AirVenture | Day 9

July 26 | Monday was so full of activity that it seemed to last for more than one day. A day lasts a long time when the garbage truck starts your day at 5 am!

I’m parked on the end of the row bordering the service road to the South 40. What’s the south 40? It’s not exactly where they grow the corn. It is the open land on the south end of the airport where they send overflow parking for pilots wanting to camp beside their airplane.

I am down at the end between two rows of parked planes with my tail hanging over the drainage ditch running beside the road. The drainage ditch is where the mosquitos hide until they see that you have your back turned, then they pounce and try to pull you into the ditch to finish off your poor, bloodless carcass. They’ve been pulling missing campers out of that ditch all week.

Two very nice pilots from Washington, DC, are parked beside me. Helen runs a flight school in Maryland and Lucy told me about visiting her parents in Pacific Grove near Monterey years ago and renting an airplane there to take her dad on a scenic flight around Monterey Bay. They have a felt petunia tied to the cowl of the plane, although I’m not sure they have actually named the airplane Petunia.

I had registered to volunteer on the flight line, so after an orientation, I rode the “taxi” out to Point Fond Du Loc to help direct airplanes into and out of the parking area. Point Fondy was well staffed, so I went further south to Point Kilo/Konrad to help there for the next two days.

If you ever wanted to be a traffic cop waving at an airplane coming straight at you with its spinning propeller glistening in the sunshine, this is just the job for you. If you want something a little tamer, there are volunteer opportunities for everything from driving the tram tractors to flipping pancakes and cooking eggs at the Tall Pines Café.

I volunteer, as does everyone else, so that I can meet people enthusiastic about aviation and flying, and make friends that I look forward to seeing year after year when I return to Oshkosh. It makes the AirVenture experience about much more than looking at airplanes and watching an airshow.

I checked out about noon and went on my trek into the exhibition area. I had some definite goals, one of which was to refill my oxygen bottle so I could fly back at altitude and put more space between me and those mountains. I found the vendor and asked him about the fact that the bottle only lasted about eight hours. He showed me the two scales on the flow indicator and explained which one I should use with a cannula and which with a mask. I was feeling a little silly since I used the one with the higher rate.

The tank should last for the entire trip home. The bonus from the visit is that they refilled my tank at no cost. It pays to go to Oshkosh.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of shopping for parts for the new, to me, 182. I found a new vernier mixture control at a lower price from the manufacturer than that in the Aircraft Spruce catalog, and they topped it off by offering a ten percent airshow discount.

The most important purchases were for the granddaughters and the great-grandchildren. I usually buy them t-shirts since they are light weight and easy to pack. Catherine gives me the sizes, but this time I got smart. I took photos of each style and sent them to Catherine and then called her on speaker phone to pick out the best choices. It was the easiest shopping I’ve ever done.

Ron and Chris Price flew to the airshow from Brodhead with Chris’s Travel Air and Bruner-Winkle Speedbird biplanes. Ron flew up with Trent Davis, a Brodhead Airport resident, in the Speedbird and Chris brought his brother-in-law Ed and niece Summer in the Travel Air. Walt Bowe brought in his new-to-him Waco, and they all parked in the antique display area in the Vintage section. Ron was beaming while they taxied in and everyone was smiling with delight from the flight.

I went to dinner with Ron, his daughter Heidi, her husband Ed and daughter Summer, Rafe, and Chris and his oldest son Duncan. We went to Fox River Brewing Company, and of course had to sample some of their artisan beers with our dinner. It is right on the Fox River and had numerous corn hole game sets out for the patrons to play while waiting for their meal. Duncan beat Ed, but I’m sure there will be a rematch soon.

It was the end of another wonderful day spent with old friends and long-time acquaintances. Another shower, another call home and I crawled into my sleeping bag once again.