Greg Bockelman
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2005
- Messages
- 11,091
- Location
- Lone Jack, MO
- Display Name
Display name:
Greg Bockelman
I have been to the big show at Oshkosh 5 or 6 times since 1978. But this is the first time I actually flew in. My wife Sharon and I sort of got coerced into flying up by my 195 buddy, John Barron. We met at his place in Perry MO at about 9:45 AM for a 10:30 departure. There were 3 195's there that were all going as a group to OSH. We took off at 10:30 sharp, and one other 195 met us over the field. We met one more 195 about 10 minutes later for a total of 5 Cessna 195s flying as a group.
I wasn't too keen on flying as a group during the arrival into Oshkosh. When we started our descent, I pulled back a bit on the speed to get a bit of room between us and to get to Ripon at the required 90 knots and 1800 feet. Thing of it was that everybody and their brother showed up at Ripon at the same time. I was doing the 90 knots at 1800 feet and trying to get into sequence. I was following a Cessna on floats about a quarter mile behind and slightly to the right. A Cessna 140 pulled up beside me. One of our 195 group passed me below. I was at 70 knots trying to get spacing and a good single file line for sequencing. There were just too many airplanes for that.
While all this was going on, the poor controller at Fisk sounded frazzled. It was all he could do to keep up. Finally, he told the Cessna Floatplane in front of me to go around Rush lake. He was on my right and pulled out right in front of me. I made a hard right turn and decided that I was going to lead the pack around the lake, so I pretty much went to full throttle and did the loop around the lake. When I got back to Ripon, there were no airplanes around, so I followed the tracks to Fisk, and was told to make a right downwind to 27 and contact tower. From there it was a piece of cake. No more problems.
Over all, the arrival itself is not a huge deal. It is really pretty easy if everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing. But there are times with a lot of traffic where the plan goes to pot and one has to basically start over. That is the only hard part about the whole deal.
Once we got on the ground, we had pretty much a 2 mile taxi to get to where we were to park. Problem is, a 195 will heat up pretty fast on the ground. I got to the point where I was uncomfortable with the temp and had to pull over and shut down. The guide people were in tune with those types of problems and were very helpful. After about 20 minutes. I was able to start up and finish the taxi. Turns out I was within a couple of hundred yards of where I was supposed to be.
The rest of that day was spent setting up camp and just enjoying the company of fellow 195ers. It was pretty hot.
Monday was spent doing all the things one is supposed to do at Oshkosh. I walked through all the displays, and the buildings. Saw a bunch of stuff I would like to have but can't afford. You know, the usual stuff. After the airshow, I met up with Steve See and his wife and younger daughter for dinner. At dinner, the skies just opened up and dumped on us. Long story short, when we got back to camp, the front of our tent had collapsed and there was several inches of water in the tent. We collected what was dry, which wasn't much, and were going to settle into the airplane for the night. Problem was it was raining almost as hard inside the airplane as out. We ended up spending the night in the Vintage Aircraft Red Barn headquarters with 2 other couples. Over all not a disaster of a night.
Tuesday morning was spent collecting our wet stuff and heading out to the laundromat to dry things out. By noon, we were dry again. We had planned on leaving on Tuesday, but the weather was such that I did not want to fight marginal conditions to get home, so we stayed another day. Ahh Shuck.
Anyway, after spending another day doing what one is supposed to do at Oshkosh, we met up with Tom and Diana Richards, Chip Gibbons, and Ken Ibold and spent the evening just sitting around and enjoying the company.
Wednesday was a beautiful day. We got packed up to go and were ready to pull out at around 11 AM. But wait. Earlier in the day I had tuned in the atis on the airplane radio just to see what I could expect. When I got in the airplane to leave, You guessed it, my battery was stone cold dead. Dummy me left the master on. Well I got a jump start and away we went. After We got in the air, I realized that the battery was not charging. I went into an energy conservation mode and shut off all but one nav radio. (Guess which one.) A few minutes later, I realized that the generator was working because I had electricity to run the radios etcetera. It was just not charging the battery. Don't know why. Any way, we stopped at Dubuque to charge the battery and get lunch. A charged battery solved the problem and we were back to normal. An uneventful flight followed to Hiawatha KS which is the airplane's home.
After I got on the ground in Oshkosh, I swore I would never do that again. I have to tell you that I was more nervous in an airplane than I have ever been, with all the airplanes in one spot. It was worse than anyone who had done it before had seen it. But after awhile, I decided that it wasn't too bad and I will probably do it again. Next time I hope I can stay for most if not all of the week.
Now, if anyone can tell me where I can post about 100 pictuers. . .
I wasn't too keen on flying as a group during the arrival into Oshkosh. When we started our descent, I pulled back a bit on the speed to get a bit of room between us and to get to Ripon at the required 90 knots and 1800 feet. Thing of it was that everybody and their brother showed up at Ripon at the same time. I was doing the 90 knots at 1800 feet and trying to get into sequence. I was following a Cessna on floats about a quarter mile behind and slightly to the right. A Cessna 140 pulled up beside me. One of our 195 group passed me below. I was at 70 knots trying to get spacing and a good single file line for sequencing. There were just too many airplanes for that.
While all this was going on, the poor controller at Fisk sounded frazzled. It was all he could do to keep up. Finally, he told the Cessna Floatplane in front of me to go around Rush lake. He was on my right and pulled out right in front of me. I made a hard right turn and decided that I was going to lead the pack around the lake, so I pretty much went to full throttle and did the loop around the lake. When I got back to Ripon, there were no airplanes around, so I followed the tracks to Fisk, and was told to make a right downwind to 27 and contact tower. From there it was a piece of cake. No more problems.
Over all, the arrival itself is not a huge deal. It is really pretty easy if everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing. But there are times with a lot of traffic where the plan goes to pot and one has to basically start over. That is the only hard part about the whole deal.
Once we got on the ground, we had pretty much a 2 mile taxi to get to where we were to park. Problem is, a 195 will heat up pretty fast on the ground. I got to the point where I was uncomfortable with the temp and had to pull over and shut down. The guide people were in tune with those types of problems and were very helpful. After about 20 minutes. I was able to start up and finish the taxi. Turns out I was within a couple of hundred yards of where I was supposed to be.
The rest of that day was spent setting up camp and just enjoying the company of fellow 195ers. It was pretty hot.
Monday was spent doing all the things one is supposed to do at Oshkosh. I walked through all the displays, and the buildings. Saw a bunch of stuff I would like to have but can't afford. You know, the usual stuff. After the airshow, I met up with Steve See and his wife and younger daughter for dinner. At dinner, the skies just opened up and dumped on us. Long story short, when we got back to camp, the front of our tent had collapsed and there was several inches of water in the tent. We collected what was dry, which wasn't much, and were going to settle into the airplane for the night. Problem was it was raining almost as hard inside the airplane as out. We ended up spending the night in the Vintage Aircraft Red Barn headquarters with 2 other couples. Over all not a disaster of a night.
Tuesday morning was spent collecting our wet stuff and heading out to the laundromat to dry things out. By noon, we were dry again. We had planned on leaving on Tuesday, but the weather was such that I did not want to fight marginal conditions to get home, so we stayed another day. Ahh Shuck.
Anyway, after spending another day doing what one is supposed to do at Oshkosh, we met up with Tom and Diana Richards, Chip Gibbons, and Ken Ibold and spent the evening just sitting around and enjoying the company. Wednesday was a beautiful day. We got packed up to go and were ready to pull out at around 11 AM. But wait. Earlier in the day I had tuned in the atis on the airplane radio just to see what I could expect. When I got in the airplane to leave, You guessed it, my battery was stone cold dead. Dummy me left the master on. Well I got a jump start and away we went. After We got in the air, I realized that the battery was not charging. I went into an energy conservation mode and shut off all but one nav radio. (Guess which one.) A few minutes later, I realized that the generator was working because I had electricity to run the radios etcetera. It was just not charging the battery. Don't know why. Any way, we stopped at Dubuque to charge the battery and get lunch. A charged battery solved the problem and we were back to normal. An uneventful flight followed to Hiawatha KS which is the airplane's home.
After I got on the ground in Oshkosh, I swore I would never do that again. I have to tell you that I was more nervous in an airplane than I have ever been, with all the airplanes in one spot. It was worse than anyone who had done it before had seen it. But after awhile, I decided that it wasn't too bad and I will probably do it again. Next time I hope I can stay for most if not all of the week.
Now, if anyone can tell me where I can post about 100 pictuers. . .
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