Newsletter Volume 30, Number 10

Calendar

Congratulations to Pilot Achievments!

Kevin Shawhan and John Nogatch are new Private Pilots.
Christoph Bohmann and Todd Whitmer were recommended for their Instrument Pilots' check rides by Doug Groom.
Todd Townley soloed in July.

Great Tentative Lineup of Programs

November	FSS Speaker, then plan on a November 14th Fly-In to Oakland FSS.
December	Holiday Party @ Mr. Steer's!
January	Doug Groom's Adriatic Adventure
February	Christoph Bohmann's Aviation in Europe

Happy October Birthdays to:

John Bakke on the 4^th
Michael Workman and Roger Fane on the 24^th
Ken Pheley on the 30^th

Air Shows

Aces participation
Golden West EAA at Castle: Roger Fane, Christoph Bohmann, Todd Whitmer & John Gould
Reno Air Races: Skip Forester

Next Month's Article

Night flying, landings and perception problems. By Kenneth Pheley CFMEI

Oshkosh Airventure 99

Prologue: WHY OSHKOSH?

My wife was asking me about my Oshkosh trip logic, since it seemed that:

1. Cost is more: United =$400 Vs. Bonanza =$600
2. Time to Travel is more: 8 hours Vs. 16 hours
3. Risk is more: boring 35,000 ft Vs. 360 degree view

1. Long cross country flight over the West.
2. Shared adventure with Skip Forester, my friend and flight instructor.
3. Connection with key family (my brother and close cousins).
4. Connection with my college best friend.
5. Air-conditioned motor home location on the field (not a tent).
6. Explore micro light flying. (experimental part 91 vs. ultra light part 103)

The Oshkosh adventure found Skip and I. I went on the EAA web site and listed myself as available to share a ride. Tom Engleman saw this and called to invite me to join him in an A36 and that he had another opening. I e-mailed Skip, who also accepted Tom's invite. The fourth crew member is a lady pilot, Brigitte.

June 17 preview flight plus dinner: As a preliminary, we all four met at SJC on a week night to fly to Santa Rosa for dinner and a compatibility check. After an orientation and safety tour with discussion of our planned load for Oshkosh, We loaded up the A36 and departed on an IFR flight plan over San Francisco direct to Santa Rosa for dinner. It was a billion dollar view on a golden clear sunset evening. CAVU

Forty five minutes later we were at the table in Santa Rosa for fresh salmon. We dined and swapped flying stories. The cost of Dinner was $25 / hour / person, the same as the flying cost / hour / person. We did skip the wine, in the wine country.

At 8:30 we reboarded and flew back over Oakland, enjoying the night lights, as only the Bay has. Flying a direct plan to SJC over Fremont, we were looking into the on coming headlights of about six Boeings lined up for SFO. There is nothing boring about flying the Bay, just lots of Boeing.

At 4 am on July 28 The Crew met at the hanger and began loading. For the first leg, Skip and I had the rear facing crew rest area, with lots of leg room over our bags. Basically left seat was on instrument charts, right seat on VFR charts, supplemented by additional charts and even a road map for the back seat drivers. At 5 am we were airborne on our instrument plan to Evanston WY., 4 hours away. An hour later we were south of Lake Tahoe watching the sun rise creep down into the lake and we had donned our oxygen. Nevada was more interesting at 15,000 than 35,000. Through Utah, we passed north of the Great Salt lake. When we landed around 10 am local time, we were ready.

We were quickly drained and refueled, including the oxygen bottle, and back airborne on the second leg to Huron, SD, fours farther. Skip was in right seat across Wyoming, south of the Black Hills and over the Bad Lands. When we started to let down, the lack of air-conditioning became apparent. We landed around 3:30 local time to a HOT Mexico wind and 99 degrees. We left all of the aircraft doors open while they refueled and we went to eat a "lunch" in the AC'd terminal.

Refueled, we rotated around 5 PM with an Oshkosh destination. Having snoozed across Wyoming, I was now right seat to our final in Wisc. Two hours brought us to the Mighty Mississippi and another hour we were on final into Fon du Lac, 17 miles south of Oshkosh. By 8:30 PM we were tied down and soon on the shuttle towards Mecca. We negotiated a ride all the way to Tom's friends house. Dropped the bags and went to dinner by 10 PM. A little food and beer, and it was 11 PM lights out.

Oshkosh Airshow 99

By 9 am Thursday, we were on the field with our passes, walking the runway. We invested the morning in the four new vendor display buildings. After lunch Skip and I began to realize that 95 degrees and humidity was more than our California systems could handle. We went into survival mode and hibernated in the museum until 4:30 PM. The afternoon was timeless among all of that history. We rendezvoused with the crew by 5 PM and went back for showers and beer. My cousins and brother were still an hour out in the RV, so everyone else went on to dinner. We joined them later, but the days heat had done us in. I ate and returned with them to the RV to sleep under the AC, not the stars.

Friday was my micro light day. we watched an hour of ultra light operations, then tour all of the booths with an eye still on the fly-bys. But I only lasted until noon, 95 degrees and humidity . The heat was just too much. Had lunch with Vaughn, my Monterey friend, and I went back to the RV to call it a day. Siesta was it. The afternoon air show started around 3:30 and it was just as good from the RV shade. Around 9 PM relief finally begin to announce itself. Thunder! By 10 PM or so it hit and rained all night.

Saturday was the follow-up day to revisit all of the booths and displays that were only touched on the first pass. The cooler day of 87 or so helped but by noon I was done again. Siesta. The afternoon air show started around 3:30 in the RV shade.

Sunday all ready, where did three days go?. At the 8 am check in with the condo crew, I learned they were ready to meet at 1 PM at the aircraft for departure. Went to a brunch and made one last pass by the favorites at the ultra light area and into the car with my brother back to the plane.

Wayne had me at the airplane in Fond du Lac at 1 PM. We loaded and lifted off by 2:30 with a northern route planned to find cooler air and avoid the monsoons of Arizona and Colorado. We flew into a head wind, requiring us to land sooner for fuel in Pierre, SD. on the Missouri. We flew on to Rapid City SD. for the night. We rented a car and stayed in a very nice western hotel in the downtown. We went out for drinks and dinner, and were celebrating the cool air.

Monday August 2, we drove out to Mount Rushmore, since none of the others had been there. We returned to the airport after lunch and were airborne by 2:00. This leg of the trip required higher altitudes and oxygen. Again a head wind and now developing thunderstorms to the north moving south. We began deviating our course to the south and ended up passing south of Salt Lake City and on South of Provo then West across and barely into Nevada at Ely. We were motivated for drinks and slots. But to get there we still had to punch under and through some showers. The down drafts almost forced us to cancel IFR because we were not maintaining minimum altitudes of 14,000. At Ely we found the last rooms at a Ramada Inn and the dining was not to the same high standard of South Dakota. But pizza and beer had to due.

Tuesday August 3, our shuttle picked us up at 6 am and we were airborne by 7 am. We were unable to get an oxygen refill at Ely but still needed to fly above 10,000. So only the pilot was on and the rest of us were vigilant for each other. We flew across Nevada on a beautiful morning, crossed the Sierras south of Lake Tahoe and dropped into San Jose by 10 am.

Summary:
Was hottest OSHKOSH ever! Four of us pilots flew a Bonanza there in one day and took three half days to come back. We were in less of a hurry to return. We left at 5 am on Wed. July 28 and got back Tues. Aug. 03 at 10 am.