Airventure 2024 | Day 11

July 27 | Just when you think things are going just great, some complication always seems to pop up.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat and stuffy sinuses. Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, they say. I lay there thinking, “this isn’t, couldn’t possibly be, what I ‘m thinking it is”. It was.

Two years ago, I came out to Brodhead and Oshkosh with Calvin Wojciechowski and had a great time. Fried cheese curd tacos and all. Thursday evening, I started feeling peaked, so I used one of the test kits I brought, and, sure enough, I tested positive for COVID. I didn’t want to stay in a tent at Oshkosh with COVID, so we loaded up the airplane and headed out Friday morning, making it to Rawlins by evening after a fuel stop in Yankton, SD for fuel.

Having Calvin there to help fly, as well as having an autopilot made it bearable. We were able to get home by Saturday with one more fuel stop, where I phoned my doctor and got a prescription for Paxlovid. It was a couple miserable days flying, but not impossible. Calvin had just recovered from COVID a few weeks earlier, so his resistance was up and he didn’t catch it again being cooped up with me for two full days of flying.I brought a test kit again this time, so as soon as I woke up and dressed, I tested and found that, yes, going to Oshkosh causes COVID. That was the only conclusion I could come to at the time. This time I had also brought a prescription of Paxlovid, just in case, you know. I took the first dose and a Tylenol, but had no appetite, so didn’t bother with breakfast. I had some trail mix and power bars that I would eat on the way.

I broke down my camp, finished loading the airplane, and flagged a flight line volunteer to let him know I was ready to leave. They helped me start up and taxi out between the few remaining airplanes parked in my section of the airfield, then motioned me on to the next volunteer directing the departing airplanes to the appropriate runway.

I did my runup on the way to the departure runway, and checked the notice to airmen one last time for departure procedures, then was waved onto the runway by a FAA controller in his pink shirt and given clearance to depart by the tower. I pushed the throttle to the firewall, gained flying speed and lifted off for home from runway 18.

The departure procedure was to fly the runway heading, or 180 degrees, and remain at 1300 feet MSL to stay below arriving aircraft coming in at 1800 feet MSL, or mean sea level, until clear of the Oshkosh controlled airspace. You can see a lot of detail of the houses, roads and farms below at that low altitude, but I knew that would keep me well below the aircraft coming in to land.

After clearing the controlled airspace, I turned and started climbing to 8500’ to fly to my first stop at Yankton, SD. There were scattered clouds, but I was able to avoid them easily, since I hadn’t filed as IFR for this leg over the Midwest. It would be about a four-hour flight to Yankton for fuel, then another four hours to my midpoint at Rawlins for the night.

I realized about half way to Yankton that I shouldn’t try to press on to Rawlins. I was aching and tired and flying at that altitude was making my sinuses ache, so when I finally arrived, I had decided that I would take three days, or four if necessary, going home and overnight in Yankton.

I landed and fueled up for the morning, tied the airplane down, and called for a taxi. Luckily, the FBO had masks and hand sanitizer in the entrance, so I could go into the building without worrying about infecting the nice people there. The hot dogs, pork and beans and hamburger casserole the airport and local EAA chapter provided for people traveling to and from Oshkosh didn’t look appetizing enough to try this time. The taxi came and delivered me to the Best Western in Yankton, where I checked in, went down to the restaurant and asked for a nice, hot bowl of soup. The restaurant was sports bar, so you know they didn’t have soup, so I settled on a grilled chicken salad.

Back in my room, I ate a bit of the salad, took a hot shower and my next dose of Paxlovid and a Tylenol, and turned in by 8 pm central time. I went to sleep hoping tomorrow I would be feeling better and would have a better day flying.