I did better than I thought I would on the first day. I made it all the way back to Texas, not to Coulter Field, but to Denton.

I was up early as you can gather from the previous post. I had a lot to do, tearing down the campsite, packing it all up, checking the weather and making sure Niner-Zero was ready for the return trip. As I was standing beside the airplane taking one last look around a volunteer in a golf cart noticed me and waved, I waved back got in my seat and strapped myself in. He gave me the signal to start my engine and then I followed him to the taxiway. I was soon in line behind several other airplanes taxiing for departure. I had my radio tuned to the control tower frequency and they were BUSY. I followed the flagmen until I was next in line at runway 18R for departure. The controllers standing on the platform right next to the runway wearing pink shirts (it’s an Oshkosh thing) instructed the white and red Kitfox to taxi into position and hold on the left side of the runway. The aircraft behind me was told to taxi into position and hold on the right side of the runway. I was then cleared for takeoff about 1/2 mile behind the last aircraft that took off and in a few seconds we were airborne!

The weather for the first part of the trip was of little concern. As we climbed away from Oshkosh there were a few low clouds which soon gave way to a cloudless blue sky. The temperatures were in the upper 50’s and the air was smooth. A few faster airplanes passed me shortly after takeoff but after a few miles I did not see another aircraft for a couple of hours. We were all spreading out and heading to different locations. Unlike a week ago when everyone was inbound to the same location.

It took me a little over three hours to make it to the Mississippi river and land in Hannibal Missouri just a few miles west of the river and just beyond the green fields seen here on the right side of the photo. I knew the weather was not going to be as good for the next leg so after I landed I fueled up and borrowed the airport courtesy car. I made it to the nearby Subway and back in about 10 minutes.

I sat down in front of the computer at the airport with my lunch and planned my next leg.  There was a large area of thunderstorms  covering central Missouri. My check of the weather before leaving Oshkosh indicated that this was probably going to occur. They were already approaching my planned route and were going to shortly move east directly across my route. I used the Skyvector web site and picked an airport, Poplar Bluff, that seemed to be well ahead of the storms and plotted a new route of flight. You can see that route here as a magenta line. My planned route would have put me in the storms and I was hoping that this new path would keep me just east of them as they moved east. I also knew that if the weather deteriorated I could just fly east into clear weather, land and call it a day.

As I approached Poplar Bluff I was able to turn south and cut the corner a bit. In doing so, the storms were about five miles to the west and here you can see the leading edge of the rain. I continued on and landed in Batesville Missouri. This leg was also a little over three hours. Although I was ahead of the storms they were still a threat and heading my way. I was contemplating just staying in Batesville for the night but on checking the weather I saw that they had a 80 percent chance of storms for the next couple of days. I decided to get out while I could. The weather looked pretty good if I could stay ahead of the main mass of storms. There were some others forming well to the south but it looked like the next 100 miles should be no problem. I left Hannibal in such a hurry that I had only eaten half of my lunch. So I quickly ate the other half, fueled up and took off.

I was listening to Little Rock approach on the radio and it was obvious that there was a lot of weather to the east of the airport. There was none along my route of flight as I passed west of Little Rock. But, a little further south I could see that there was a line of showers forming across my route of flight. I landed at a small airport to access the situation. There was no office or computer and the place seemed to be abandoned. I called flight service on my cell phone and told the briefer where I was and what I was seeing to the south. There was a line of showers a few miles to the south but there was a bright spot that looked promising. My concern was what might lie further to the south. She confirmed that on radar there was a long but narrow line of moderate rain showers with several openings to my south. She said that there was nothing south of that line all the way to Texas! I thanked her, climbed in and took off.

As soon as I broke ground I turned towards that opening in the rain. This is what it looked like as I approached. A bright opening in an otherwise continuous line of rain showers. The ceiling was about 2000 ft and the air was smooth until I passed between the showers. There were a few bumps and some light rain but about 10 minutes after departing the rain was behind me.

This is what it looked like on the other side. A few high clouds but mostly blue sky. Due to the delays I realized that I would not make it to Coulter Field before dark and would have to stop for fuel anyway so I diverted to Denton Texas. My younger daughter lives there and I thought I would surprise her and spend the night at her house. I was able to fly at about 5000 feet with a little bit of a tailwind and although it was getting warmer as I flew south  away from the storms it was still fairly comfortable. That was not to last. As I descended into Denton just after sunset it just kept getting hotter and hotter. I though maybe I was descending into Hell. But, finally the runway lights came into sight and I realized it must be Denton as I’ve heard there are no landing lights in Hell.  The final two legs took about 4 1/2 hours and I was back in Texas. My daughter was indeed surprised and picked me up and took me home. I was exhausted.

The next morning she dropped me off at the airport. As I was preparing Niner-Zero for the final leg an air traffic controller appeared on the balcony of the tower and asked me some questions about my airplane. She wanted to know if the airplane was metal of fabric. It’s fabric. I fueled up and took off for Coulter Field.

It was already hot so I climbed up to 5500 feet for the final leg. Much cooler and smoother and there seemed to be no wind to factor in so why not? Here she is flying hands off in level flight. I have gotten pretty used to this view. By late morning, after flying two hours we were back at Coulter Field having left just over two months before. I had built my own airplane and flown it to Oshkosh and back. I plan to stay for about a week before heading to the west coast. The adventure is not over.

I’m up early this morning and the sun has yet to rise. I am planning to depart Oshkosh in a few hours and fly back to Texas but it is too cold and dark to get started on packing up so I’m in my tent on my computer checking the weather and posting on the blog. Just some more pictures.

If all goes well I hope to cover more than half of the 870 nautical miles between here and Coulter Field before the sun sets. there is some worrisome weather predicted for southeastern Missouri. But if I make it that far and the weather improves as expected for Monday I should be able to make the trip in two days. If not then it will just take longer.

This is my fourth evening at Oshkosh. It has been a pretty amazing experience. I have seen things that I have never seen before and can probably only be seen here. Where can you see over 50 airplanes in the sky at one time as part of an airshow?

I can sit outside my tent in the homebuilt camping area and take in the air show. Not just a few minutes but two or three hours of flying. This is the view from a few hours ago while I was sitting outside my tent. I miss some of the stuff that can only be seen down near the runway but I think that the view is better for most of the performance from here. I don’t need to look up and strain my neck. I just relax and take it all in.

This was the view this morning after I woke up and looked out from my tent. A beautiful sunrise and dozens of other aircraft. My tent is pitched under my left wing and the tiedown is just outside my door. It comes in handy when I want to grab hold of something as I balance on one foot to put my shoes on.

This was taken just moments ago as he sun was setting. The weather has been great and the low temperature will be in the 50’s tonight. Perfect camping weather. I plan to stay tonight and tomorrow night and leave on Sunday for Texas. Niner-Zero has not been in Texas since June 3rd. We are not looking forward to the 100 degree heat but we only plan to stay for about a week before heading out again. West this time!

I flew west out of Laporte and then turned north around the west side of Chicago’s class bravo airspace. This is looking east towards Chicago. Before I left Laporte Robert told me I should fly east of Chicago right up the shore line of Lake Michigan a short distance off shore. Quicker and scenic but I already had my flight planned and perhaps I am too cautious and I stayed over dry land. The air was smooth and the flight was great.

I did fly over these quarries just west of Chicago. They do have SOME water in them. I was struck by how deep they are and how the roads have been preserved.  About a half an hour out of Oshkosh I reviewed the NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) on procedures for flying into Airventure. As many as 10,000 airplanes attend Airventure and there are very specific procedures for handling all of the traffic. As it turned out, they were not very busy at all when I arrived and I did not have to join a sequence of aircraft with 1/2 mile spacing which is the published procedure. The controllers on the ground at Fisk, a town about 15 miles southwest of Oshkosh even asked me what runway I wanted. I told then whichever one is best for homebuilt camping. They told me to make an immediate right turn, follow the road, expect 36 left and switch to tower frequency. Oh yes, they also thanked me for coming to Oshkosh.

The tower cleared me to land on 36 left at the yellow dot. That is about halfway down the runway. As soon as I landed I was told to taxi off the runway into the grass on the left side. As I turned off I saw a Ford Tri Motor take the runway and depart. By landing halfway down the runway he was able to taxi into position as soon as I flew over his position. Once on the grass, flagmen marshaled me from one taxiway to another and finally to a volunteer on a motor scooter with a “follow me” sign on his back. He took me right to my camping site, welcomed me and gave me a brief overview of what I had to do to register.

But first I had to tie down my airplane. I was driving stakes into the ground with a small and fairly light hammer that I had brought with me when a volunteer approached in a golf cart. He asked if I needed a hammer and I held mine up and told him that I already had one. He just smiled and said, “That’s not a hammer, now this here is a hammer”, holding up a small sledge hammer. He proceeded to hand it to me and drop an orange cone on the ground. “Just leave it by the cone when you’re done. Welcome to Oshkosh!”.

When I registered and they found out that this was the first time I had flown my airplane to Airventure, and that I had built her, they presented me with a wood plaque, the “Persistence Award”. Before long, the plane was secure, my tent was set up and I was taking it easy. This place is amazing and I will post more later!

My camera arrived at 5:15 on Monday afternoon (thanks Rick!) and I was airborne by 6:00 PM. The weather was just about perfect. My plan was to make it to Goshen Indiana before dark. A distance of about 175 nautical miles.

I took this while flying across the the last few miles of Ohio. Just after I took it the sun went behind some clouds on the western horizon and the light was lost. I made it to Goshen about an hour before sunset. Everything was closed down. A Long EZ landed just before me and a couple of local pilots landed just after me. I know they were local because they taxied to the hangars and were never seen again. The Long EZ pilot had flown in from Maine and was also heading to Oshkosh. He decided to stay and called a taxi to take him to a hotel. Hotels and taxis are not really in my budget and the airport did not look like a place I wanted to pitch a tent so I climbed back in Niner-Zero and headed west. I flew about 50 more miles and landed in Laporte Indiana. The sun had set and it was getting dark and cold. I wasn’t going any further so I taxied onto the grass and started hammering my tie downs into the grass as there were none available.

I was parked outside the Laporte Flying Club building and before long a woman came by to see what was going on. She was waiting for her husband to land and she let me into the building so I could use the facilities. Then she called a friend of hers who only lived a quarter mile from the airport and is also a pilot.

Robert was there in no time. Super nice guy. A retired art teacher who keeps his plane at the airport and has an apartment built into his hangar that he made available for my use. That was after he took me out to a chinese takeout restaurant. We took the food back to his apartment and he provided some wine and we spent some time talking about flying and Oshkosh. He has been several times. He went home and I spent the night in his hangar apartment and got a great night’s sleep. It was very comfortable as you can see. In the morning I took a shower and he came by to have coffee with me.

Niner-Zero spent the night tied down next to a corn field and was covered with dew. It was about 50 degrees so I put on my sweat shirt, stowed my stuff, fueled her up and got into the air by about 8:30 . . . headed for Oshkosh!