeck wrote:
There's an entrepreneurial opportunity here for someone to rent a small
space in one of the exhibit halls and equip it like a Kinko's: Color
printouts, dump your images off a memory card to a CD-ROM

It's already being done.

The guys in one of the smaller type-buildings ("Antique/Classic" methinks)
have been transferring digital pix to CD-Rom for $5 bucks for the last
several years.


Well there you go. Now if we could just get some WiFi.

-R

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.

Holy Cats, Corky -- you flew a Waco around the world???

'course, wait a minute...if you turned right at Chicago, heading Eastbound,
you'd be heading to Nashville, wouldn't you?

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"