AirVenture 2021 | Day 1

July 19 | I had loaded and fueled the airplane, I ate a hearty breakfast of toast and scrambled eggs, Catherine drove me to the airport with our sweet pup Tilly and I opened the hangar and pulled out the airplane. Just like every past Oshkosh trip has started.

I started up the airplane and taxied out to warm the oil, do the run up and tune the radio. All that was left was to leave my secure little home airport and head out to Brodhead and Oshkosh. Gulp.

I headed out after take off and started climbing. I had bought an oxygen system and planned to fly at 13,500’ for the first time travelling to Oshkosh. The 182 was running strong and smoothly as I checked cylinder head temps, oil temp and pressure and rate of climb as I climbed toward Truckee, Reno and Nevada.

I was still learning the airplane, so I was startled when the engine started surging. I had switched to the right take during climb like I usually did in the Stinson. Less than 40 minutes into the trip, I thought this would be the shortest Oshkosh trip I had ever done. I turned around and started flying back to Sacramento as I wracked my brain trying the figure out the problem.

I didn’t know if it was a propeller problem since this was a constant speed prop or something else. I remembered talking to Sam years ago about a cross-feed problem he had with the fuel system when he had new fuel bladders installed. The 182 has only one vent into the left tank and then a vent tube to stabilize pressure between the tanks. I switched the fuel selector back to “both” tanks and the surging stopped. The airplane ran fine and my pulse rate came back down from “panic” to merely “anxious”.

I turned back around and resumed my climb toward Truckee.

There were some bad wildfires north and south of Tahoe so I knew there would be some smoke. I’m not IFR rated but figured that if I could see the ground, I would probably have three miles of visibility. As I flew into the Tahoe basin the smoke really started getting thick. I could see the ground but not much else. The smoke lasted well past Reno and toward Winnemucca where a line of green showed on the radar weather display on Foreflight.

Sure enough, I no sooner got out of the smoke when I started getting into rising cloud tops. I was able to climb above them and was soon cruising again at my planned 13,500’ MSL. As I approached Winnemucca, I could see the line of clouds with rain shafts coming down. The visibility was acceptable between showers, so I flew though the lightest areas and was on the other side in about ten minutes.

The weather display showed an even wider band between Wendover and Salt Lake City. I started planning my alternate airport and was thinking that I had never been to Wendover and that it might be a nice place to visit if I didn’t get through.

I passed Wendover and saw that the weather was a cloud layer with about a 2,000’ base above ground. There were several ridges ahead, but the clouds were above them enough that I was able to fly over the highway and miss the restricted airspace on weather side.

I hadn’t talked to air traffic control in years so I flew around the Salt Lake traffic area to get to South Valley airport. The airspace doesn’t leave much room between controlled airspace and the hills surrounding Salt Lake City, but somehow, I managed to make it into the pattern and land for fuel without busting the airspace. I need to start talking to ATC again. It makes things easier.

I refueled and checked the weather again. The density altitude was 9,900’ MSL and the airport is surrounded by houses. Using my best mountain flying techniques, I leaned to maximum power, released the brakes and waited to get into the air without needing to abort. I had flow into South Valley before in the Stinson and had successfully gotten airborne, so I was pretty sure I could do this in the 182. After all, a Cessna 150 with a student pilot and instructor had just taken off ahead of me.

I climbed out and headed south along the highway toward the pass out of the valley as I climbed. Once away from Salt Lake, the weather showed only scatted thundershowers, so I made my way toward Wyoming.

Wyoming in the afternoon is one long series of bumps, updrafts and downdrafts. I was learning to use the auto pilot and altitude hold, so that helped a bunch. The altitude hold kept telling me that I needed up trim and down trim for the next several hours, so I almost felt like I was actually flying the airplane. I like the people of Wyoming and think it is a magnificently beautiful state, but flying across the state in the afternoon is certainly not my favorite kind of flying.

I finally wore down as I approached Rawlins so decided to end the day there, even though I had flight planned for Sidney, Nebraska. I usually try to stop in Rawlins when I can because I’ve always found them to be some of the nicest people I meet along the way.

I wasn’t disappointed. I tied the 182 down and the attendant came out to refuel the plane. There were two Grumman Tigers tied down and I found out that they had just arrived before me and had the courtesy car. The attendant closed the office and brought his pickup around and gave me a ride to the hotel just down the street. He stayed to make sure they had a room for me and then declined an offered tip, telling me that was just part of their service and to call in the morning if I needed a ride back to the airport.

I met Wolfgang, one of the Tiger pilots, in the breakfast lounge the next morning and we all rode back up the airport in the courtesy car, but that night all I was interested in was something to eat, a hot shower and bed. There was a Taco Bell next door, so after revising and filing my flight plan for the next day, finishing a tasty chicken bowl and taking a hot shower, I turned in for the night.

I’m glad I set my cheap little alarm clock as a back-up because I didn’t wake up to the hotel alarm the next morning.