Airventure 2024 | Day 4

July 20 | I can’t believe it’s already day four of this trip to Brodhead and Oshkosh.

The dawn patrol was off again into the morning haze just before six, but once again I had a good night’s sleep, so I was ready to start another day. I lay in my sleeping bag listening to the quiet drip of the morning dew off the wing onto the top of my tent, lulling back into and out of a drowsy sleep.

I don’t sleep well the night before leaving home and during the trip, being keyed up planning, packing and anticipating the challenge of flying through the weather over the Rockies and across the Mississippi basin. Once at Brodhead, with my tent set up, and housekeeping done, I finally relax and start thinking about looking at Pietenpols and visiting with other pilots, instead of filing flight plans and checking the weather forecast.

I was delighted to see Gary Boothe and Mike Weaver out from the old West Coast Pietenpol group. Gary’s son Ryan, son-in-law Walter and grandson were all out with him. Mike took a photo of the items Jim Boyer had donated and sent it to Jim, so I just texted him and let him know how much we appreciate his support for Chapter 1268. He was pleased to have helped.

I had breakfast with them and again enjoyed trading stories about our various adventures. This morning was pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice and coffee, so I’m once again good for the day, maybe with another cup of soft serve ice cream for lunch. Porch chops for dinner tonight! I sometimes think the food is as important as the flying at these events.

While sitting at my table selling Jim’s parts and pieces, a young man came up looking for Corvair parts. Sam Schok (sp?), aged all of 30, is building a Pietenpol. What is remarkable about that is that many of the Piet builders are getting older, so seeing these young people interested enough to actually start building a Piet is wonderful. Sam has his Corvair core engine apart and cleaned, and has started building wing ribs. Sam has never flown in a Pietenpol.

Scott Knowlton, a Piet builder down from Canada, walked up and started talking with Sam and me. I couldn’t help myself. I asked Scott if he ever took anyone up for a ride in his airplane, knowing full well that he enthusiastically did, with the result being Sam’s first Piet ride. That is what is supposed to happen at Brodhead.

Last night was an old flying movie, “Air Hostess”, inside the Kelch Aviation Museum. Popcorn was included, of course. The Kelch Museum has become an outstanding facility, well planned, with a beautiful new building on the northeast side of this jewel of a grass strip airport. Pat Weeden, the museum director, was hired to build and fill the museum with aviation and other historical artifacts, all informatively displayed. He is delightful to talk with and is always eager to answer any question or help with any request. He, and all the rest of the people involved, have created a true world class facility.

Airplanes fly all day and into the still of the evening. The tree line shades airplanes, tents and spectators watching the flying activity. Sitting in canvas chairs, they spend the day talking with the people sitting next to them, watching the take-offs, landings and fly-bys, and dozing occasionally, lulled to sleep by the warm summer afternoon and the regular drone of aircraft engines.

The thing I’ve always observed here was the absence of scowling faces. Everyone I see is smiling and relaxed. I haven’t read a newspaper since the morning leaving home, and find that in itself a relief. People here seem to go out of their way to avoid talking politics, religion, or the ills of the world. They talk instead of the joy and inspiration they feel dreaming about and starting their building project, then the immense satisfaction of completing a flying airplane.

Dreams and pride of accomplishment are now an integral part of their soul. Being at Brodhead is very much like being in church, without the dogma, and flying in a Pietenpol is to understand what John Gillespie Magee meant when he wrote in High Flight, “And while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand, and touched the face of God”.

Tomorrow, I rise with the dawn patrol, break camp and pack my gear, and head ninety miles north to Oshkosh.