Airventure 2024 | Day 10

July 26 | Friday, at last. I’ll be packing up to leave tomorrow morning, but Airventure will continue through Sunday, with another night airshow Saturday evening.

Breakfast at the Tall Pines again, so I have Oshkosh biscuits and gravy for the last time this trip. I won’t be working on the flight line today, but have done over seventeen hours this week, all while crowding in errands, airplane looking and visiting with friends.

My first stop is at the Aeromart to see what has sold and what is left to take home. One aluminum fuel tank, one package of tubing and three books are all that are left, although I can’t find one of the books on the table. Hopefully, it will go to the book store when they clean out the place.

The Aeromart is a big, circus tent filled with tables and shelves, which are filled with everything aviation related imaginable, as well as some things that don’t quite fit that category. I wish now that I had taken a photo of the inside, but I was so busy listing all the things I had left from Brodhead for sale that I plumb forgot. I’m sure there are photos on the EAA website for anyone interested in seeing a typical Airventure Aeromart.

Counting the take from Brodhead, Chapter 1268 made almost $1800, all due to Jim Boyer’s generosity. I had removed the rear seats for the trip out and had filled the space almost to the roof, but I’ll be going home with the equivalent of one file box of unsold parts and some parts that we will use on the Corvair engine conversion for the Chapter 1268 Pietenpol.

Next, I rode the tram down to the Blue Barn Chapters center to say goodbye to the great EAA folks who support the Chapters. I had seen Samantha, who administers the Young Eagles program, and Serena on Tuesday, and Chris, who does the Ray scholarship coordinating on Monday, and didn’t find anyone else I knew, so I just took a photo of the back of our new Chapter 1268 road sign, where Zac had written our Chapter name and number for anyone approaching the sign from the back side to see.

The weather was warm and the skies clear, promising a good day tomorrow on the flight home.

I even met Bill Banner, a pilot from Salt Lake and Gardner Bride’s nephew, at one of the tram stops. He was going north and I was getting off going south, so we had a couple minutes to visit before his tram showed up. Bill comes down regularly to visit Gardner in Petaluma, and when his visit coincides with one of our Young Eagle rallies, he will bring his 182 to Skypark and help us give rides.

On my walk through the vintage display area, I came upon a 1929 Fleet Model 2 biplane, with a man in the rear cockpit getting ready to start it and a young woman standing beside it. I have a special affection for that particular model of airplane because an old Schellville friend, Jim Williams, used to fly airshows in his and I used to announce for him. I asked the person beside me where the airplane was based. She replied “Sonoma”. Now my hearing is pretty marginal, so I asked again “Sonoma County?”. She said “The town of Sonoma”. I then learned that they were going to ferry the Fleet to its new owner, Tony Caldwell, at Sonoma Skypark, where I’m based. Small world. I’m looking forward to seeing it on the field.

I returned to camp and got the airplane loaded and organized as much as possible so all would need to do in the morning is take down the tent, roll up the sleeping bag, throw them in the back and then fire up and depart.

Jim Roberts called and invited me to dinner with him and his friends from the Swift club again. He picked me up at Gate 21 and we went to the house he is sharing with two other couples and another Swift owner. When we got there, he started pulling his shoes off and walking onto the soft, green lawn. When in Rome… I pulled my shoes off and joined him as he bent over to take a photo of his bare necked feet. I wasn’t fast enough to get a shot of that, so I had to settle for one showing him looking somewhat normal. Don’t let that fool you.

The grass felt wonderful and cool on my bare feet.

We went out and joined some other friends of friends, one of whom worked on the space shuttle program. It was fascinating sitting there listening to him tell of having to climb onto the shuttle after it had piggy-backed from landing in California out to Florida on the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and disconnect an electrical cable connecting it to the airplane. Jim and I had the walleye and we again had an enjoyable evening visiting with the other pilots.

I was tired when Jim dropped me off at Gate 21, so I walked to my tent, got my towel and soap, took a hot shower and turned in for a good night’s sleep before my own launch home in the morning.