Shortly after departing 6I4 we linked up en route for some formation flying practice. We flew more of the trip north in close formation, taking turns as lead and wing every 20-30 minutes. Our route took us around the west wide on the Chicago Class B airspace, with nearly a dozen airports as planned waypoints.
During the northwest portion of the flight we took advantage of some slight headwinds that fizzled out when the route during north over DeKalb. All the way across Indiana and Illinois the ceilings were fairly high and the visibility was fairly clear. When we got to Wisconsin, though, things changed: we flew into light rain showers. We took a short break at Watertown for fuel and the restroom. It was raining steadily at Watertown. Chuck took a look at their weather computer and determined that we would miss the storms and be in VMC the entire trip. We departed Watertown in rain and proceeded northwesterly in light rain around a rather heavy rainstorm. We flew at a fairly slow ground speed, keeping the engine RPMs down due to operating with wooden propellers (we'd been told that rain can erode them quickly).
We finally clawed our way to Ripon then traced our way towards Oshkosh over the railroad tracks. I trailed Chuck according the NOTAM, and as we approached Oshkosh, the rains abated. We didn't see another airplane in the sky until Chuck was directed to turn to final when an airplane pulled onto Runway 36L and sat there. He didn't know that guy was going to do, and neither did the controller. Chuck peeled over to Runway 36R and the controller adjusted accordingly. We both posted our "HBP" signs in our canopies are were directed to the homebuilt "showplane" parking area, which was adjacent to the Homebuilders sign-in booth. We were greeted by a golf-cart full of Boy Scout Explorers from Kansas who were volunteering for the week. They assisted us in getting our airplanes positioned and waited until the planes were securely tied down.
After a quick registration I got the prize I had been waiting years for: the coveted "I Flew My Homebuilt To AirVenture" patch plus some other goodies I hadn't anticipated. Chuck registered N601LE to be judged but I declined on that option, as my plane is sporting too many cosmetic defects these days.
Chuck, Nick and I gathered up our gear and set out on foot towards Camp Sholler, where Mike Jackson had had parked Roy Dawes' old bus. Also staying on the bus were Roy's son Anthony and Mike's friend Terry, who flew up from Texas. Mike had the air conditioner running full tilt and a packed a cooler with ice-cold beer. The night before I left a cooler with food for dinner and breakfast.
Mike had made friends with the family who was parked next to the bus. They had a little noisy, portable generator. Mike dropped an extension cord over for them and they became the best neighbors, as they made more food and beer runs for us into town.
On Friday morning Chuck and I headed to the cafes for breakfast, with one of them finally opening about a bit late with a long line forming in back of us. The price wasn't that bad and the food was pretty good. After breakfast we headed over to the ultralights area, as they were fairly active that morning.
After watching the ultralights we went our separate ways. I headed to the Fly Market and through the vendors booths in the main hangars. I didn't have a laundry list this year but it's always fun to look; just don't tell my wife that I went shopping and actually enjoyed it!
I noticed two trends at AirVenture this year: one is the electric-powered aircraft. I stopped in to the Yuneec booth (could that be pronounced "unique"?). Several designers were showing their wares (or at least ideas this year). The other trend is towards convertable aircraft. We've heard a lot about the Terrafugia airplane/car; now several others are horning in on the idea. At the ultralight area one company was promoting their SkyCycle, which was a gyrocopter/motorcycle combination. Other variations of the convertible aircraft concept were the many new amphibians and dotted the grounds, from the ultralights all the way up to the multi-million dollar Dornier.
Friday's air show featured an all-female performer theme. I think that the AirVenture planners had a fantastic idea here. The performances were all typical Oshkosh-quality: first rate. We have a vast store of potential future aviators: young girls and women. Friday's show demonstrated for the world what fun flying can be for girls. I hope they pick up the baton and run with it. I've always enjoyed the grace and precision of the Aeroshell squadron but my favorite performance this year was the wing-walking routine of Franklin and Younkin. The pirate theme sounded a bit corny, but dang was it entertaining. Their low passes in front of the crowd, brandishing their swords, was just plan old-fashioned fun. Wrapping up the all-women format was the gut-wrenching routine by Patty Wagstaff. She wrung out that airplane like you'd wring out your wet bathing suit the last day of vacation. She was brutal. She was fast. She was fearless. She was a good as you can get in aerobatics.
AirVenture closed Friday's air show with their traditional military performance, putting entire squadrons of AT-6s, Mustangs, Russian and Chinese-built MiGs and Yaks, Korean-era jets, liaison and reconnaissance airplanes and just about anything else available with a military pedigree. The high-speed bombing runs are always a lot of fun to watch, too. And how could they end an Oshkosh military demonstration without the now-famous "wall-of-flame" bombing!
Later that evening Chuck and I checked DUATS on a computer in the bus (Camp Sholler has wireless internet!) and discovered that bad weather was heading back our way. Chuck said that we'd need to leave at 7 a.m. or we'd be stuck at least another day or two. And if we left, we'd be departing into 20 KT winds.
I must have gotten up a half dozen times on Friday night and Saturday morning. I was outside several times, noticing that the wind seemed a bit strong. I thought that perhaps we might not be able to get out. And Mike was planning on driving the bus home on Saturday, so we might have to get our tents and camp in the rain and wind. Not fun.
Chuck got up early, and around 6 we tried to check the weather again but the internet connection wouldn't work (perhaps everyone else was checking DUATS, too. So we packed our gear and headed to the homebuilt showplane area. Our plan was that Chuck would check the weather at the FAA station while Nick and I loaded the planes and readied them. Chuck showed up later and said that we would get a clear shot out but some strong weather was coming in from the west. We wouldn't have time for breakfast.
We taxied out to Runway 18R, where we received our ground directions from the excellent volunteers, then got the clearance to depart from the controller. The NOTAM for the day was to fly at 500 AGL due south for five miles before climbing to altitude and heading towards our course. Chuck and I finally linked up in formation about five minutes later and proceeded to Watertown for fuel. But with the weather moving in, Watertown was drenching in some heavy rain. We continued due south a few miles east of the rain, flying in mist and drizzle. We continually revised our GPS flight plans as we diverted off course past one waypoint after another. We determined that we had enough fuel to make it to DeKalb and descended through some rough weather in the rain for the delayed fuel stop and bathroom break.
Saturday, August 8 had a couple of really neat fly-ins that I was looking forward to attending. One was at Plymouth IN. There is a guy up there who has a Rotax repair shop, and he was promising Rotax maintenance seminars all day long. Having run a Rotax for the past five years, I thought that this would be a great opportunity to learn more about my engine. But but they time that fly-in day arrived, my fun day got seriously shortened and I would have time to attend the seminar. The other fly-in, with featured the Popular Rotorcraft Association's annual fly-in at Mentone IN, sounded like a lot of fun. Vern Sullenger had attended it for the past several years so I was looking forward to going. I planned on it last year but family complications kept me home. This year would be different.
I headed out to the airport early and discovered that the winds were a bit higher than forecast. No matter, they were coming directly out of the south, so I would have a good tail wind on the way up. The visibility was what you would expect in August — hazy, but the ceilings were high enough that the flight could be made VFR. I launched out solo for Mentone.
Scooting along in a northern heading central Indiana around the west side of Grissom's airspace, I thought my GPS had gone south; the ground speed looked like it was way off. I was showing more than 128 KTs. That's a lot for an airplane that only does about 100 or so, indicated. But sure enough, the landmarks were passing by pretty fast. I had a 25-KT tailwind. Cool! I would get to Mentone with plenty of time for lunch and some sight-seeing.
Alas, it was not meant to be. The visibility was very hazy the entire trip, but by the time I got as far north as Logansport it was like a curtain had dropped. It might have made minimum VMC and it might not, but it didn't make my comfort minimums, so I added a new maneuver to my repertoire and did a 180 towards home.
There's always a downside to those great tailwinds, and that is the subsequent headwind the other direction. I putted along with groundspeeds in the 75-KT range. That flight home allowed me plenty of time to think about all of the great fly-ins coming up the rest of the summer and early autumn.
Saturday, August 15, had three nice fly-ins on the schedule. The first was Noblesville's EAA Chapter 67 fly-in pancake breakfast. Noblesville always has a good turn-out for their breakfasts and this year was no different. The gang at Boone County Airport informally gathered seven airplanes with eleven people flying, who made it for the annual event. We departed in the hazy air at about 9 a.m. for the short flight. Because the visibility was so poor flying into the sun we didn't attempt to link up but just kept our spacing far enough apart for safety.
Noblesville is always a good place to see some warbirds, as they have a few AT-6s and/or T-28s show up. They had a few nice biplanes there, too. Along with a couple of Stearmans, they had a Hyperbipe, a "Gilmore" biplane and another pretty two-holer. I enjoyed seeing the assortment of other homebuilts, as there was a nice Mustang II, a Lancair, some RVs, and a Cygnet with a Volkswagen engine. The Cygnet pilot tried to start his engine but didn't have enough battery power. He spend what must have been a half hour trying to hand start it, spinning it the "wrong" direction. About every eighth attempt it would run for about a half second then just die. Finally, someone pulled up a car to the tail section, hauled out a jumper cable, and the engine started right up.
One of the show-stoppers was a single-seat, turbine-powered helicopter that flew in for the fun. One of the guys asked how much fuel it held and was told 30 gallons. He wouldn't say how long that would last with a turbine engine, though. It was a nice-looking helicopter and had that great turbine sound.
The breakfast line at Noblesville wasn't too long but even the short wait had a pleasant pay-off: free breakfast for the pilots! The chapter had set up some awnings and portable gazebos, which made the nice breakfast all the more pleasant in the hot sun.
Soon the time came for heading out to the next event. Westfield Airport was having an ultralight fly-in for their member tenants and friends. I've been several times in the past, and it's always been a lot of fun to see how many colorful ways there are to get into the air. A couple guys from our crew dropped in for their show but I had a few chores that might end my flying for the day to do so headed for home. Fortunately, everything fell into place very quickly so I headed back to the airport, pulled the plane back out of the hangar and launched southward for Hendricks County Airport.
Hendricks County Aviation Association was hosting a luncheon at 2R2 that same day. Technically not a "fly-in," they said to get there any way you can. By the number of planes out on the ramp, it looked like a majority of people flew on, as it was hard to find a parking space. Fortunately, the HCAA had plenty of volunteers out on the ramp directing ground traffic, and I was guided into a nice space very close to their outdoor pavilion.
Hendricks County Airport has a lot of nice type certificated airplanes, but the most popular airplanes on the field are the RVs. They had a few out that are known to be hangared at the field and a few more visiting for the day, some of those painted in some very flamboyant and attractive paint schemes. Jerry Bozell had his Kelleher Special out of the day, too. Chapter 1311 visited this project one cold evening many years ago. It was nice to see it out in the sunlight, where the great workmanship of this unique airplane can be appreciated.
Coming up: September, the best part of the fly-in season, is right around the corner. We kick off September with the great Marion Fly-In/Cruise-In on Labor Day weekend, then the Berlin Airlift celebration at Indy Exec on September 11-12. Putnam County Airport and the Greencastle EAA Chapter will be having their annual event the same weekend, September 12-13. The Davidsons will be hosting their fantastic Wood Fabric & Tailwheels fly-in on Saturday, September 26, with the season unofficially concluding on Sunday October 11, with the always-delicious fall barbecue at Noblesville. Oh yes, there are a lot more events within an easy flying distance filling in the rest of the weekends. I hope to see you at some of them.
Correspondents Needed
We are looking especially for correspondents for some of the upcoming fly-ins. If you are heading to any fly-ins this year, would you please consider submitting a story and photo or two about the event? The newsletter editor will be out of town on Labor Day weekend and will not be able to cover the Marion fly-in. We'd love to hear about it and hope that one of our members or readers will be there and write about it. Please contact the newsletter editor at michaelandkatie1@comcast.net.
Chapter 1311 Builders' Local Resource Directory
Check out our online directory at http://www.eaa1311.org. Click on the link "Homebuilder's Resources" on the left. Note that all resources listed are merely suggestions; as a chapter we do not endorse any of them. Our recommendation: "Caveat Emptor" (let the buyer beware).
Boone County Airport News
Chapter 1311 is always looking for correspondents and contributors to our monthly newsletter. Whenever you have a story or photo that would be of interest to our readers, we would like to publish it.
Start thinking of the places where you locally buy for AN hardware, sheet metal, paint, tools and other items. We'll need an address, phone number and web site, if they have one. Be sure to let us know if you would recommend them to others or not. The idea here is that members should be able to look to suppliers that you trust and would continue to do business with. Please forward your ideas and recommendations to Michael Mossman at michaelandkatie1@comcast.net
Hangar Space: All hangars are now rented. The club will post a waiting list for available hangars and will consider building new ones to accommodate new members. Anyone desiring to base an aircraft at the airport or use the maintenance hangar will be required to join the association. For more information contact Michael Mossman, association secretary, or see the website at http://www.booneairport.org.