Oshkosh 2022!

I flew a quick trip to the show. I had not been in 12 years so it was about time. Got the RV-4 ready with the majority of my condition inspection complete a month early, then did a decent polish job in order to make the plane look respectable for the show.

My plan was to start bright and early Sunday morning, and depending on winds, weather and my bladder, my hope was to make it all the way to Oshkosh before field closure at 8:00PM that night. But morning brought fog and low ceilings, so back to bed I went. Woke up about two hours later to clearing skies, so kissed Donna goodbye and off I went. I usually plan about two to two and a half hour legs, and this trip was no different. Made quick stops in Kellogg, ID, Big Horn, MT, Aberdeen, SD, then finally Menomonie, WI for the night. I took a second mortgage out to pay for the fuel stops, but prices steadily went down slightly as I went east. I made good time, with ground speeds around 215mph most of the way due to a 30 mph tailwind. But by the time I got to Menomonie, I was more than ready to call it a night. No autopilot, cruising a good portion of the way at 11,500 for turbulence, and not having anyone to talk to other than an occasional air traffic controller, made me ready to be on terra firma. Plus, we used to live in Menomonie so it was somewhat of a homecoming.

Up bright and early the next morning, and off I went to get in the conga line for the Fisk arrival. I was thinking I’d beat the traffic jam, but I was way off the mark. Coming in from the West, I was expecting to start at one of the intermediate arrival fixes, only to see a huge line coming up from the town of Portage (see picture). Portage? Didn’t even know that was a planned arrival fix! Anyway, I sequenced myself into line, then they announced they were closing the airfield for “just a few minutes” for an inbound heavy arrival. Get ready to hold. Plenty of fuel? Check. Bladder? Not bad … ADSB? Thank God, as it was starting to look like a fight scene from the Battle of Britain. Head on a swivel, watch for the occasional pilot unfamiliar with the arrival procedure, clear like a bandit, and start the hold. I’m guessing we had about 200-250 aircraft holding at five different spots, all with new airplanes joining the line from Portage and other random spots. A “few” minutes turned into more than ten, and the controllers started to hear it from the peanut gallery. Finally worked my way in and landed on the yellow dot on 27. Arrival complete!

Even though I arrived on opening day, the parking crew informed me I was lucky to get one of the last Home-built Camping spots, and turns out it was a pretty good spot! Fairly close to the main attractions and not far from the showers. Register, set up the tent, grab a brat. Life is good!

I looked up an old friend (Tim Olsen), and met up with him and his family. We spent quite a bit of time catching up, and they were nice enough to drag me along to dinner a couple of nights out on the town. As Tim is somewhat of an RV-10 “guru”, he and several other RV-10 families gather at Camp Scholler each year. I was fortunate to get to know a lot of wonderful people through this, which is what Oshkosh and EAA is all about!

I did spend each morning perusing items for sale that I need for the RV-10 project, and also enjoyed looking at aircraft I might be interested in some day in the future. Air Cam? Powered Parachute? Electric powered ultralight? Ahh, the choices are endless.

After two and a half days of “everything airplane”, I packed up the tent and my other items, then worked my way back.

The departure went fairly quick, as I only had about six airplanes in front of me. I decided I was going to head west and stop when I had had enough. The same winds that helped me on the way were still there, slowing me down to about 160-165 mph groundspeed. And the turbulence was not kind either. At one point I dropped down to 1,000 AGL over Montana, as it was the smoothest ride and offered the best groundspeed. I flew along a road just in case the fan up front stopped working. Mostly the same stops in reverse, with the exception of stops in Baker, MT and Lewiston, MT. Funny thing is, I spent a lot of time studying my plan for getting through mountain passes, but I was most nervous over SE Montana, as at one point I looked down from 8,500 feet and did not see a single sign of civilization. Not a road, ranch, house. Nothing. The thought occurred to me, it will be a long walk to nowhere if I have an engine failure. Hope the phone works if I need it.

Finally figured out I could easily make it back by sundown if I pressed on, so I filled up in Kellogg again and started the last leg. To keep myself entertained, I told Donna I’d be right over the house at 8:40PM right on the dot. I used my old Air Force TOT skills (see picture with timer on right) and figured out 172 to 173 mph would do the trick, so kept that going until over the house, and the timing worked well! Landed at Sequim Valley, taxied to the house, and called it a night. Successful trip and not a single problem with the plane. Life is good.

Well it all started when my friend in Idaho (another Zenith701 builder) calls and says, “Hey you want to fly to Oshkosh with me.” Of course I said yes. My trip to Oshkosh in 2018 was a solo run and this one would be with three other planes and I was looking forward to it. Then I thought, “Oh that is a long slow trip”, but what the heck let’s do it.

Day 1

So the long journey begins. I wait out the low ceilings on Friday the 22nd and take off late in the day heading to Coure D’Alene, KCOE. I flew the HWY2 route over to Lake Chelan KS10 for a fuel top off and then on to KCOE. Wow, it was really hot over on the east side of the mountains this time of year, and after an eye opening take off from KS10, I told myself to be sure and keep density altitude awareness on this trip. We are spoiled by the cool thick air on the west side of the Cascades.

We left early Saturday morning at 5 AM, with nice cool air headed to Deer Lodge, MT K38S. I soon fell behind the other planes, a Kitfox 7 Turbo 912 Rotax, Pacer Racer tail dragger, and an extended wing no slat Zenith 701 100 hp 912 Rotax. My little C85 was chugging along at 90 mph, doing just fine. Our trip legs were limited to around 2.5-3.0 hours max. Thank goodness my bladder time was about to its limit.

Temps were already getting warm by the time we arrived in Deer Lodge. We fueled up and headed on to Big Horn, Mt K00U. I had a little trouble climbing and going directly over the mountains, so I diverted around the high ridges eventually climbing to 9500’. Our speed difference worked out well, each of us arrived a few minutes behind the other and we weren’t all piled up at the gas pumps at once. They let me take off first and they would pass me on the way to the next stop. I will have to say going with a group was really nice from both a safety aspect and added fun. (continued on next page)