By Frank Hemko, EAA 569315
I’m 74 years old and have visited AirVenture six times since I retired. My 29-year career flying as captain on UPS B-727s, B-757s, and B-767s kept me busy until I was 66 years old, when I finally had time to come to Oshkosh! I’ve loved every visit!
On my first visit in 2016, I flew my friend Randy Oates’ Cessna 150 with Joe Buonadonna. We had ForeFlight and watched four airplanes off to our left and six airplanes off to our right fly along with us toward Ripon. I knew they would all be faster than us, so we let them fly out in front of us as we merged over Ripon. Wow, the first exciting event was behind us.
All went well until we were on final for Runway 27, and a twin rolled out right in front and above us. He was belly down to us. There was no way he could have seen us, and he was way too close for my comfort level. His appearance was shocking! But as he flew out in front of us, I realized the ATC tower was sending him to a spot farther down the runway than we were assigned. Wow! The second exciting event was behind us.
We taxied to camping and set up to stay for the week. Curious about security, we asked our camping neighbors how safe our equipment and airplane would be. Our neighbors all said everything would be safe, and the aircraft would not need to be locked up. This was good to hear and very reassuring.
I flew our Cessna 177RG up to AirVenture four more times, and one year when the Cardinal was in annual, I drove up with Keith Aultman. Each year we witnessed and experienced the AirVenture crowd’s honesty.
These displays of honesty were demonstrated to us five times during our most recent visit. The first honesty display occurred when the four of us were on our way to a restaurant for dinner. We found an iPhone right in the middle of the dorm parking lot pavement. Sanjeev Gupte called the front desk at the dorm while we were driving to dinner, and the lady he spoke to said, “That is my husband’s phone!” What a coincidence! Her husband came to the restaurant, verified the phone password, and was very happy to have his phone back!
The second honesty display happened when Bob Brocious noticed his wallet was missing after lunch at the dorm cafeteria. He and Keith walked back to the cafeteria and found that, amazingly, someone had turned the wallet in to the hostesses. A lucky event?
The third honesty display happened, coincidentally, that same day when Sanjeev declared that his wallet was now missing, too! Unbelievable! How could that be? Two lost wallets in the same day! We couldn’t believe it! Another trip back to the cafeteria yielded Sanjeev’s wallet had also been turned in by a staff member. It seems when folks who have a really relaxed breakfast, they lean back comfortably in their chairs, and the chairs squeeze their wallets out of their pockets and onto the floor!
The fourth honesty display happened another day. While I was in a rush to make the bus to the museum, I left my folding chair on the ground at the bus park. After a several-hour visit to the museum, upon return to the bus park, the chair was right there where I had forgotten it.
The fifth honesty display occurred when, for several days, we noticed a pair of sunglasses sitting on a table outside the dorm. We commented to each other that this was strange, but it was yet another example of the honesty of folks at AirVenture. We turned the glasses in to the lost and found before leaving for the week.
All events were amazing demonstrations of the honesty of AirVenture attendees! We were happy to have observed and contributed to the honesty quotient at AirVenture!
Frank Hemko is a 10,000-hour ATP that flew T-34Bs, T2Cs, TA4s and C-130s. He was in the Marine Corps for six and half years and flew commercially for 34 years, flying a Navajo, a G-1, B-727s, B-757s, and B-767s. He was an FAA designee on the B-727 and the B-757/767. He wanted to fly ever since he was a child and currently flies a Quicksilver MX2S and a Cessna 177RG. He probably has an additional 10,000 hours of simulator instruction and checking time at two different airlines.