July 29, 2010 - Oshkosh to Essex Skypark | ||||||
Thursday morning was spent packing, taking down the tent, loading the airplane, getting my refund for camping, etc. A lot of people had the same idea. There was a pretty good line of airplanes waiting to take off. When the guy on the radio said Silver and Black RV cleared for takeoff, I immediately pushed in the throttle and went roaring down the runway. As I headed west staying low, I could see a line of planes overhead on the approach to land on 27. It would be a busy day for the pink-shirted Oshkosh controllers. | ||||||
I flew south to Chicago, staying over the water to avoid
the Class B airspace. | ||||||
I passed a military liaison L-3 off my left wing down low, obviously also on his way home from Oshkosh. | ||||||
I believe that is Wrigley field off my right wing.
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I stopped at Porter County Airport in Indiana. I've stopped here on both my previous Oshkosh flights. I like Porter County because the local EAA chapter mans a food tent, the airport staff likes EAAers, the facility is very nice and the gas is reasonably priced. Porter County is about an hours flight from Oshkosh in an RV. | ||||||
The EAA Chapter Tent where Brats and Burgers may be
had. | ||||||
I checked weathermeister.com which said the best tailwinds were up high. After takeoff I climbed all the way up to 11,500, put on the autopilot and boomed along at 210mph. | ||||||
There was a scattered layer below me almost the entire
way. | ||||||
I knew there would be weather around Maryland and sure enough I started to see some buildups. | ||||||
I didn't start my descent until about 10-20 miles from Frederick. I actually saw a jet airliner pass below me -- the first time that I've ever seen that. At one point, I had my nose down pretty low so I could get under a cloud layer. My true airspeed was right at VNE (velocity never exceed, which is 230 mph in my RV-7). I glanced at the GPS and my groundspeed was 258! | ||||||
I was really honking on the final leg from Frederick into Essex. Here is a very familiar site, flying up the Back River with Essex Skypark dead ahead. | ||||||
Unloading the RV. It only took me four hours of flying time to get home from Oshkosh. I logged 33.7 hours on this trip out to Idaho and back. The RV performed flawlessly. What a great plane! | ||||||