Friday morning we were headed to Oshkosh and while we had enjoyed great weather all week, we were expecting a front and rain in the morning. I had been double checking departure procedure, terrain, climb gradients and all the forecasts. While it was going to stay warm on the surface, it would be below freezing higher up so icing was also on the table. In the end there was nothing to do about it all but wait for the morning and see what developed.
The late weather had the rain moving through between 6 and 9 and for once it did just what it was supposed to do. The clouds were supposed to get low as well and luckily other than some scud at around 500 feet, it actually was high overcast at departure time. I had filed for 4000 because we had 30+ knot headwinds up high and I did not think the TAS advantage up high would pay off.
I got the plane ready and then called center to get our clearance. He surprised me by giving me both the clearance and release with a generous void time. We fired up, and started heading for the runway. Our limiting factor was warming the oil but soon enough it was up to 100 F and we had the run up done with 2 minutes to spare.
On departure we soon climbed above the scud and headed off North to stay along lake Michigan’s shore. We checked in with center and I set power. We were trueing out around 175. We can go faster down low but it is not that efficient.
As the flight progressed we were in and out of the clouds and we even lost the headwind and picked up a few knots on the tailwind. Staying low was a good idea in the end. It also kept us out of potential icing which likely started above 6000 but better to be safe.
Oshkosh was VFR but visibility was poor due to the Canadian smoke that had drifted South. The controller offered the GPS approach but we requested the visual and picked up the field around 7 miles out. We lined up on 27 and though it was gusty, made a nice touchdown. It’s not that busy this time of year, one controller was both tower and ground.
In a few weeks though, the place would be hopping. One week a year it becomes one of the busiest airports in the world for the annual EAA convention. Some days it is the busiest but it is only open during daylight hours and they shut down 4 hours a day for an air show. On an hourly basis it is the clear winner though. This is one of the reasons we chose to come now.
We taxied in to Bassler, the FBO, and went in to register. They had said they could drop us at the EAA museum and after that I had planned to Uber. I inquired about a lift and the manager offered us the crew car for the night. This made our logistics a lot easier.
We headed off and dropped our luggage at the hotel, just down from the FBO and then went to the museum. I get in free as an EAA member but CC had to pay. The museum person said that she could add CC to my membership for much less than her ticket, which she did and saved us $10. We were on a roll.
The Museum was very good. Very different feel than the Wright Patterson one. The focus is more on the history of flight and experimental aircraft. The had many cool airplanes but the exhibit I enjoyed the most was the Voyager.
The voyager was the first plane to fly around the globe without refueling. I remember the flight and knew it was a cramped but I had no real sense how tight it was. They spent over 9 days in the tiny cabin. I couldn’t see how the swapped places much less went to the bathroom.
After the museum we grabbed a sub and headed to see a glass museum that CC had found. It had some really nice pieces and afterwards we took a walk in the adjacent park. We tried to walk behind the museum around lake Winnebago but the flies were out, so we enjoyed the other park that was mostly fly free. After that we took a break and grabbed dinner. We had another state to visit on Saturday.
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