Bill's Aviation Log

We took off around 8am Saturday morning and were soon passing Baltimore. As you can see, the weather is just about perfect. It was early yet.

Chip captures this nice shot of me, a short while after passing Frederick.

Parkersburg is a towered airport. The tower is visible just to the left of the General Aviation terminal building. The airport also has a nice passenger terminal for commercial flights.

In the passenger terminal was this plaque to one of the early aviation pioneers.

Yeah, I'm flying the Skyraider to AirVenture 2022. Not big deal, just a normal day.

Overhead Rickenbacker International Airport, just south of Columbus, Ohio.

Lookign down at Chicago.

While at Porter County, we had gotten intelligence that the aerial arrival line into AirVenture was long. It used to be the arrival line started at Ripon. But starting last year, the Notam arrival procedure said the line could be extended to Endeavor Bridge. Our "intelligence" told us it was now extended past that, to a town 10 miles south of Endeavor Bridge called Portage and another ten miles to the south of that!

After leaving the complicated Chicago airspace behind, we angled northwest towards Portage. As we came closer, we could see on ADS-B that the line was indeed starting south of Portage. So we joined the end of the line about 10 miles south of Portage. ADS-B was very useful at this point, I must say.

So I'm flying along at 90 knots, keeping good separation with the high-wing in front of me, when I look off my left wing and there is this Cessna 182 cruising alongside, a couple of hundreed feet away. "What does this guy thing he's going to do?", I ask. After a minute, he pulled ahead, climbed a little and crossed over to my right. He then proceeded up the line. Maybe he was looking for a hole in the line to insert himself? From ADS-B, there were no holes in the line, that was certain. I don't know what happened to the 182. I had his N-number and later I looked him up on Flight Aware, but he was blocking access to his flight information.

Once, on the Approach Frequency, I heard one pilot accuse another pilot, by N-number, of cutting in line. The other pilot came on the freq and denied it. Then the controller came on line and told them to get off his net.

Zooming in on the previous picture. Runway 9/27 is a 6,179 long runway. The "Green Dot" is visible in the middle of the runway. The "North 40" general aviation parking area is packed.

And Chuck and Chip? As instructed, they headed back to Portage. They landed at Portage Municipal airport (C47) to give Chip a breather. After an hour or two, they decided to give it another try, and the second time they made it, landing at Wittman Field 15 minutes before the airport shut down at 8pm.

This is what a sick person in the airplane looks like. Keep in mind, Chip is no rookie aviator. He's a professional pilot with thousands of hours in his own Stearman among many other accomplishments. But bad food spares no one.... For Chip, it was: the Longest Day.

AirVenture 2022 - Transit To
It's that time of the year again. Oshkosh. AirVenture 2022. The Show. This year, the RVs of Essex Skypark are attending. I'm flying out Sunday morning with Chuck B. Me in my RV-7 and Chuck in his RV-7A. Mark and Brian left early Saturday morning in their RV-8s. RV-10 builderrs Rich and Nhu-An left Friday in their Cessna 172. Here my plane awaitings loading with all the stuff in the lower right-hand corner.

We took off around 8am Saturday morning and were soon passing Baltimore. As you can see, the weather is just about perfect. It was early yet.

Chuck had a last-minute passenger in his RV-7A: Chip.

Chip captures this nice shot of me, a short while after passing Frederick.

The number of windmills in the West Virginia hills has grown over the years.

Passing by the Ohio River. We were heading due west instead of northwest to avoid some weather over Pittsburgh.

Chip wasn't feeling well so we decided to land at Parkersburg Airport (KPKB), also known as Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport. I've never landed here before; never even heard of the airport. It's close to the Ohio River; right on the Ohio-West Virginia border. Here we are turning base for a landing on runway 21. We did a formation landing.

Parkersburg is a towered airport. The tower is visible just to the left of the General Aviation terminal building. The airport also has a nice passenger terminal for commercial flights.

Parked on the ramp at Parkersburg, WV.

In the passenger terminal was this plaque to one of the early aviation pioneers.

We had an early lunch at Jerry's Flyaway Kitchen in the pasenger terminal.

While we were "dining", a P-40 Warhawk and AD-1 Skyraider flew in.

We talked to one of the pilots briefly. Yes, they are also heading to the Show. As I suspected, they are from Gerald Yagen's Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach. A few hours later, in flight, I would see these two planes flying overhead in close formation.

Yeah, I'm flying the Skyraider to AirVenture 2022. Not big deal, just a normal day.

Crossing the Ohio River. Again.

Overhead Rickenbacker International Airport, just south of Columbus, Ohio.

Skirting an east-west line of weather to the north, at the northern tip of Indiana. South Bend International -- airport serving the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame -- is ahead and to the right. Check out that ground speed! 107 mph. What the heck! This is the slowest ground speed I've ever experienced in my RV-7. We were crawling. Poor Chip was in agony. He had some kind of food poisoning.

We stopped for fuel and to give Chip a break at Porter County Airport (KVPZ) in Valparaiso, Indiana. We made a challenging crosswind landing on runway 27, foregoing an easy into-the-wind landing on 18. A Champ and three Cubs followed us in but they wisely landed on runway 18. Porter County is a good jump-off point for going into Oshkosh when flying from the east. I've been here many times before. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the local EAA Chapter grills Brats and Dogs for pilots heading to Oshkosh so Chuck and I took advantage of that.

Then we were off. Soon Chicago was in sight. The weather looks crummy but it was certainly flyable.

Lookign down at Chicago.

While at Porter County, we had gotten intelligence that the aerial arrival line into AirVenture was long. It used to be the arrival line started at Ripon. But starting last year, the Notam arrival procedure said the line could be extended to Endeavor Bridge. Our "intelligence" told us it was now extended past that, to a town 10 miles south of Endeavor Bridge called Portage and another ten miles to the south of that! After leaving the complicated Chicago airspace behind, we angled northwest towards Portage. As we came closer, we could see on ADS-B that the line was indeed starting south of Portage. So we joined the end of the line about 10 miles south of Portage. ADS-B was very useful at this point, I must say.

I got in line behind a high-wing of some type, and started flying the 90 knots at 1,800 feet. I tried to keep what I estimated a half-mile separation from the high-wing ahead of me. Chuck/Chip were a half-a-mile behind me. We spent the next 30 minutes or so droning along at 90 knots. It was pretty country south of Endeavor Lake and bridge.

Just about to pass over the town of Portage, looking west down the Wisconsin River.

More pretty country north of Portage.

So I'm flying along at 90 knots, keeping good separation with the high-wing in front of me, when I look off my left wing and there is this Cessna 182 cruising alongside, a couple of hundreed feet away. "What does this guy thing he's going to do?", I ask. After a minute, he pulled ahead, climbed a little and crossed over to my right. He then proceeded up the line. Maybe he was looking for a hole in the line to insert himself? From ADS-B, there were no holes in the line, that was certain. I don't know what happened to the 182. I had his N-number and later I looked him up on Flight Aware, but he was blocking access to his flight information. Once, on the Approach Frequency, I heard one pilot accuse another pilot, by N-number, of cutting in line. The other pilot came on the freq and denied it. Then the controller came on line and told them to get off his net.

There were probably hundreds of airplanes in the conga line and vicinity but the only plane I could see was the high-wing ahead of me. I proceeded to Ripon then following the railroad track northeast out of Ripon towards Fisk. Around Fisk, I heard approach tell the high-wing ahead of me to turn east and following the east-west road to runway 36. The high-wing got a "good wing rock". Then it was my turn. They said "black and silver RV following the railroad tracks and switch to the tower for runway 27". This was a huge relief, because I had heard approaching telling some aircraft at Fisk to pull out of line and start over south of Portage. Unfortunately, Chuck and Chip were not so fortunate, and were sent back to the end of the line. Who knows why. Maybe the towers were saturated with arrivals. Maybe an RV behind Chuck and bunched up on him. Surprisingly, there was no one ahead of me as I continued to follow the railroad northeast towards Wittman Field. Soon the Show came into view, which never fails to thrill.

Zooming in on the previous picture. Runway 9/27 is a 6,179 long runway. The "Green Dot" is visible in the middle of the runway. The "North 40" general aviation parking area is packed.

Things happened very fast after I turned downwind for runway 27. You have to fly a fairly tight downwind, staying south of a big quarry. From the Notam, I knew to start my descent around mid-field, opposite the Green Dot. From this image, it is clear that Homebuilt Parking and Camping is close to being filled also.

At mid-field runway 27, I chopped power to start my descent. I hastily took this shot to get a picture of runway 36/18 and the show to the west of it. Almost immediately thereafter, the tower was telling me to start a right base. Apparently, warbirds or other planes were landing straight in on runway 27 from Lake Winnebago. Then Tower told me to keep it tight and land on the Green Dot. I zoomed over some hangars and parked planes in a descending turn and put it down right on the green dot, getting an Attaboy from the tower. I exited to the left onto the grass, and soon was following a scooter on Mustang Avenue to Homebuilt Camping.

Ten minutes after starting my base turn, I was on my own little patch of grass in the Homebuilt Camping area. It was around 5:15 pm or so. Sunday is clearly the busiest day to fly in. That is clear. If you fly in Sunday, you can expect to join a long line that starts at Endeavor Bridge or even Portage. There's a decent chance you may get kicked out of line at Fisk and sent back to the end of the line. Not to mention other planes all over the place. Does this bother you? If so, I would recommend flying in Monday morning, or Saturday. For me, it wasn't so bad since I made it in on my first try. I'd do Sunday again. It is nice to get in on Sunday and hit the ground running Monday morning when the show begins. It seems most of the homebuilder stuff is early in the week. You could go early, flying in Saturday, I suppose, but then you have to find something to do all day Sunday. I suppose you could sit in the North 40 and watch all the arrivals. That would probably interesting. I might try that next year, just to do something new. I've flown in Monday morning a couple of times and there is no line. But you miss the Monday morning activities.

And Chuck and Chip? As instructed, they headed back to Portage. They landed at Portage Municipal airport (C47) to give Chip a breather. After an hour or two, they decided to give it another try, and the second time they made it, landing at Wittman Field 15 minutes before the airport shut down at 8pm. This is what a sick person in the airplane looks like. Keep in mind, Chip is no rookie aviator. He's a professional pilot with thousands of hours in his own Stearman among many other accomplishments. But bad food spares no one.... For Chip, it was: the Longest Day.


	Previous	Home	Next

AirVenture 2022 - Transit To