1st Flight to Oshkosh in my Sonex!

[Darick]

Great story! Being also a low time pilot, I never seriously considered flying to Osh from PA. But this gives me inspiration. Thanks.

[MichaelFarley56]

Great story! Being also a low time pilot, I never seriously considered flying to Osh from PA. But this gives me inspiration. Thanks.

Don't think that flight time is the sole determining factor on safety. I've seen a lot of high time pilots who get lazy and stupid and end up in bad situations. I'd much rather fly with a low time pilot who is well prepared and emphasizes safety & caution. Hopefully when you're ready, you'll make the journey to Oshkosh!

[vwglenn]

Great story! Being also a low time pilot, I never seriously considered flying to Osh from PA. But this gives me inspiration. Thanks.

Don't think that flight time is the sole determining factor on safety. I've seen a lot of high time pilots who get lazy and stupid and end up in bad situations. I'd much rather fly with a low time pilot who is well prepared and emphasizes safety & caution. Hopefully when you're ready, you'll make the journey to Oshkosh!

Agreed 100%. Being prepared is 99% of what it takes. Most of that is just being familiar with the procedures and ready for the occasional idiot. About the only flying technique I would recommend would be to practice landing on different points on a long runway. When you fly into Airventure the controllers will instruct you to land on a certain colored dot which can often be 1/2 way down the runway and getting the heck out of the way as soon as humanly possible. That and make sure you have plenty of gas before you head to RIPON.

[Bryan Cotton]

+1 on Glenn's comments. If you can do a good spot landing confidently that takes a lot of the stress out of the event. The other key thing is to keep your eyes out of the cockpit always, but especially when approaching the Oshkosh area! Know the procedure by heart.

[nwawingman]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! My wife and I are planning on flying the Sonex up to Oshkosh again this year. She is really looking forward to the trip and it is great to have the extra help flying into Oshkosh. It would be much more difficult by myself I'm sure. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

[nwawingman]

What an amazing trip to Oshkosh we had this year!

The Saturday before Oshkosh we departed at 7:30am and arrived in Oshkosh at 4:30pm that afternoon after a 600 mile flight.
We had weather to deal with most of the way up to Oshkosh this year but we managed to stay on the east side of the front of rain showers most of the way up until we had to divert due to a thunder storm. Our stops along the way were at Mexico MO, Galesburg IL, Monroe WI, and West Bend WI. At West Bend they offered to put our plane in an open hangar to wait out the thunder storm that were within minutes of arriving. While we waited the storm out we used the courtesy car to go get lunch. This was a great place to be grounded and the airport staff were wonderful. After a couple hours the weather had improved and it was time to make our final leg of the trip to Oshkosh. Within 15 minutes we were approaching Rippon for the Rippon/Fisk approach. After we reached Fisk, the controller directed us on a 27 approach. Now we were tuned in to the Oshkosh 27 approach controller for further direction. "Silver low wing, Rock your wings!" The controller announced. After a good rock of the wings we were on downwind for 27 just past the the gravel pit. The controller started directing our way with rapid fire commands. "Silver low wing start your descent. Silver low wing start your base abeam the numbers. Silver low wing clear to land orange dot." While on base I noticed a Cherokee coming in on a low decent headed in our direction over the lake. It was clear to me we were both not going to be able to land at the same time so I started a go around as I turned final above the Cherokee. I am not sure the controller even saw the Cherokee until I started my go around. Once the controller saw the Cherokee landing he started shouting "Silver low wing go around go around!" The controller thanked me for making the go around and said he would work me right back into the downwind. Once we were astablished on downwind the controller called our base at about the lakes edge. Once again there was another plane coming across the lake for a strait in approach to 27. This time is was a twin Beachcraft. I slowed down as much as I could on base to allow the Beachcraft to get in front of me. "Silver low wing clear to land behind Twin Beach". Slowing down on final as much as I could we were able to land behind the Beachcraft. It wasn't my best landing ever, but we were safely down and very happy to be at Oshkosh!

We camped by the plane for six nights and the weather could not have been better. Not hardly a drop of rain the entire week and temperatures were in the low 80's and 60's at nite. Great camping weather!

After a fun filled week of camping, seeing friends, meeting new friends, eating great food, and seeing some amazing planes, it was time to make our way home. My how time fly's when you are at Oshkosh!

Friday morning we packed all our things back in the plane and started our voyage home. There were storms approaching from the west, so we needed to get an early start. Once we made it down to Illinois we were clear of the threat of storms. We made three stops along the way, Monroe WI, Quincy IL, and Lebanon MO. We left Oshkosh about 7:30 am and arrive home about 4:30 pm. It was a great trip filled with lots of wonderful memories!

Photos of trip http://www.nwawingman.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=7

[Fastcapy]

-Removed-

[mike.smith]

That sounds similar to my experience. I had to go around twice! I got it on cockpit video, too. In my case it was the lowest, tightest approach I'd ever made (scared me a bit) but it was my best landing of the trip.

http://youtu.be/JYfjeTuwZSI

[nwawingman]

Great video Mike! You looked like you were a Pro. What a smooth wheel landing!

[mike.smith]

Great video Mike! You looked like you were a Pro. What a smooth wheel landing!

Thanks. Like I said, it was my best of the trip. You can see shortly after turning in I goose the throttle all the way forward. I was looking at the airspeed decreasing so thought I'd better get a little power on. All my other landings on the way out to OSH were crap! 11 hours out; 8.8 hours back (35 kt tail wind).