0803 AirVenture 2003

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AirVenture 2003

By Don Miller

Columnist

My dream was to fly my own airplane to Oshkosh one day and park among the thousands of other fly-in visitors.

Serious planning began last year after Anna and I drove to our first AirVenture visit. We made reservations at the University of Wisconsin dormitory system which provides regular bus service to the gate. In preparation for this visit, I used the AOPA Flight Planner web tool to research possible fuel stops, enroute navigation details and needed charts of airport runways and approaches.

Oshkosh is a blast! Whatever your interest, you can find kindred souls by the bucket full there. I like to see the latest homebuilts; the vintage restoring challenge, flyable early powered aircraft and to hear the forums.

The great circle distance is 527 NM and just a few extra miles will bypass all class C & B airspace strongly recommended by FAA.

I loaded my two-man tent, air mattress, suitcase, charts and flight bag into N129S and was off at 8 AM on Saturday. After a fuel and rest stop at SQI, I was off again for the last 143 NM and the unique approach procedure used for AirVenture. After reading the NOTAM several times and printing the associated layouts and procedures I felt I was ready.

Unfortunately I took the advice of a local pilot at SQI and flew toward UNU. The advice was that the railroad on the NOTAM continued to UNU and made it easier to merge with incoming traffic. Unfortunately I forgot that I had previously decided the best way to find Ripon, Wisconsin was to fly a radial of the OSH VORTAC. I made the error of not using my GPS to find UNU.

It seemed so short a distance and Wisconsin skies are much clearer than ET. Truth is I got lost because of the sameness of the Midwestern farm squares. After ten minutes of wallowing around, I got back to the plan and intersected the 55š radial of OSH beyond the 16 NM point at Ripon. After that it was duck soup to complete the arrival procedure! The deal is, you have 10 NM between Ripon and Fisk to get everyone in line and separated by 1/2 mile or so. When you come up on Fisk, the ATC guys size up the situation and make suggestions to fix any obvious spacing or head to tail mis-alignments.

I arrived alone over Fish and was whisked right along to the Blue arrival flow. In other words, winds favored runway 9 and 36 at that moment. When I switched to the tower, I was directed to a left downwind for 36L.

After slowing enough to exit the runway onto the grass, I was directed to taxi to the north 40 (general aviation aircraft camping.) A heads up about the North 40 The first arrivals are parked on the east end of a 40-acre field near the war bird parking and the transportation hubs. As the field fills, arriving aircraft are parked successively further west toward the businesses and highway adjoining the field. Sleeping near the highway is virtually impossible without headphones on. Another important detail, not publicized, is the absence of regular food service on-site until the official opening day. I was able to avoid starvation as an early arriver because the Vintage Aircraft Association had set up a temporary food service on the south end of the airport. They also arranged for a tractor with carriages to be run from the N-40 area to the food twice an hour. They offered breakfast and supper only for five dollars each.

Most of the type club mass arrivals were on Sunday. This year, 100 Bonanzas and (?) Mooneys were joined by 25 Comanches for a Sunday mass arrival.

That this is a huge event is difficult to adequately tell someone about. The booklet describing the individual forums, entertainment and vendors requires 61 pages with a font size of 8. Exhibitor booth numbering extends to 4162 housed in four very large freestanding buildings and hundreds of temporary tents or fly¹s.

Dozens of manufacturers choose to introduce new models at this event. Examples included Honda/Continental, Symphony, Cirrus, Diamond, Luscombe, and Velocity to mention a few.

The warbird review and aerobatic feats each afternoon are always worth the trip.

I looked at all of the headphone suppliers in existence and tried on all their models within and hour and a half! Several new models and features are now available by the way. ANR models are growing in number and features. Many have larger battery capacity or aircraft supplied power now.

As for the headliner visiting aircraft this year; the Airbus Beluga with it¹s 23¹ X 70¹ cargo bay and 103,600 pound load capacity was impressive to see as well a the Hughes H-1, 1935 world speed record holder.

Advice to the first time visitor.

· Don¹t expect to come away satisfied with the visit unless you can devote 3 or more days to this!

· Do plan on walking 3-8 miles each day.

· Wisconsin sun is just as hot as our¹s; Use sun tan lotion!!

· Plan to see two or three subject areas in depth, not everything. Don¹t exclude the evening programs or forums unless you have a good reason to.

· Camping, dormitory or hotel is a personal choice, but remember the campers have a big edge on effective use of time.

BELIEVE THE AIRVENTURE NOTAM ADVICE!

July Wisconsin weather is generally hot and sunny, but major rain showers usually pass through at least one day of the week. Humidity is lower than ET. The north 40 is well covered with grass and the soil has good permeability, so it dries quickly after a rain.

That's all I can think of now. If you have questions not covered here give me a call or e-mail.