We've been going to Oshkosh for many, many years now and like all good traditions, we've groomed a number of specific habits like our standard pre-airshow stopover at the Lomira, WI McDonalds. It's a great place to get in one last pitstop and grab a healthy (cough, cough) bite to eat to load up on the essential nutrients only a McD's breakfast can offer. As you proceed north from Lomira, you pass through Fond Du Lac, which serves as a reliever airport for Oshkosh during the week of AirVenture and in good years is packed with aircraft / tents - a great primer for the excitement to come. We use it as a barometer for how crowded (and great, of course) Oshkosh will be. At this point in the trip, we normally start looking to the skies for aircraft departing from OSH (normally at least a steady stream). However, the ceiling dropped quite a bit - I would estimate to the 800 - 1000 feet AGL range. Not to worry, about 5 miles out of OSH, we emerged on the other end of the cloud cover and ceilings were instantly up to the VFR levels we sought.
We pulled into the lot about 8:45 - our earliest arrival to date - and were rewarded with a great parking spot. I have to commend the people behind the scenes at Oshkosh for continually upgrading and improving the entry procedures - we were inside the gates about five minutes after leaving the car!
My dad has his own little tradition of going directly to the Ford tent and picking up whatever free swag is available. This year, to his dismay it was a straw hat (in comparison to the P-51-inspired hat last year, I believe) - I don't think he was too bummed, though, as he rocked his new hat all day. While he was passing through the different Ford stations, I noticed the open canopy of an F-4 Phantom out at the end of Phillips 66 Square (the main display area) and it suddenly dawned on me that we might have the opportunity of seeing startup and departure! Such a rare opportunity as the lives of these beasts as drones for the USAF are in the final chapter.
Well, I couldn't see my dad anywhere and all I could think of was missing one of the highlights of the day because of that free hat! All ended well as I located him and double-timed it over to grab a front row seat to the preflight, startup, and taxi of the Phabulous Phantom!
After watching the F-4 light the burners and disappear into the clouds, we made our way down to the warbirds area to walk amongst the countless legendary aircraft (we've really developed a standard pattern to our tour of the grounds). Before getting to the meat of the display, I noticed a tent with the Gauntlet Warbirds emblem (my tailwheel / acro flight school) and saw my instructor, Vess, inside. We talked airplanes and Oshkosh with Vess for a while and then made our way down to the P-51 world. It was great to finally run into someone I know at Oshkosh - I think that was a first in our 20 years going here!
Amongst so many others, there were tons of Mustangs on the grounds this year, as well as three P-40's and a Wildcat! The jet representation was incredible as well, two A-4 Skyhawks! After walking the warbird grounds, we took our standard break out by Rwy 9/27 to watch some departures. It was actually pretty quiet - probably due to the low ceilings and the showers popping up around the local area (normally our 9/27 viewing gives an perspective on OSH ops like no other).
With the low frequency of traffic on 9/27, we decided to stake out a good spot along 18/36 for the afternoon show and evening departures. Every year we've gone, we've chosen a spot near the north end of 18/36 in between the homebuilts and warbirds. This year, I wanted to mix it up and we hiked all of the way past Phillips 66 square to the vintage aircraft area. What a great idea! It was much less crowded, we were seated among the throngs of legendary Piper Cubs, Staggerwings and other classics and there were still plenty of food options. Based upon the quality of the experience for the rest of the day, I think we found a new permanent viewing spot (especially since 36 was the traffic flow with winds out of the north) and look forward to sharing the spot with all of you next year!
Normally the afternoon flying activities commence with a showcase of sorts (a new type of plane, a specific genre such as seaplanes...etc.) which is followed by a good amount of acro, concluded with the warbirds spectacular. I would say that this year, we sort of lucked out. We had four Navy (P-3C, E/A-18G, T-39 [pictured below], and E-2C) and two USAF (T-38's) aircraft drop in after a departure of a B-25 and B-29. With the B-25 and B-29 orbiting the field at about 2,500 ft, things got a bit interesting.
The P-3C was cleared to land on 36 and was on short final when an RV-8 was cleared to depart.
My personal opinion was that the RV should have been held short of the runway as there just wasn't enough time to get rolling. The Orion crew realized this and smartly pulled up for a go-around. About 20 seconds later, the RV was in the air, with the P-3C over the RV, and the B-25 / B-29 formation on top. Not much room since all entities needed to break to the east to avoid the 9/27 traffic (if only I had a lens . Being in the middle of this aircraft sandwich, I thought the P-3 crew did a great job of keeping away from everyone (especially as the RV was seemingly unaware and did a normal climb out and turn almost inside of the Orion). All was good and everyone got down safely.
That bit of action was followed by not one, but two F/A-18C Tac demo's. Seriously, the first Hornet launched and did his demo, and the second launched promptly thereafter to repeat the same maneuvers. For an avid enthusiast like myself, that was totally awesome!
We breezed through the acro displays - all of which I have a much higher appreciation for after my own foray into acro flying. Hats off to John Mohr with his Stearman display - wow, he was good - highlights being the low-level spin recovery and square loop.
Team Aeroshell in their T-6 Texans also put on a really good display...
The warbird spectacular was just as advertised. Tora, Tora, Tora kicked it off with a very organized display, followed by the trainer fly-overs and B-25 strafing runs. After that, the B-25's set up for an orbit to the south while we were treated with some great navy fighter and P-51 action. Great to see so many aircraft kept in amazing shape. Our only complaint (and not much of one) was our seating position with respect to the location of the pyro and the winds. While visually appealing, we were downwind of all of the smoke and missed out on a few of the viewing opportunities - not much, though.
The airboss did a great job of managing all of the different things going on at once, while keeping the crowd engaged with constant action - bring a scanner when you go to Oshkosh, by the way, and you will be treated to ATC artwork in progress. After the fighters, the B-25 bombers were brought back in, accompanied by two C-47's and the B-29.
Surprisingly, no B-17 action (in past years, we've seen up to three airborne at once), but there was still plenty of other action of course. A few quick runs accompanied by pyro (including the wall-of-fire for the B-29) and the bombers and cargo aircraft were recovered to 36 and 9/27. At this point, the A-10 was brought in for three quick fly-bys - all of which were awesome - before joining up with Steve Hinton (legendary warbird pilot) for the Heritage Flight with the P-38 (Glacier Girl).
They did a fantastic job, but were pulled from the airspace before the standard Heritage Flight solo passes were completed. No worries, as a really tight missing man formation of T-28's was brought in right thereafter to close out the show.
My dad and I stayed for about an hour and a half after close of the show watching some of the evening activity on Rwy 36. There seemed to be a pent up demand to leave the airport following the weather from the morning, which was a great treat to us. In a testament to the environment at Oshkosh, I was on my way back from the facilities when I spotted someone who had sat down right next to my dad (note that there was about 40 yards between us and the nearest people on both sides). At any other place, this would be pretty awkward, but this guy was awesome. He was in the process of building his own RV-10, an avid pilot, and had been at the airshow for a full week up to that point. Awesome, awesome and awesome. We watched planes for a bit and then he had to leave - because his buddy just landed in his RV-7 to pick him up to fly him back to Burlington, WI - for a flight the next day back home to Colorado from Milwaukee. A few of the aircraft we saw...
Once he left, we packed it in as well and started the trek home - with a quick stop for dinner - where else then at the Lomira McD's! Oshkosh, we will see you next year!
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