July 19-25, 2026 - AirVenture 2026
Transit To Oshkosh
The RV-7 has been washed, rubbed, and loaded with gear.  It's ready to fly me to the Show!  It's about 7:30AM Sunday morning.  Weather is good except it's very hazy, and will be all the way to Oshkosh, thanks to Canadian wildfires the last few days.
   
Passing by Baltimore.  My camera has a hard time focusing because of the haze.
   
Passing by the famous Pimlico race track.  They did not race the Preakness here this year because as you can see, the facility buildings are being completely rebuilt.
   
Passing over Frederick Airport.
   
I had to climb above a broken cloud layer over the Appalachians, east of Pittsburgh.
   
Through a break in the clouds I saw Akron-Fulton Airport where  I could see one of the old, big dirigible hangars.
   
Looking west at Interstate 80/90.
   
Lake Eirie comes into view.
   
Checking out the huge Cedar Point Amusement Park.
   
They've got some serious roller coasters down there.  Cedar Point is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the country.  Known as "America's Roller Coast", the park features 18 roller coasters, including five roller coasters that exceed 200 feet in height – Magnum XL-200, Millennium Force, Valravn, Steel Vengeance, and Top Thrill 2.
   
This might be the largest quarry I've ever seen.
   

Looking down at my first stop:  Erie-Ottawa Airport (KPCW), although everyone calls it Port Clinton.  I've been here before.

The Avgas price here is less than my home airport, but the real reason I'm stopping is to have breakfast at the Tin Goose Diner.  The Diner was closed for a few years but I'm happy to see it has reopened.   There is also an aviation museum, which I have never had the time to visit.  I got an early start on this trip so I'd have time to finally tour the museum.
   
Turning final for runway 09.  You can see how hazy it is.
   
I couldn't park on the ramp by the Diner because the museum's DC-3 was out giving rides.  But a lineman had me park on the grass which was fine.
   
Yay, the Tin Goose Diner is open!  Of course, it is Sunday morning, and the place was jammed.  But because I'm by myself, I was able to be seated right away at the counter.
   
I've always like this picture hanging on the wall outside the Diner's entrance.  Some of the pictured people include Patton, Rommel, Jimmy Doolittle and Chalres Lindbergh.  Unfortunately, it's impossible to get a good photo of the picture because there's always glare from the glass.
   

Inside the diner.

The diner is a vintage 1950s O'Mahoney diner, originally operating in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania under the name of Sunrise Diner. The Diner became a permanent addition to the Liberty Aviation Museum in 2012.
   

Wittman Regional Airport (Oshkosh) was currently IMC (closed) due to low visibility (smoke haze) and the forecast did not really show it clearly up until the afternoon, if then.  So I had plenty of time to tour the Liberty Aviation Museum.  So I did that -- Link.  The Museum actually owns and operates the Diner.

After touring the museum, I taxied over to the FBO and topped off the RV-7.  Then I took off and headed west across Ohio and Indiana.

Here I'm passing by Porter County Airport (KVPZ) at Valparaiso, Indiana.  I've stopped here many times.  Porter County's strategic location makes it an excellent jumping off point for the final leg north to Oshkosh.  During Oshkosh, the local EAA chapter sets up a tent and offers food to pilots heading to Oshkosh.  I look down and can see a PBY Catalina flying boat plus a few RVs on the ramp in front of the EAA tent.  But I have plenty of gas and pass Porter County by.
   
My first look at Lake Michigan, about to go feet wet.  To the right is Indiana Dune National Park.   It only recently became a National Park in 2019.
   
Big steel and industrial areas to the east at the south end of Lake Michigan.
   
Because of Gary/s Class-D airspace, Midway's Class-C, and O'Hare's Class B airspace, I have to fly overwater to the east as I head north.
   
Another huge steel/coal/energy complex juts out into the Lake.
   
Chicago gets its fresh water from these porlets out in the Lake.
   
Chicago's skyline comes into view through the haze.
   
I knew Wittman was still IMC so I stopped at Dodge County Airport -- 35 nm south of Oshkosh -- to wait and assess the situation.  You gotta be flexible on long cross-countries!
   
Looking down at the Dodge County ramp.  There are fifty planes down there, no doubt waiting for Wittman Field to open, just like I will be.
   
Taxiing into the Dodge Country ramp.
   
Dodge County has a nice FBO facility.  Inside, pilots were lounging all over the place.  There was even free food.
 
   
This vintage plane is obviously heading for Oshkosh.
   
I found a nice, comfy LazyBoy chair upstairs and settled down with a book I had brought.  I really thought at best I'd be here for hours.  At worst, I'd be setting up my tent on the grass next to the ramp and staying overnight.  But I'd only been sitting ten minutes when the word flashed through the FBO building:  "Oshkosh is opening in 20 minutes!"
 
Everyone leaped up and raced for their planes.  30 planes must have launched within ten minutes.
 
Here I am passing the ramp, just after takeoff.
   
I launched into this.  I really was amazed that Oshkosh was now VFR.
   
This was how the ADS-B picture looked.  At this point Fisk Approach was saying start the line at Puckaway Lake.  But as you can see the line already extended to Endeavor Bridge so that's where I headed.
   
I could see traffic really bunching up around Endeavor Bridge so I turned due west to get to the end of the line.
   
I got in trail of a high-wing who looked like he was in line and followed him.  Fisk Approach directed two-mile spacing between planes so after awhile I had the two mile spacing before and behind me.  I was flying at the required 90 knots and 1800 feet.   It was looking good, although at one point I glanced to my right and noticed this Bonanza flying alongside me!  Fortunately he soon left -- who knows where.
   
Looking down at Endeavor Bridge.
   
This was what the ADS-B picture looked like when I was established in the conga line passing Puckaway Lake.  The traffic to the north, heading west, were the planes who had been kicked out of the line at Fisk and told to start over.   I think runway 36 was closed for some reason during most of my two approaches.
   

Well, things were great as I approached Fisk.  I was in the line with good spacing from the high-wing ahead of me, flying 90 knots at 1800 feet.  But then right before Fisk, a Pitts showed up from the right and cut into line directly in front of me.  Another high-wing appeared from the north and also cut in line.  The Fisk Controller directed me to pull out of line to the north and go back to the end of the line.  I dutifully pulled out of line.

I figured it would take at least an hour to fly all the way back to Endeavor Bridge, or more likely beyond, then fly the approach again at 90 knots, so I decided to stop at Wautoma Airport -- 30 nm west of Oshkosh, 20 nm north of Endeavor Bridge -- to top off on fuel and take a break.

Wautoma Airport has a very nice terminal.
   
A few planes were doing the same thing as I.  Stopping for fuel and taking a break before re-entering the chaos.
   

So I took off and headed southwest.  The conga line now began 20 miles or so west of Endeavor Bridge.  Visibility may have been 4 miles at Oshkosh but west of Endeavor Bridge it was two miles at best.  Really cruddy.

Completely reliant on ADS-B, I again got in line, again behind a high-wing.

My homebuilt camping neighbor, who as it turns out was two planes ahead of me on the entire Fisk approach, gave me the following ADS-B screen-snaps.

This screensnap shows the conga line when we were just about to reach Puckaway Lake.  You can actually see my tail number N18LC in yellow.

Look at all the planes to the north that have been sent back.
   
Still flying alongside the south side of Puckaway Lake, this screensnap shows the entire conga line, from 20 miles west of Endeavor Bridge, all the way to Tipon, Fisk and the Oshkosh TFR.
   
The Fisk Approach control frequency was out of control on my second approach.  Fisk Approach owns the frequency and the pilots aren't supposed to transmit unless the controllers ask a quesiton, or they have a emergency.  Yet pilots were talking to the point that the controllers were getting cut off or could not even talk.  The most common phrase was an exasperated "What are you doing?!"   Pilots were arguing with each other on the frequency.  Profanity was used, including the F-bomb at least twice that I heard.  Pilots were declaring that they were short on fuel, or they were an exhibiter, or that their engine was overheating, in their efforts to get past Fisk.  The controllers just told all of them to go to an alternate.    Some pilots stated they were on their third or fourth approach.
   
Here, I'm getting close to Fisk.  Again, I had good spacing between me and the high-wing in front.
   

And then, just before Fisk, the Piper Saratoga shown below magically showed up and merged in front of me to the left, bunching us up.  I thought for sure I would be sent back to the end of the line again but thankfully Fisk Approach cleared me for runway 9 approach and switched me to the 9/27 tower.  They had finally opened up 36 L & R about this time.  Maybe that's why I got through.  For whatever reason, I was immensely relieved.

At home a week later I looked up the Saratoga (getting his tail number from this photo) on FlightAware.  He is from a local Maryland airport!  Like me, he had flown from Maryland to Oshkosh today.  He did fly the entire Fisk approach from farther west of Endeavor bridge than even I had.  The difference was that I had flown the entire approach mostly slower than 90 knots because of the slow Cessna in front of me.  I stayed behind the Cessna the entire approach, trying to keep two mile separation.  On the other hand, the Saratoga never slowed below 90 knots, and frequently flew faster, between 90-100 knots,  all the way.   So he must have just bypassed slower planes as he flew down the line.  The NOTAM clearly states that faster planes should not pass.  If they cannot fly slow enough they are supposed to go back and get behind somebody going their speed.  The Fisk approach controllers repeated this guidance verbally on the radio.  I'm amazed the controllers allowed the Saratoga to proceed beyond Fisk.  Or maybe he just ignored orders to break off and go back to Endeavor Bridge.  Who knows?  Pilots were doing crazy things this day.
   
The last stretch to runway Nine was anticlimatic.  A plane has just touched down on the numbers as I took this picture.  I was told to land on the green dot, then pull over to the right into the grass.
   
The airplane handlers led me to the last row in homebuilt camping, to the right of the homebuilt pavilion.
   
The RV beer exchange party in the Homebuilt Pavilion started at 5PM.  I landed around 5:10 PM.  By the time I tied down the plane and  made it to the pavillion it was 6PM but as you can see the party was still going strong.
   
That said, I did not know a single person there.  I ended up talking with an interesting German who now lives and works in Minnesota.
   
Despite the crazy arrival, I had made it to the show.
   
 
   
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