Oshkosh 2016

Check out the 2016 EAA AirVenture trip report, pictures, link to the 2016 AirVenture website, and the 32 page NOTAM for KOSH!

Who can name the Texas aircraft repo guy in the Appareo picture? (Hint: it is not Rottler)

Plan “B� the lesson(s)…July 2016

Dennis Guinn & Denis Rottler

Denis Rottler and I made plans to fly the Archer to OSHKOSH (KOSH) this year for the 2016 EAA Airventure. Our adventure was met with multiple Plan B’s opportunities and each was a great learning experience in and of itself.
This adventure actually began last year. I was fortunate enough to attend the 2015 EAA Airventure as a right seat passenger. It was a great experience even in the “right seat�. I had been invited to ride along and share expenses in a Cessna 182 and a rented a house shared between thirteen friends from Gainesville. This year my Gainesville friends and I had decided to rent a house and return to Oshkosh again, but this time I wanted to “land on the dot� from the left seat.
One by one, each of the previous year’s attendees dropped out, leaving only four people this year. Two friends from Gainesville, Denis Rottler (1st time) and I were the only ones that would be making the trip this year. My friends from Gainesville also informed us that they would not be flying this year but decided to drive. Obviously, we would not be able to rent a house with only the four of us, so we decided (Plan B) to stay in tents like most of the other guests.
Denis and I meticulously planned and studied for our trip. Camping gear, NOTAMS, routes, fuel stops, weather, alternating PIC duties, etc. We even practiced our slow flight and landing on the simulated dots at Majors.
Sunday morning, July 24th at 0800 we were airborne and enroute to Wisconsin. The first stop in Branson (KSGF) and the second stop in Davenport Iowa (KDVN) were fairly uneventful except in Davenport we met some float plane pilots that knew several of the same people we knew from Gainseville. What a small world.
The third and last leg of our flight was planned to take us all the way to Oshkosh.
As you may or may not know, almost all airplanes arriving in Oshkosh are required to navigate to the city of Ripon (southwest of KOSH) and begin to merge into a line with ½ mile spacing. The requirement is to be at 1800’ and 90 kts at Ripon and follow the railroad tracks for about 10 nm to the northeast to Fisk. At Fisk each airplane is asked not to respond on the radio, just follow instructions. Red & White Cessna, rock your wings…good rock…follow the RR tracks to 27. Blue low wing…rock your wings…turn right on the east-west road to 36L, etc.
Each command was seemingly given as fast as one could talk. All incoming pilots were expected to understand and perform as directed in the thirty-two page NOTAMS.
After being assigned a runway, each pilot was to tune to a new and separate frequency associated with their runway assignment. Upon nearing the runway, a new controller would then assign landing instructions (which colored DOT to land on).
Sounds confusing and difficult but believe me when I tell you that these controllers really know what they are doing. And if you studied the NOTAMS, it really isn’t that difficult.
As we were arriving to Ripon, we were in awe while intently listening to the traffic and controllers ahead of us, and anxiously waiting for our instructions. Suddenly the controllers announced (Plan B) “THE AIRPORT IS CLOSED, THE AIRPORT IS CLOSED�. All traffic was then advised to go the pre-designated holding areas. There had been a crash on runway 36L. We were advised that these types of incidences were normally not quick to resolve and we were given an option of continuing to hold or continue on to our Alternate Airport. We decided to continue to our alternate, Fond Du Lac (KFLD).
Arrival procedures at KFLD were similar to KOSH (same listen only and color of airplane calls from the controllers and a similar flurry of calls – no colored dots though) so we were prepared and ready for the now busy arrival and landing at our new destination. We were to enter downwind for 27 and follow the T-6 to landing. All went well until (Plan B) we were on short final and to the best of my knowledge we were into the T-6’s wake turbulence (if that’s even possible?) The Archer rocked hard left and then right. We then executed a (Plan B) go-around and were then asked to re-enter the base leg and land long (at least mid-field) as we were followed closely by other airplanes. The landing on the Dot practice paid off, we landed at mid-field without any more complications.

The Airshow was all that we had hoped for and more. I highly recommend this trip as at least a bucket list item for all pilots and anyone interested in general aviation. Ask Rottler to see his “beads�
On the day of our departure, we were met with weather in the general vicinity and also along our route. We navigated (Plan B) around, over and under many types of weather with assistance from weather briefers, iPads, Stratus, flight following, other pilots during our fuel stops, and anything else we could think of.
As we were approaching our final planned fuel stop in McAlester Regional (KMLC) in Oklahoma, we were confident that we would not be able to make it all the way to KMLC because of thunderstorms. Our alternate airport (Tahlequah – KTQH) was also experiencing thunderstorms in the area. We decided to land (Plan C) in Pittsburgh, Kansas at Atkinson (KPTS) where the weather was clear so we could reevaluate the weather rather than pushing on and getting in over our heads.

After using the courtesy car to get some supper and checking with the
Weather briefers we decided our best option would be to hangar the Archer and get a hotel for the night. Of course, the next morning we were surprised to hear that KGVT was now experiencing thunderstorms in the area. By this time we were growing accustomed to all the PLAN B’s. With a bit more weather dodging and some light rain on the windscreen, we touched down at Majors around 1000 on Thursday, July 28th.

Lessons Learned:
Be prepared for PLAN B and FLYING IS FUN!

Fun Facts:
Consumed: 130 gallons of fuel
Average cost of fuel: $4.13 per gallon
Average gas mileage: 9.12 gallons/tach hour
Total tach time: 14.21 hours
Distance flown: 1478 nm
Average ground speed: 104 kts/tach hour

Trivia and Notes:
Outbound Route: KGVT - KSGF - KDVN - KFLD
KSGF - Springfield-Branson Regional (Missouri) - nice FBO. Fuel discounted on the WEEKENDS and available during the week at a discount to EAA Members. The guy landing behind us was pretty nervous about us getting out of his way. The very calm controller urged him to continue his approach, "it will work out". After we were clear of the runway and headed up the taxiway in direction opposite of how we landed, we saw the big FedEx jet make his landing. Well done Mr. Controller.

KDVN - Davenport Municipal (Iowa) - Another nice FBO with a courtesy car. We ate at the Machine Shed in town to let some of the weather at KOSH go by. Bread, coleslaw, and applesauce (actually more like apple pie filling) is served family style as a kind of an appetizer. Passed on trying cheese curds. One of the reasons we picked this airport was lower cost fuel (by a $1.00) than surrounding airports. We failed to notice that was the self service price and paid the highest fuel cost of the trip. Good planning, poor execution.

KFLD - Fond du Lac Country (Wisconsin) - We ended up setting up camp here due to KOSH being closed upon our arrival. We parked the Archer in the grass as directed and pitched the tent behind the left wing. We were just off of Taxiway A on the eastern edge and just north of the 18/36 and 9/27 intersection. We wanted some ice to cool off our "water" but were without transportation. One of the workers offered us the keys to his truck and ended up driving us to get ice. A sign of good things to come for the week. We had an extra sack of ice and made fast friends with RV and his family by offering them the ice. The Care Flight helicopter base was about a 100 yards behind us and they only needed fuel and flights twice a night most nights. That jet that roared off 27 at 0528 Monday morning was only slightly unsettling. When the sun set on Sunday evening, there was about 20 airplanes parked in the grass. The four male and four female showers that were set up seemed like a reasonable number and they were less than 200 yards from our tent. By the time we got back from Oshkosh on Monday night, there were at least 200 airplanes and tents parked all over the airport. Guess what? There were still only a total of 8 showers. Oshkosh stopped accepting GA campers by 1100 on Monday and at least part of the overflow was diverted to KFLD. Apparently Fond du Loc had never seen this may campers. It all worked out. There is not a lot of competition for a 0430 shower. The charge was $50 to camp for the week but the bus ride was $20 per day round-trip. It is just a 20 minute ride to KOSH and the cost of the bus ride seemed a bit steep. It actually was quite painless and ran pretty much on schedule. NOTE OF CAUTION: bring effective mosquito spray and be prepared to be in the tent at dusk.

Inbound Route: KFLD - KMBY - KPTS - KGVT
KMBY - Omar N Bradley (Missouri)- a small, old fashioned terminal with the cheapest self serve gas of the trip. They had a food trailer set up outside that made for a convenient and yummy pulled pork sandwich. Chatted with a young man and his Grandpa who were maintaining the place and mowing the property and with some pilots coming back from Oshkosh. One set was headed to Aero Country and the other to Paris. Great example of pilots helping pilots at this stop. The folks headed to Paris in their RV-10 heard us discussing the weather and told us to contact them on 123.45 MHz for a weather report. When we got airborne we were unsure about the tops and concerned about getting trapped on top. Fred in the RV-10 reported he was at 8500' with the tops at 6500' and he was right. We enjoyed a cool, smooth ride with a view on this leg thanks to Fred.

KPTS - Atkinson Municipal (Kansas) -a very comfortable, old school terminal (cinder block walls) with some really nice folks. They were so friendly and helpful. We took the courtesy car to clear our heads and get something to eat and decided to stay the night. They gassed up the Archer, put it in the hangar, and had it out by the time we got there in the morning. They let us keep the courtesy car overnight and even offered to let us sleep in the FBO overnight. All of the Pitt State gorilla statues around town is a bit freaky but GO PITT. Swing by and say hello to Bill Pyle the airport manager the next time you are up that way.

Is is not politically correct to ask about the "beads".

Link to EAA AirVenture 2016 - Oshkosh:
http://www.eaa.org/en/airventure

Check out the 32 page NOTAM for Oshkosh: