I'll just give a brief (ha) overview of our trip up, the week at, and the trip back down from, OSH.
We departed for OSH on Friday, 7/21 to avoid the arrival procedure and help setup for aircraft registration in the WB area. Since moving in day (school) for our daughter was July 30 my wife prepositioned the F-150 at Golden Triangle (GTR) while I took off from Copiah County (M11) (130nm SW). It was just coincidental that I was climbing out of the plane just as they were pulling into the FBO parking lot, a 3 hr drive for them, a 50 minute flight for me.
A few minutes later we launched VFR for Dexter, MO (DXE) for the "cheap" self-serve fuel (@3.45/gal) and the home cooked breakfast at the Airways Restaurant. A check of the DTN showed a large yellow splotch crossing the river at STL so we decided to try direct Bloomington (BMI) instead of Rockford (RFD) using the handheld Garmin 96. That worked fine for about 30 minutes when the buildups forced us to deviate east and up. We started at 5500' and ended up at 9500' to stay in the clear between the "towering cu's" before we were able to turn back to the north towards Burlington, WI (BUU) where pilots we met at Dexter had suggested we'd find "cheap" fuel once again.
On the descent for BUU we encountered some light to moderate "chop" around 7000' on down to 5500' with some intermittent light showers but about 30 out from BUU we were under a high overcast and in clear air which extended to OSH after our quick turn at the self-serve pumps.
The tower at OSH on our arrival from the south wasn't exactly the "A" team, but we were cleared for a straight in to 36 over Fond du Lac and had no traffic ahead of us at 3:30 in the afternoon.
After parking the plane we hauled our supplies to the WB campground and met the dealer who delivered our rental camper (pop-up) as it was being set up. Talk about timing. After several years of getting flooded in tents, this was the first time we were able to ride out the numerous showers/downpours without having to make extra trips to the laundry.
It was a family affair for us in the WB area as I was helping with P-51/fighter movements, Mary was working pilot registration, and Kathleen helped in volunteer registration. Kathleen even got some training on signalling aircraft movement in the liaison area.
Saw several PoA'ers during the week. Tony C, Jesse A, Chip G, Greg B all stopped by and said hi. Sorry we couldn't spend more time together, so much to see, so little time to see it.
I did manage to pick up an Air Chart annual subscription (VFR and IFR) to see how that works out. (Nicely on the return trip, btw.) And talked to the Hartzell tech guy about which AD's really apply to my prop (I'm getting conflicting stories and they promise to send me the definitive info next week). Chip and I also bought updates for our Jepp Flitestar apps. Jepp and Garmin are pushing the limits of the anti-trust laws imho.
We finished off the week with the WB banquet Saturday night and then Sunday morning I dropped Mary and Kathleen off at Appleton (ATW) using a borrowed vehicle to catch a 7am flight back to GTR to meed the deadline for dorm check in for Kathleen. I almost had the plane packed before a squall line came across the field back at OSH. I got the canopy cover on and sprinted to the nearest shelter just as the wind blew over 5 port-a-johns. After a 2 hour delay I was able to depart VFR and stay under the cloud deck until south of Rockford (RFD).
I made a fuel stop at Mount Vernon, IL (MVN) and took on 54 gallons of the "hi-test" @4.66/gal. Nice FBO, but pricey. At MVN I pulled out the Aerox bottle and on departure climbed to 14,500' for a direct VFR flight home. I'm sure the Fdx pilots out of MEM didn't particularly care for the climb restriction, but ATC didn't bat an eye on Flight Following as I droned over the east side of the Class B. (Unlike Chicago, where I was asked to fly direct to RFD before turning east to BUU "to avoid overflying Chicago airspace" on the way up, despite having a direct course line that never came close to the depicted ORD Class B ). MEM even gave me the magic words even though I didn't techically enter their "protected" airspace.
Descent into M11 started 60 miles out thru some scattered cumulus and the heat and haze layer that topped out at 6,000'. Touchdown was 4:20 local...6.1 hrs total enroute each way it turns out.
Sadly, while checking in with my OSH contact to let them know I had arrived safely, I learned that a TBM Avenger had a ground collision with an RV-? after I had departed. The RV passenger was killed and the RV pilot was seriously injured. A previous RV accident the Saturday before Airventure resulted in two fatalities. So although it was great to see friends again after a year's absence, the overall enjoyment of OSH for me this year was somewhat diminished.
So we arrived back at home around midnight. Sorry I missed the POAers that were there, but it was a short weekend.
