AirVenture 2021 | Day 3

July 20 | Tuesday in Rawlins dawned much cooler than Monday afternoon finished. After leaving Salt Lake with a density altitude of 9,900’, Rawlins had a density altitude of over 10,000’ by the time I arrived.

When we got to the airport from the hotel Tuesday morning, the density altitude was back down to nearly the airport elevation of a little over 6,800’. Landing yesterday was on the crosswind runway of 4,300’ but taking off today was right into the wind down the 7,000’ runway. There was no drama other than a little leaning of the mixture to get full power.

I flew at 9,500’ today for a couple reasons. That was high enough to clear the ridges between Rawlins and the plains, and I had sucked the oxygen dry the day before coming over the Sierras and the Rockies. There were scattered clouds, the puffy kinds you see in photos of the Midwest, and they were well below my level of flight.

I passed Laramie and then Cheyenne and started down the slope out of the last foothills of the Rockies. I had planned on stopping at James Whiting Field in Mapleton, Iowa, but saw that Norfolk in Nebraska had cross runways to use in case a crosswind came up.

I landed and refueled and went into the office to get my receipt. The attendant, a nice young man, asked me if I was headed to Oshkosh. If you work at any airport in the country, it seems, there will be thousands of pilots making the pilgrimage to Oshkosh at this time of the year. I told him I was going to stop off at Brodhead on the way and he asked “For the Pietenpol fly-in?”

I am always surprised when people know about the Pietenpol fly-in the weekend before Oshkosh. For those who don’t know, a Pietenpol is a high-wing open cockpit home built airplane. Known as a parasol, it carries two people and has a tailwheel at the back instead of aa nosewheel up front. Designed by Bernie Pietenpol in 1929, the plans were published in Modern Mechanics magazine. It was powered by a converted Ford Model A engine and was and still is a popular airplane that has enabled aspiring pilots to get into the air at a reasonable cost.

It turns out, there was a Pietenpol on the field. I asked him if he had asked the builder for a ride. He hadn’t yet, so I encouraged him to do so the next time he saw the owner. That young man might be one of the next generation of Pietenpol builders.

I took off and headed east. The air above Nebraska and Iowa was smooth and cool. The ever-present puffy clouds were below me, and none of them were growing vertically into thunderheads as they had on previous trips. The visibility was generally clear except for occasional plumes of smoke and haze blowing down from the wildfires in Canada.

As I passed Dubuque and crossed the Mississippi River, I reduced power and trimmed for a 500 foot a minute decent, since I was about 50 miles from Brodhead. I was delighted to see the best ground speed of the trip with the GPS indicating between 135 and 140 knots.

I had a little tussle with the autopilot as I wended my way between those puffy, bumpy little clouds. The autopilot was winning until I disconnected it and then I realized that my piloting skills had grown soft and flabby while we were flying across the Midwest.

I realized I was over the field at Brodhead when the milage display on the GPS started increasing instead of decreasing. I circled the field to check the wind indicator, then entered the left-hand pattern for runway 27 and set up for landing on the grass runway.

I got the airplane down without destroying it and taxied to a camping spot in front of Chris Price’s hangar. Luckily, there was no one around to watch me land. After setting up camp, I realized there didn’t seem to be anyone around on the entire field. Since it was after 6 local time, I walked the one mile into town to get a sandwich at Subway for dinner. It was hot and humid, so I was soaked with sweat by the time I got to town. A club sandwich and two big cups of ice water made everything much better. After walking back to the airport, I took a shower, crawled into my sleeping bag and fell fast asleep.

I had made it to Brodhead one more time.