Oshkosh Airventure 2011 Recap - 7-25-11 through 7-31-2011

Time for those happy photos I spoke of in my previous post. Day one for me was actually 7-21-11 - departed about 10:00 am with kid and trailer in tow. My RV 10 builder and friend Mike Rettig was the only one to take me up on hauling gear for them this year. Thought that was a bit strange, given how many took me up on it last year, but no sweat off my back. First shot is the kid trying to work the camera to get a shot of the water tank in the town of York, NE, which is a couple hundred miles west of Omaha, where I park for the day to rest. It is painted and shaped like a big hot air baloon.

Of particular concern for me on this trip was the flooding of the Missouri River near Omaha. It was 6 feet above flood stage, and had been that way since April, but the crossing on I-80 in Omaha was still clear. the only trouble I had on this trip was almost getting killed by an asshole truck driver hauling onions that kept playing cat and mouse with me for about 10 miles, and another one that was decidedly drunk or high and could not keep his rig on the road. We managed to survive both of those episodes. ON the lighter side, we also saw more Ag Cats spraying crops along the highway, but did not get any pics unfortunately.

Stayed in a KOA campground on the west side of Omaha. Nice campground - just can't stand the heat and the humdity. I always get a site with electical hookup so I can run the fans in the trailer. These are the times where I wish I had an AC unit. Day two on the road is always full of anticipation, cuz that's the day we finally get to Oshkosh. total trip length one way is 1,024 miles. I take I-25 to I-76 to I-80, then a short leg north in Iowa on I-380 until I hook up with I 151 for the remainder of the trip.

Arrived in KOSH and set up camp in Camp Scholler again. This year I was on 23rd St. between Lindbergh and Elm, in the same general location as in years past. Trailer was facing east so I could watch the afternoon airshows from under the sun shade on the front of my trailer. This is still a great location because it ends up being about a half mile from the runway, so most of the airshow planes end up flying right over the trailer from time to time, so can get some great close up photos.

I took Adam around the grounds on Saturday to get him familiar with everything. Had to run back to the trailer to avoid lightening storms that moved in late in the afternoon. Sunday was fishing day. got up at 3:00am to make the drive from Oshkosh south to Fon du Lac, and then East to Sheboygan where the boat was located on Lake Michigan. Drive time was about 1.5 hours, and the planned departure was about 5:00am. I was OK with the early nature of the trip, but I was not OK with making it in torrential flooding rain storms and lightening. Almost as soon  as we headed south toward Fon du Lac, it started coming down heavily. About 20 miles from Sheboygan Adam and I agreed that it was not looking real good, adn I was afraid that the roads were starting to flood, so we turned around and headed back to Fon du Lac to wait out the storm. Nothing like being on an unfamiliar country road in the middle of nowhere, wiht sheet rain and lightening coming down all around you. A cople of phone calls to the captain of the boat resulted in a change in plans for a delayed departure at 6:00am to allow the storms to pass, which they did.

Here is the kid on the boat as we depart, with his cookie monster hat and aviator sun glasses, ready for fishin...

On the flying bridge of the boat with the captain.....




Fish ON!

And the only catch of the day - a 10 pound Koho Salmon! Great catch son! Hard to believe we only caught one fish. We had no less than 12 lines out on this boat at one time. Problem was the weather had caused the fish to stop feeding. There were tons of fish in the harbor, but nothing would bite.

Fishin was slow. We were done for the day - heading back to the bay after being on the boat for about 5 hours. It was a fun day, even if we only caught one fish, and even though it wasn't one of those 25 pound King Salmons that I had hoped for. The crew cleaned and packaged the fish for us, and we were on our way back to Oshkosh.

Either later that same day, or perhaps on Monday morning, we went to the museum. Adam found the kidventure area and we had a ball playing on the simulators. I did not take a lot of pics or video on this trip. Focused mainly on forums and the museum, and events like listening to Bob Hoover and Chuck Yeager speak about their experiences, attending REO Speedwagon concert on Monday, and the Lt Dan Band with Gary Sinese on Friday, etc., etc. Main focus was just having a good time with my son. There is never a shortage of things to do in Oshkosh during Airventure.

Fifi, the only flying B-29, arrives at KOSH!

Next is an example of the price of hot doggin' and not paying attention to the details. From what I learned from eye witness accounts, this is an F-16 from the Alabama National Guard, which had run off the runway during an attempted landing, landed way too long, and subsequently departed the runway, caved in the nose gear, and ended up nose down in the infield. I was about 150 yards away at the time at the Van's tent. According to Mike and Aneta Rettig, this pilot was erratically flying his airplane during the flight, and so I guess the outcome is no suprise. I was concerned because by the time I took this pic, flames were coming out of the back of the engine, and the fire department seemed to take forever to get there. The aircraft remained in that position for the remainder of airventure, an eyesore to the rest of the event... Chuck Yeager, being the military man that he is, had some harsh words for that pilot - suggesting that he should quit. I guess I would be inclined to agree if pilot foolishness was the true cause of this accident.

the Boeing 787 arrives. Also a disappointing event. It was only there for a half day, and nobody but VIPs got a chance to look inside the airplane. Very pretty aircraft - and is the only composite-built airliner in the world.

And a photo gallery......

Shutter malfunction. More T-6s/SNJs than you could count

The amazing storey of Glacier girl...

Chatting with Bob Hoover. What an extraordinary life - - escaped from a POW camp at the end of WWII in a Focke Wolf 190, became airshow airboss at Reno, Stunning airshow performances in the Shrike and the Aerocommander, acquainted with Charles Lindbergh, just amazing....

A real one.....

And a half scale kit called the T-51 that you can build and fly....

Lt Dan band concert in Theater in the Woods

Celebrating 100 years of naval aviation - The only Curtiss SB2C Helldiver remaining in the world today, and a present day F-18 in formation, right over the trailer.... SWEET!

Me and the kid at the "Official" front gate of Airventure

Mike and Aneta Rettig, and the kid at the gate. This was Aneta's first trip to Oshkosh - famous quote - "Sure is a lot of walking!" Good times had by all. Smores at the campfire at the Raley camp site, home made pizza at the Rettig camp site, Movie nights at the fly in theater, attending the Lt Dan Band concert together, talking airplanes and such, all good times. Oh, and for the kid - he met some good friends at the DJ tent and I basically never saw him for about 3 days as he was having a blast hanging out with them.

Lots of good memories on this trip. Already looking forward to next year.  I have some video of the night Airshow on the final Saturday night that I will try to upload in the next post.