Greg Bockelman
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2005
- Messages
- 11,093
- Location
- Lone Jack, MO
- Display Name
Display name:
Greg Bockelman
Well, my nice neat plans to go to Oshkosh were sent into disarray several weeks ago when my younger son wanted to attend a gaming tournament in Chicago from Friday to Sunday just before Oshkosh starts on Monday. The plan was to send my younger son and wife to Chicago via airline and my older son and I would take the 195 and all the camping gear to Dubuque. I would leave the camping gear at Dubuque and fly my older son and me to Chicago to pick up the other son and wife. My younger son is to stay with friends in Dubuque while the rest of us go to Oshkosh. That is the setup.
Friday morning dawns with thunderstorms in the air. No big deal as far as the airlines go, but not so hot for me. I have to take my wife and son to the airport for a 6:00 AM flight. That means getting up at 4 to get there in time. Well turns out the flight was full and no room for standbys. (Another airline employee benefit that isn't worth a crap) The rest of the day was worse, so it was decided to go ahead and buy tickets for them on Southwest. (I hate Southwest
) Finally got them off so I went back home and started researching the weather for my trip.
At about 10:30 AM it looked like the weather was going to break enough to get off, so off to the airport I went. One last check of the weather and I pull out the airplane, load us up, and go to start the airplane and the battery was dead. Or near dead. Crap. The battery is behind the baggage compartment and all the camping stuff has to come out. Not to mention, my jumper cables are at home a half hour away. I decided to just buy another set at Wal-Mart that was 10 minutes away. Got the airplane started, packed up and taxied out to do my runup. Taxiing away from the runup, the left main wheel drops into a small depression and won't budge. Shut down the engine, get the tractor out, and the grass was too wet to allow traction for the tractor. An aquaintance happened by, went and got a shovel, and we dug out. Got the airplane unstuck, got in, and guess what? Not enough charge in the battery to start it again. So out comes all the baggage again.
Finally on the way. Skirting the trailing edge of the weather all the way to Dubuque. We got about 25 or 30 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids and ran into a wall of clouds. So back to Cedar Rapids to wait it out. About an hour later, the weather moves out and off we go for the 40 minute flight to Dubuque.
Arrived in Dubuque without any further problems. The T-28 and T-6 crowd had gathered there to stage for Oshkosh. I have never seen so many in one place ever.
Well, it was decided that the weather had improved enough for me to head out to Dupage, which was my final destination. Loaded up, Master on, Starter engaged, not enough juice to spin the prop. Out comes the battery to the charger. 20 minutes later, we were off again. We got to Du Page at about 8:40 PM, just as it was getting dark.
A trip that should have taken about 5 hours had taken all day. With the weather and all, a little patience goes a long way. I could have decided that I needed to "Be there" and pressed on. Someone said that I was "brave" for doing the trip VFR. I said that I may be brave, but I am not stupid. I always had an out and I ended up using one.
Anyway, I was glad to get to Du Page. I had had enough of yesterday.
Friday morning dawns with thunderstorms in the air. No big deal as far as the airlines go, but not so hot for me. I have to take my wife and son to the airport for a 6:00 AM flight. That means getting up at 4 to get there in time. Well turns out the flight was full and no room for standbys. (Another airline employee benefit that isn't worth a crap) The rest of the day was worse, so it was decided to go ahead and buy tickets for them on Southwest. (I hate Southwest
) Finally got them off so I went back home and started researching the weather for my trip. At about 10:30 AM it looked like the weather was going to break enough to get off, so off to the airport I went. One last check of the weather and I pull out the airplane, load us up, and go to start the airplane and the battery was dead. Or near dead. Crap. The battery is behind the baggage compartment and all the camping stuff has to come out. Not to mention, my jumper cables are at home a half hour away. I decided to just buy another set at Wal-Mart that was 10 minutes away. Got the airplane started, packed up and taxied out to do my runup. Taxiing away from the runup, the left main wheel drops into a small depression and won't budge. Shut down the engine, get the tractor out, and the grass was too wet to allow traction for the tractor. An aquaintance happened by, went and got a shovel, and we dug out. Got the airplane unstuck, got in, and guess what? Not enough charge in the battery to start it again. So out comes all the baggage again.
Finally on the way. Skirting the trailing edge of the weather all the way to Dubuque. We got about 25 or 30 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids and ran into a wall of clouds. So back to Cedar Rapids to wait it out. About an hour later, the weather moves out and off we go for the 40 minute flight to Dubuque.
Arrived in Dubuque without any further problems. The T-28 and T-6 crowd had gathered there to stage for Oshkosh. I have never seen so many in one place ever.
Well, it was decided that the weather had improved enough for me to head out to Dupage, which was my final destination. Loaded up, Master on, Starter engaged, not enough juice to spin the prop. Out comes the battery to the charger. 20 minutes later, we were off again. We got to Du Page at about 8:40 PM, just as it was getting dark.
A trip that should have taken about 5 hours had taken all day. With the weather and all, a little patience goes a long way. I could have decided that I needed to "Be there" and pressed on. Someone said that I was "brave" for doing the trip VFR. I said that I may be brave, but I am not stupid. I always had an out and I ended up using one.
Anyway, I was glad to get to Du Page. I had had enough of yesterday.
