AirVenture Adventures: Chapter 2
How Two Idiots and an Airplane Managed to Fly to Oshkosh and Back
By Dave Stanchuk, EAA 1141923, and Doug Daverne, EAA 1161768; EAA Chapter 154, Regina, Saskatchewan
In the process of building our RV-10 there are many decisions to make on avionics and other equipment. Of course the best place to make these informed decisions is at Oshkosh. Plus it’s a lot of fun. This was the year to actually fly in, for the first time ever. Excitement was guaranteed. So with our 1967 Cessna 172H, good old Whiskey Hotel Charlie, we planned and geared up to camp, and headed out.
What you are about to read is more of our 2024 trip account. And just to be clear, there were never any unsafe or dangerous maneuvers, flying issues, or fines involved. Just a lot of dumb stuff along the way — enjoy and hopefully learn from our experiences. Read chapter 1 here.
Chapter 2: They Were Just Abroad… (With Apologies to Mark Twain)
Okay, it’s still Sunday, July 21. We’ve arrived and have been processed and welcomed into the United States at Grand Forks, North Dakota. By now we’re at least two and a half hours behind the plan. Getting to KOSH before 20:00 airport closing time is going to be tight. Let’s get some fuel and get the heck out of here. By the way, a very pleasant FBO at KGFK.
Leg 3 of 4: Grand Forks (KGFK) to Eau Claire, Wisconsin (KEAU), but not really…
Wheels up at 14:21. For some reason ForeFlight wouldn’t “activate” our flight plan – a different procedure in the U.S. with ForeFlight. But we do manage to get flight following from Departure. And it’s hot, really hot …and muggy. Let’s get to 7,500 feet where it might be cooler and calmer. It was. But, there were some big clouds up there. We had our share of flying through the gaps in them. Hand-offs with Minneapolis Center went smoothly. They even told us to descend to 6500 for a while to allow a speedy Cessna 206 to overtake us. Much different than 126.7 broadcasts and kind of comforting having them look after us in unfamiliar – and decidedly busier than around Disley/CDS2 – territory.
Also comforting was ADS-B. WHC is equipped to broadcast and receive, which includes weather data (WX) and radar (3-5 minutes behind real time, but very usable) from the ground-based stations overlaid onto ForeFlight maps. We were watching closely the weather to the west of the clouds we were flying around: There was rain, and it was moving our way. It was soon apparent that our arrival at Eau Claire and some heavy rain/storms would be congruent. Time to pick another spot.
Canada has no ADS-B ground stations cooked into our system – space-based only – so we don’t get “free” weather here, an incentive in the U.S. to get airplanes equipped. You can always subscribe (read: paid) to a satellite-based service, requiring an additional receiver. But there is an initiative started in Ontario, the Canadian In-Flight Information Broadcasting System, for volunteer provided and operated ground stations to provide such “free” WX data over ADS-B. It’s in its infancy, and it’s not free to install and operate the stations, and it’s limited so far. See CIFB.ca for some great info and coverage areas.
Rusk County (KRCX)/Ladysmith, Wisconsin, approximately 30 miles northeast of Eau Claire, promised clear skies, 24-hour fuel, a couple of paved runways, and still a chance to make KOSH. That’s where we’re diverting to! KRCX is a nice little airport out in the middle of nowhere. No traffic and nobody was around on a late Sunday afternoon but for one open hangar way around the corner — turns out that would be lucky.
We land. Pull up to the pumps. Doug goes to use the facilities. Dave goes to get his wallet. Five minutes later Doug returns to Dave still looking for his wallet, raging to himself he can’t believe he flew away on a week’s adventure without it. At least Doug’s got his. EXCEPT, the pump now wants a ZIP code to verify the credit card. WTH?
***Insert another variety and number of four-letter words here***
Dave remembers the open hangar. “I’ll go see if anyone’s there who can help.” A few minutes later Dave returns with Pete Boss, who says he knows some guys and will make a couple of phone calls. More than a few minutes later, none of said guys knew how to circumvent hapless Canadians and their lack of ZIP codes. Dave then remembers he’s got some U.S. dollars with his passport (which he did manage to pack!). Pete becomes our second fuel angel of the day by trading most of Dave’s cash ($40 of $41) and his ZIP-coded credit card to at least get us somewhere else where we might fill up. Thanks, Pete, you’re another pilot hero!
Then, just as we were finishing up, Doug’s wife Megan calls in to the rescue too, “Use the three numbers in our postal code, followed by two zeros.” Eureka! (yep, been there, discovered that! –Ed.) At least now we have full fuel. But by now we’ve also burned up even more time on the ground. It’ll be dark in a little over an hour, and there’s no way we are making KOSH by 20:00. Let’s get closer at least and grab a hotel. Pete recommends Stevens Point, Wisconsin (KSTE) about an hour away, and about an hour from KOSH. Off we go once again.
Leg 4 of now 5, +1 day: Rusk County (KRCX) to Stevens Point (KSTE)
By the time WHC, piloted by Dave — the only night current guy onboard — lands and parks, it’s dark, and of course, there is nobody around. Nice little terminal building and we start calling around for hotels. Doug gets the last two rooms at the closest one. Dave starts calling cabs: “We are closed until 6 a.m.” and “Call us back at 5 a.m.” and “ring, hang up” followed by Uber repeatedly saying, “No cars available.”
***Insert an even larger variety and number of four-letter words here – if you’ve any left!***
Apparently there isn’t much happening at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night in Wisconsin. So we grab our bags and hike the 4 kilometers into town. An hour later, the only place to eat that’s still open is the McDonald’s down the street. A fittingly ignominious end to day 1. (Well, other than Dave’s Kwik Trip counter encounter while Doug buys a missing phone charger. “Sorry sir, I can’t sell you that icy cold, thirst quenching, comforting can of beer after your long, hot, interminably ridiculous day of flying adventures, it’s 12:04.” But that’s another story — ask Dave sometime.) Finally to bed soon after midnight.
Monday, July 22: Leg 5 +1 Day, Stevens Point (KSTE) to Oshkosh (KOSH)
After a good night’s sleep and a decent hotel breakfast, it was off to KOSH. Turns out Dave still couldn’t reach the hotel-recommended cab company from his phone. Apparently that e-sim and travelling number doesn’t work so well in Wisconsin. Maybe that one with the repeated “ring, hang up” was actually open last night! Sheesh. Eventually we got the cab back to the airport to fuel up and hit the sky. Now Monday, the first official day of AirVenture, the daily air shows have started, so we need to arrive well before 14:00 when KOSH closes to outside traffic. Wheels up just after 10:00.
The entry into the Oshkosh Conga Approach line starts from one of a series of transition waypoints. The busier things are, the further back you get into line. Endeavor is farthest, then Puckaway Lake, Green Lake, Ripon, and finally Fisk. KOSH’s ATIS indicates which transition is active. Once over Fisk, the KOSH Approach controllers there will identify you and provide further instructions. There’s no talking back to them, it’s waaayyyy too busy to have conversations unless you really, really have to. You just listen while you get directed to a particular runway and approach prescribed in the NOTAM (the Oshkosh NOTAM is 31 pages!), and the specific tower frequency. We assumed Endeavor which was only a 30-minute flight from Stevens Point and maybe another 30 m to KOSH from there. As we got nearer, we were able to receive ATIS to discover that Puckaway Lake was active and redirected to join there. Once you juggle into line, it’s 1800 feet and 90 knots, half to one mile behind the aircraft in front of you.
Doug was focusing on the flying, and Dave was searching for traffic and watching procedures. ADS-B was once again very helpful in seeing traffic as most aircraft around us seemed to have ADS-B Out. Well, at least the ones we saw. Soon we were behind a bird a bit more than a mile ahead of us as several more fell into line behind. Not scary at all, once in line.
Onwards from Puckaway Lake to Green Lake and then to Ripon. From Ripon to Fisk, you follow the railway tracks — very helpful. As we approached Fisk, ATC Approach there calls out, “Green and white Cessna with the left side landing light, rock your wings!” followed by, “Good rock!” They directed us to the approach for Runway 27 and told us to switch over to its tower frequency.
Runway 27 is a right-hand downwind with a tight, descending continuous turn, “carrier style” through base to the threshold, then landing on the coloured dot as directed – it’s a lonnnng runway with three simultaneous landing “dots”: orange, green, and white, at least 1500 feet apart. Once you reach the gravel pit on the left, start the continuous turn to base and threshold. Doug was steely eyed, focused on the flying and recalls some of the ATC commands as a bit of blur. Dave’s job was to watch for traffic, listen to tower, and relay intently.
Near midfield, tower instructs, “Start your descent,” quickly followed by “Keep it tight, continuous descending turn to threshold. Fly over the orange dot and land on the green dot. Clear to land. Welcome to Oshkosh.”
The carrier turn was okay but ended up a little left of centre line. Possibly for this reason or maybe to make room for traffic behind us, tower then says, “Cessna on final add throttle, add throttle, continue past the green dot and land beyond it. Turn left onto the grass as soon as able.”
We quickly turned off the pavement and onto the grass and began a very long taxi, during which, within a few minutes of landing, we heard ATC announce that the airport was closed due to an incident, “Everyone go around.” Oh dear. As we taxied to the far south end of the field where we were finally parked, in the South 40, we saw a plume of black smoke rising about mile or two beyond the south end of Runway 36. We presumed a crash of some sort. The airport ended up being closed for more than an hour. It’s a good thing we had near full fuel upon arrival — a few minutes later we’d have been circling around lakes to the west until KOSH opened again.
Indeed, a Lancair Super ES crashed on the approach to Runway 36. Sadly, two lives were lost. To be celebrating the most significant gathering of aviation enthusiasts in the world and have an accident is a terrible thing. But with the highest concentration of aircraft in the world for that week, something bad can easily happen. Diligence and safety must be your highest priority when flying at Oshkosh.
Regardless, we made it. After parking and securing the aircraft, it was off to the registration booth to get our wristbands and figure out camping. We had previously (like in February) arranged with EAA Canadian Council to join them in “Little Canada,” an area with around 50 sites doled out to first-come, first-served EAA Canada members. Turns out it is in quite a desirable location within the 40,000-ish people of EAA’s Camp Scholler, only a couple hundred meters from the main gate. Tony’s Taxi showed up with a couple volunteers in a minivan — with spectacularly relieving air conditioning – to haul us and our gear to Little Canada. Perfect!
Tents up, a cold one from the friendly Canucks next door in hand, and a chair in the shade, we’ve arrived!
Lessons Learned Chapter 2:
- In the U.S., flight following = Good.
- ADS-B In/Out for traffic and WX = Better.
- Use the three numbers from your postal code followed by two zeros to make up a usable zip code for your Canuck credit cards.
- Carry cash.
- Read the NOTAMs! Especially the Oshkosh one.
- Always fly safe.
In Chapter 3, we’ll go into our time at Oshkosh and the trip home.
But before then, one more bit of chaos found us a day after arriving…
Turns out our transponder/ADS-B was “on” until we were parked. Somebody at NBC clicked on what they thought was the closest line/track to the above mentioned crash site and C-GWHC showed up. Dave ended up assuring him WHC and anybody in it was indeed intact and healthy. And that this fake news hadn’t been published so we wouldn’t have to do some ‘splainin to Transport Canada about a reported incident.
Still, a little rattled when our deaths may have been prematurely reported, Dave immediately looked up from the email and asked the people within eye and earshot if they could see and hear him, “Yes.”
“Phew, we’re OK. Just abroad.”
Originally published in Chapter 154’s Leading Edge newsletter, September 2024.