Waypoints

Editor in Chief Thomas B. Haines has made the trip to Oshkosh more than a dozen times in every manner of airplane.

When late July rolls around each year, many pilots begin the detailed planning for the annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin for the world's largest aviation event, EAA AirVenture. The event transforms normally quiet Oshkosh into an aviation Mecca, with nearly 10 percent of the U.S. general aviation fleet converging on the site. Organizers say more than 200,000 people attend the weeklong event.

Every pilot should fly into Oshkosh during that week at least once. A detailed arrival procedure with visual checkpoints is published weeks in advance and changes little from year to year. Because of the event, names like "Ripon" and "Fisk," overfly points in the procedure, are ingrained deep into pilot vocabulary worldwide. There are always a few pilots who don't get the word and attempt to fly their own procedure, which is like sticking your finger into an angry beehive.

I've done the Oshkosh procedure a couple of times in my flying career. With that box checked I now land at Appleton, Wisconsin, about a 20-minute drive north of Oshkosh. It's a far less busy airport with tremendously friendly people who are geared up to handle the extra traffic. You land and are immediately directed to parking, usually on the grass between the runways and the terminal. When you shut down a van and crew is there to help unload and get you to the terminal. Bring your own tiedowns or they will sell you a set. You'll want them because at some point during the week there will be a massive thunderstorm with high winds and quite possibly hail — just to keep you wondering what you'll find when you return to pick up your airplane.

One thing you can count on during Oshkosh week is a veritable weather smorgasbord. I remember one year stepping out of the airplane into the heat of a convection oven. A hot wind blew, offering no relief from the 100-degree temperatures. Inside the display buildings that year, it reached 116 degrees. Take comfort, though, because you know that at some point during the week a huge thunderstorm will rumble through and cool things off.

As with all summertime flying, the trick in avoiding the worst of the storms is to leave early in the morning. This year I informed AOPA Flight Training Editor Mike Collins and Graphics Department Manager Chris Rose that we would meet at 6:45 a.m. for our journey to Oshkosh. AOPA staffs a large display tent at the show each year where members can come in and renew their memberships, learn about new products and services, and see the sweepstakes airplane. This year's sweepstakes project, the bright red Waco UPF-7 biplane, was a huge hit with attendees. Other staff members had gone out early in the week to set up the displays and kick off the show. The three of us would arrive on Wednesday. Others would come in to staff the weekend and tear down while the set up crew went home.

We launched from our home base of Frederick, Maryland, right on time early Wednesday morning for an uneventful flight to the northwest. We landed at Appleton four flight hours after our takeoff, with a quick fuel stop near Lansing, Michigan. We stuffed a couple of rental cars full and headed south to Oshkosh, arriving just ahead of a strong gust front that was seemingly about to launch all of the display tents into Lake Winnebago. The gust front brought a wall of rain. Later that night some six inches of rain fell on Oshkosh in about two hours. Appleton received nearly nine inches of rain, causing street flooding and making me wonder what sort of twisted and soggy mess I would find tied down at the airport. More rain fell almost every day, water-logging the campers.

Saturday morning, with the threat of storms developing in Ohio and Pennsylvania, we drove to Appleton to find the airplane still intact. Before loading all of our gear, we tugged the airplane up out of the ruts it had sunk into during the rain. Joined by a fourth person for the trip home, Administrative Assistant Miriam Stoner, we packed the airplane and started up.

Or at least the engine started. The alternator refused to come online, as indicated by the red "Alternator Out" annunciator on the panel. A couple of flips of the circuit breaker switch got it to come online. But a minute later the JP Instruments EDM-800 was blinking a "Low Volts" message at me as I saw the voltage plummeting and noted the alternator annunciator light back on. I taxied to the maintenance shop where the technician concurred that it might simply be moisture in the alternator that was causing the problem. The rain had penetrated everything. A few minutes under a heat gun apparently dried it out because the alternator worked just fine from then on.

With that we departed an hour late to find that in fact the storms had arrived just as predicted. Had we left on time we would have been ahead of them. But with only a few diversions we were able to avoid the buildups and stay visual at 11,000 feet, landing at Frederick less than four hours after takeoff — glad to be home in time to salvage at least part of the weekend. We were ready to decompress after the Oshkosh experience, and set to look forward to doing it all over again next year.

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