Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Oshkosh review

I thought I should post something about the trip to Oshkosh. I've been so busy that I just haven't had time to keep the blog updated as I would like. Anyway, after departing Hooks (DWH) on Saturday July 23 at 6:30am , we got to our parking spot in the North 40 on row 521 at 7:35pm. It had been a long day. For our first leg we flew the airways to Walnut Ridge Regional Airport (KARG) in of course Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. It was a nice quiet stop with a friendly attendant. We were only there about 35 minutes to refuel and potty break before we were off on our way to the Greater Rockford Airport (KRFD) in Rockford, Illinois before our last leg into Oshkosh. We had seen from the weather briefing in Walnut Ridge that bad weather was present up in that area and around Oshkosh, but as we flew closer to Rockford and listened to the other airplanes on FlightWatch, it was SLOWLY improving in Rockford. It improved just enough for my non-instrument rated pilot to get into Rockford. Once there we waited over 2 hours for thunderstorms to move through the Oshkosh area enough for us to head up there...

To be continued shortly....
.
.
Where was I? Oh yes...Well the t-storms finally moved off to the southeast enough for us to head north so we got in the plane and taxied out. Unfortunately, the Bonanzas to Oshkosh group, which stages at Rockford had the same idea and they beat us to the runway. When you switch over from Ground to Tower and hear "Bonanza flight of 100, cleared for takeoff", you know you have some time to kill. Well, that's what happened to us so we just shut down the engine, took off our headsets, and turned on the handheld to listen to the proceeding. Finally about 15 minutes later we saw the last flight of 3 start rolling so we started up and got ready to depart.