Saturday activities at Airventure 2018

I forgot about one more Friday arrival event that I wanted to tell everyone about. When I arrived at the check-in lanes, it was just cloudy, but I could see that up to the north things were looking rather dark. This always means that weather is on the way. Just as I got out of my truck an announcement came over the grounds alert and warning PA system, to tell us all that bad weather was coming and to seek shelter or “prepare yourselves.” I hurried up to the check-in counter and I was glad that there was nobody standing in line. So I was able to get my credentials and passes right away, before the storm hit. Just as I got back into the truck, it hit. One thing about the campground check-in process – these are some of the first EAA volunteers you will encounter, and they are prepared to handle just about anything. While filling out my vehicle pass I noticed that all the parking guides had mysteriously vanished from sight. But, a few seconds later I saw all of them returning with rain gear on – ready to resume their duties. Hats off to these men and women who braved the elements to help get me where I needed to go.

After the long drive on Thursday and Friday, and setting up the campsite and checking all the major systems for proper operation, I made it to the local Olive Garden for dinner – always a welcome end to the long travel days. Then it was back home again to sleep in my new queen-sized trailer bed for the first time. All I can say is that having a queen sized bed instead of a sofa to sleep on was a real blessing. 

Saturday morning arrived and was very cloudy and dreary and rainy – definitely IFR weather. This meant that the thousands of VFR pilots that normally arrive on Saturday and Sunday were going to have to wait until the weather improved. This is also a real problem for ATC, who will be overwhelmed with arrivals when the flood gates are opened after the weather improves. I felt sorry for them because I knew what was in store later on. This is when arriving at OSH can become very dangerous with so many airplanes in the air.

After waking on Saturday morning it was time to head out to pick up my media credentials, and then out for some breakfast and my annual Oshkosh grocery shopping for the week. Breakfast was at the local IHOP – good stuff!  I do the grocery shopping at the local Walmart, and it has also become a ritual of sorts for m every year. I basically buy the same supplies and groceries each year, and it pretty consistently costs me about 100.00 or so.

As I arrived at the Walmart parking lot, I heard this obnoxious sounding whine. I got out of my truck and as it finally wound down I realized that it was the severe weather and disaster warning sirens that were going off. IT was around noon so I am not certain if they were just testing, or if the alarm was for real. Either way, it gets your attention. Luckily I did not see any severe weather at that point and so I continued on my errands.

When I walked into Walmart, it was just cloudy. When I came out with my groceries, it was pouring rain. SO I had to make the mad dash to the truck and throw the bags inside (except for the eggs of course), and tried to keep from getting to terribly wet, which did not work at all. After that it was time to head back to the campground to put the groceries away.

While I was doing that, I was listening to the archived interviews from past EAA radios episodes that are broadcast on AM 1210 and FM 96.5 the weekend before Airventure starts. All of a sudden I heard the interview that EAA Chapter 301 president and friend Mike Rettig and many others gave to talk about an amazing volunteer effort to fulfill a dream for a brain tumor survivor by the name of Alex Cuellar to come to Oshkosh. Mike and several others were instrumental in starting a movement just before Airventure 2012 to get Alex up to Oshkosh. Amazingly all this work became a reality, and they were able to fulfill Alex’s dream. Unfortunately I think it was less than a year later that Alex finally lost his battle with brain cancer, but the work that Mike and the others did to provide him with one last wish was nothing short of extraordinary. This interview on EAA radio is absolutely fantastic, and can be searched for and heard on EAA Radios website. If you want to know what the true meaning of volunteerism is, I strongly urge you to take a listen to that interview. It brought back a lot of memories from that trip back then, and it was great that EAA decided to play that particular archive on Saturday. 

here is a link to a VAF post that started the whole thing out:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=85196

And here is the link to the EAA Radio archive segment at Airventure 2012:
http://spirit.eaa.org/airventure/radio/clips/2012/alex-quar.mp3

The rest of the day was spent trying to find places to put all my junk so that I could move around and re-acquire some table space. Not much else to do on a rainy day. I did however make my way to one of the camp stores just to see what they had. I was amazed at how much they actually did have. Just about everything you could think that you might need while staying at the campground at Oshkosh – they had it. Simply amazing. More about the Sunday events tomorrow……