Oshkosh 2010

For the second time in two years, I went to EAA's Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  It was fantastic!! Airventure is the largest gathering of airplanes and pilots in the world.  It is always the last week of July and since 1974 has been held at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, WI. What makes the experience so special for me, other than seeing every type of airplane in the world and seeing every vendor of pilot supplies and seeing every big-time airshow performer, is the people.  Everyone at Airventure "gets it."  It is the only place where I don't feel like I have to explain why I fly small planes; where everyone stops talking and looks up when they hear an aircraft engine; where the entire population (this year estimated at 535,000) is just as crazy as I am about general aviation.  It's my Mecca.

Last year, I camped with my aircraft in the "North 40" at Wittman Field.  This year, a group of Socata owners got together to rent 2 adjacent houses in a nearby neighborhood.  Having a private home instead of a tent as my base of operations made this year much more pleasant. As readers of the blog know, the Socata Owners Forum is a very active web site with members from all over the world.  Well this year at Oshkosh, I got to meet many more of them from around the globe.  Five of our Australian owners came as a group and three members from the United Kingdom came as well.

The Aussie's are a raucous bunch -- both on the web site and in person.  They love to laugh and are quick to start ribbing each other or anyone else they encounter.  Much alcohol was consumed, many stories were told and all the friendships were strengthened. One Brit came by flying commercial to Washington, DC and then joining a DC member in his TB-21 for the flight to Oshkosh, but the other two Brits had an extraordinary adventure getting to Airventure.  These two flew their TB-20 from Nottingham, England to Oshkosh, WI via Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Canada without any ferry tanks!! That's 5+ hour legs over the open Atlantic Ocean!! What a tremendous testament to their piloting skills and to the capability of the Socata TB-20 aircraft. You can read about the entire trip at www.nottinghamtooshkosh.com

My own trip to Oshkosh was not nearly as adventuresome but was still a thrill for me.  I left White Plains airport around 8am on Tuesday, July 27th with my friend and fellow pilot Rick Felty. Our flight plan took us northwest across New York to Dunkirk and then directly across Lake Erie into Canada.  We proceeded across Canada, flying over the southern tip of Lake Huron and then into eastern Michigan where we landed in Marlette.  The trip to Marlette took 3:20 were we got some fuel and some lunch.  We then took off heading due west over Michigan towards Ludington and crossed Lake Michigan at 8,000 feet into Wisconsin.  Our arrival into Oshkosh was made in marginal VFR conditions so since we were on an instrument flight plan, we were able to proceed directly to the airport and land.  Rick is a professional videographer and photographer and had all his equipment with him.  Below are two links:  The first is Rick's pictures from the week and the second is a video of our arrival into OSH.  He used three separate HD cameras and an audio recorder to capture the arrival and then edited the material all together into an extremely professional video.  I hope you enjoy watching as much as we did being there!

http://rickfelty.squarespace.com/oshkosh-2010-pics/oshkosh-2010/

http://bit.ly/9SX9hP