flight planing for OSH 15

[stevekirks]

Keith and all--

For someone who hasn't gone and can't go this year, I love these posts. Thanks for taking the time to do it--it means a lot.

Steve

[kullery]

For someone who hasn't gone and can't go this year, I love these posts. Thanks for taking the time to do it--it means a lot.

Steve

I don't usually use the twitter machine very often but will try to post images there this week.

https://twitter.com/krullery

[Keith Smith]

Honda Jet and Cirrus Jet on final for 18R as I was taxiing to parking, that was quite a sight.

Quick trip log, got a completely different route than what I filed, which is not shocking. What is slightly surprising is that ForeFlight and flightaware didn't alert me to the expected routing. Reprogrammed the first half of the flight, departed, then updated the GPS with the rest of the route once underway. Of course, once I was airborne I was vectored for about 60 miles and then given direct destination, so the route was useless That's IFR for ya, though, it happens. The cleared route is often tossed in favor of vectors and shortcuts.

The weather at fuel stop ended up being slight closer to the original forecast, shot the RNAV RWY 28. Got fuel, fired up mobile hotspot on the phone, connected iPad via wifi to the hotpot for some seriously slow 3G internet, but good enough to file on ForeFlight. I filed and picked up clearance on the published delivery frequency. The controller explained that it was a remote outlet installed at the airport so pilots could pick up their clearance easily. He was an approach controller (probably working flight data position if I had to guess), he wasn't at an airport.

The controller said, "is this Keith?" "uhhhhhhh.....yep." "Oh hey, I thought the voice sounded familiar." It turns out it was someone I knew on VATSIM years ago and he recognized the voice. I'm reminded every day how small a world this is.

Got the clearance, as filed. Called again holding at end of runway for release...no surprises until the very narrow storm near Flint, MI (the picture Ken posted). Controller started vectoring me about 30-40 miles prior to the storm. There was no ADS-B support in the area so I wasn't seeing what he was seeing until I got pretty close to the US border. A few minutes later, the iPad overheated and I was back to flying blind.

I negotiated a route with the controller and asked him what his MVA was. The answer was 2900ft. So, down to 3000 I went so scoot under some of the lighter stuff. After that it was smooth sailing to RIPON (the start of the VFR arrival). About 20 miles from RIPON, I hear non-stop position reports from a bunch of planes and some weird chatter going on. I triple check my frequency, then I hear the voice of the approach controller talking about when they might be opening the airport again. Oh dear.

Recall in my first post I mentioned that there is a possibility of holding at OSH. Well, Sat and Sun are the massive formation arrivals. I had shown up at the tail end of the holding for the Bonanaza arrival. So, 3-4 laps of Green Lake later, I continued for RIPON and then onto FISKE. A few odd things happened during the arrival, a bit hard to explain in a forum post at this hour, but from midfield downwind onwards it all worked out.

I'm now parked with a gaggle of Glasairs (the final oddity for the arrival, I suppose), safe and sound at OSH. Happy to be here!

Great picture of that squall line, Ken. Holy cow.

[Anthony Santanastaso]

Great to hear you made it there fine.

I woke up this morning to an article from AOPA saying that some damage had occurred due to the storm.

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All- ... ?CMP=ADV:1

Great picture, Ken. Glad to hear everyone is OK.

[David Gilbert]

Been listening to the ATC on liveatc.net for Oshkosh and all I can say is WOW! The controllers are phenomenal.

The dots idea for landing is an really really good one, heard several calls of "X aircraft you are cleared to land orange dot, and Y aircraft you are cleared to land green dot". Whoever thought of that is a genius as it makes use of the full length of the runway. The rate they were clearing aircraft off the runway by getting them to turn into the grass is brilliant. One year I am definitely coming to Oshkosh!

[Ryan B]

Honda Jet and Cirrus Jet on final for 18R as I was taxiing to parking, that was quite a sight.

Sweet! The Cirrus jet departed with me while I was working local. We've got one of our controllers there as well. Maybe I can go next year.

The vatsim thing is funny but a few of the controllers on vatsim are RW controllers now. There's two at my facility lol! (Don't tell any of my coworkers - they already think we are super nerds for flight simming!)

[rtataryn]

What a great time at OSH this year! I didn't get to head over until Wednesday since I had to fly down to Napa the previous weekend and had to fit in a couple days of work. I filed IFR out of KGEG due to some weather over the Rockies in eastern Montana, but after the first leg it was VFR the rest of the flight. 30+ knot tailwinds at 11,000 MSL was a real treat in the Cirrus. 7 hours total flight time with a stop in KDIK and a staging stop at KCWA. There was only a small window to get into KOSH that night since the afternoon airshow went late and didn't end until about 6:40, so I left KCWA hoping to time it, but was trapped in the hold around Green Lake at 90 knots with 50% flaps until they opened the airport for arrivals. I think there was quite a few extra airplanes for the evening arrival because the airport had been closed for a few hours due to a Mirage accident earlier in the day. There had to be 30 or 40 airplanes in the Green Lake hold. We were spaced no more than a quarter mile apart from each other and often would have to slow to 80 knots to keep from overtaking the plane in front of me. I should have hopped up to 2300 ft and joined the faster airplanes, but I have to admit it was kinda fun. Finally Approach filed all of us up the tracks to Fisk. I was hoping for runway 27 since I was parking at Basler's ramp. They gave it to me and had me put it on the orange dot at the start of 27, which was perfect for where I needed to be. A quick exit and taxi to Basler and just in time to watch the amazing night airshow that started at 8:00.

Had a wonderful flight home as well. VFR the entire trip, but some headwinds going west. I stayed low to minimize them, 4,500 MSL, which was close enough to the ground to really enjoy the countryside and midwest farmland. 9 hours flight time home with a couple of fuel stops. A great experience. If anyone has not been to AirVenture, it is a must do event.