AirVenture 2012

I made it to Oshkosh again this year and as always enjoyed the few days I was there. It's fun making the long cross country flight and the Sportsman is a great plane for the trip. The weather was broken at around 1200 feet at Islip so I filed IFR to get out and was VFR within 20 minutes heading west. As usual I made one stop in Pennsylvania and another in Indiana before making my final stop in Watertown, Wisconsin.  There was some weather in the area but things were slowly improving as the day wore on.

Each year when I plan my trip I try to make it with the Glastar Sportsman owners who organize a mass fly in on the Sunday before the show starts. It's great fun and we leave early in the morning to avoid the rush. The other benefit of Sunday is that there is no air show that closes the airport, something that happens each day during the week of the show. I wasn't able to meet up with them this year but did take advantage arriving Sunday only later in the day. Here's my arrival:

For the first time I arrived on runway 27 which was fun.  Except for the Skyhawk who cut right in front of me then took it out over the gravel pit, which was a no no, I had no issues flying in (a lot different the last year!) I had a slight over shoot on my turn to final but made a pretty good landing.  I was thrilled to be there again!

I did have one surprise that I wasn't counting on. When some rain came through a day or two later and I decided to put my cover on and noticed a problem with my exhaust mount. One of the wires that secure the tuned exhaust under the cowl had failed.

 I don't know when it happened but I knew I couldn't leave until I got it fixed. Well, I had no tools or parts but heck, I was at EAA AirVenture! Turns out that EAA has is a group of Volunteers who have been staffing an emergency aircraft repair barn for a number of years. EAA has a great video of the people who run the booth. The people there were just great. The had the wire and crimping tool to make a new part and within a few hours it was good as new. Thanks EAA!

AirVenture was HOT this year. The midwest was in the mist of a drought and the grounds were dry and scorching! Thank God for having a high wing aircraft!

So this year was the 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub and there were about 75 cubs that flew in. It was a great sight seeing mostly yellow cubs all parked in the same spot. The first RV was also restored and did a fly buy. There was as usual so many planes to see. Here's a sampling of the planes I enjoyed the most.

75th Anniversary Cubs

Van's RV-1 

There was one plane that I saw this year which meant a great deal to me. I graduated from the University of Michigan in 1980 with a degree in Aerospace Engineering and I was fortunate enough to take an aircraft design course from Professor Edgar J. Lesher, a hall of fame designer and builder who held quite a few FAI records in the C-1a class. It was a privilege to take the class from such an esteemed professor and I remember seeing pictures of his Lesher "Teal" at the University. So imagine may delight when I saw his plane being displayed with other historic homebuilts. I couldn't believe the plane from my professor was right there in front of me. I'm sure most people just walked by it but for me, that was some special plane. Sure brought back lots of memories.

Always enjoy AirVenture, even as hot as it was.